On 08/04/2018 10:43 PM, don fisher wrote:
I have read discussions concerning the wisdom of Opensuse not running current kernels. But I recently purchased an Alienware 13 3 that is near EOL, so it is not real bleeding edge technology. Neither the wireless nor Ethernet are supported, and now I find the the graphics chipset is not supported either. I was able to use a USB wireless transmitter, but I cannot get around the display hardware.
message about wireless in dmesg is: ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2500 Gigabit Ethernet Controller is not configurable, except with a patch into the /sys directory found on the internet.
Message about the graphics chipset from the Nouveau list is:
"GP106 is supported, you must be using an older kernel (since yours says "unknown chipset")".
How dangerous is it to download on of the kernels from the Opensuse search site. Kernel.org says the latest stable release is 4.17.12. Under search/42.3/community packages, there are a few offerings shown at this revision level. How bad is it to install one of these kernels?
Don
Don, It's not dangerous at all. openSuSE has long had the KOTD (kernel of the day) repository and the stable repository that offer the latest kernels. You can simply add the repo to your yast repositories and install and test the kernel, e.g. https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/stable/standard You can check your /etc/zypp/zypp.conf and make sure you have multiversion for the kernel enabled (I believe it is by default). That way when you install the new kernel from stable -- you will still have your current kernel installed on your machine. If things go south, just select the old kernel at the boot screen by selecting (I forget what the link is called, it is something like "Advanced Options" that is listed either below, or when you expand the highlighted boot entry at the boot screen). The 8sec countdown timer will stop when you do, so you can take your time and pick through the available kernels to boot. Just confirm in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf you have: multiversion = provides:multiversion(kernel) and multiversion.kernels = latest,latest-1,running which keeps the running kernel, the kernel with the highest version, and the kernel with the next highest version by my read of the comments (though it is unclear if 'running' and 'latest' apply to the same kernel, the setting is evaluated by /sbin/purge-kernels, not libzypp) Either way, you will still have your current and stable installed -- which you can boot to your old kernel in case of emergency and just delete the new stable one if it doesn't work out. I checked and stable is 4.17.12 -- so if your hardware is supported by the latest kernel -- you will be in luck. Good luck. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org