I have a Leap system that I've configured to pull kernels from
Kernel:/stable:/Backport/standard because I have need to test against recent
stable kernels.

Today I upgraded this machine to from 15.2 to 15.3 and, in the process, a
number of 5.3.18 kernel packages were re-installed.  I was able to manually
remove all but one: kernel-default-5.3.18.  Attempts to remove that package
results in some unexpected behavior:

/tmp # uname -r
5.12.10-lp152.5.g332b26c-default

So we're currently running the kernel from Kernel:stable repo...


/tmp # rpm -qa | grep kernel-default
kernel-default-5.12.10-lp152.5.1.g332b26c.x86_64
kernel-default-5.3.18-59.5.2.x86_64

So there are presently 2 kernels installed.  I only ever want this machine to
run kernels from Kernel:stable so let's delete that 5.3.18 kernel...

/tmp # zypper remove kernel-default-5.3.18
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

The following 2 packages are going to be REMOVED:
  kernel-default-5.3.18-59.5.2 kernel-default-5.12.10-lp152.5.1.g332b26c

2 packages to remove.


For some reason, using zypper to delete 5.3.18 would also delete 5.12.10 (which
would leave me with no kernels installed).


For giggles, let's try to use 'rpm' to delete that 5.3.18 package the old
way...

/tmp # rpm -e kernel-default-5.3.18
error: Failed dependencies:
    (kmod(dm_multipath.ko) if kernel) is needed by (installed)
multipath-tools-0.8.5+80+suse.73c50f5-3.3.1.x86_64
    (kmod(msr.ko) if kernel) is needed by (installed) fwupd-1.5.8-1.13.x86_64
    (kmod(scsi_dh_alua.ko) if kernel) is needed by (installed)
multipath-tools-0.8.5+80+suse.73c50f5-3.3.1.x86_64
    (kmod(scsi_dh_emc.ko) if kernel) is needed by (installed)
multipath-tools-0.8.5+80+suse.73c50f5-3.3.1.x86_64
    (kmod(scsi_dh_rdac.ko) if kernel) is needed by (installed)
multipath-tools-0.8.5+80+suse.73c50f5-3.3.1.x86_64
    (kmod(sg.ko) if kernel) is needed by (installed)
suse-module-tools-15.3.6-1.1.x86_64

I'm not sure what to make of this..

Upshot seems to be that I cannot remove kernel-default-5.3.18 without also
removing kernel-default-5.12.10