Re: how to keep the most recent stable kernel?

[Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org>]

On 2024-11-07, Harald Dunkel wrote:
> using bookworm-backports to get a more recent kernel, how can
> I make sure the *stable* kernel is kept up-to-date on system
> upgrades as well?
>
> Problem is, the linux-headers-amd64 and linux-image-amd64
> packages are not versioned, AFAICT.

If I am understanding you correctly, I do not think there is a way to
simply install a package that will do this for you, precisely because
the package names of the linux-image-amd64 metapackages are unversioned,
as you mention.

If you want to keep the both the latest kernel installed that
linux-image-amd64/bookworm points to as well as the latest kernel that
linux-image-amd64/bookworm-backports points to, I think you have to pick
one of the linux-image-amd64 packages (e.g. either bookworm or
bookworm-backports), and manually track the other (e.g. look up what
package it *would* install, and then install that specific package). If
you got really clever, you could maybe dynamically generate a local
package with this dependency...

Or, do something like this regularly:

  apt update
  apt install linux-image-amd64/bookworm-backports
  apt install linux-image-amd64/bookworm-security
  apt install linux-image-amd64/bookworm

It is not pretty, but this way you'll get the linux-image-X.Y.Z-adm64
packages from bookworm-backports, and also from bookworm or
bookworm-security. You might have to mark some of them as manually
installed if you run "apt autoremove" or use "apt upgrade/install
--autoremove", as often only two or three linux-image packages are
typically kept around at a time, and usually only the most recent ones.

This is with the understanding that you wanted to keep both the current
linux-image package from bookworm as well as the most current package
from bookworm-backports.

live well,
  vagrant