alebrun@nexgo.de wrote:
Hi ! I'm running woody and try to stay up to date with security updates.We had recently 2 updates for the kernel. Downloading 24 MB over modem takes a bit of patience, so I tried to download only the diffs.gz file and patch it. First reverse patch from old debian version to orig files, then patch the new version. Apparently it worked (I had some warnings about debian/rules, debian/official not beeing there but I believe it was safe to simply ignore them). My questions are: 1) Is there a chance I did something wrong and end up having the security flaw not corrected or something broken in my kernel
No, the kernel will be fine, but theoretically apt may have a problem since it still thinks you have the old version.
2) How do I tell apt-get that I already have the fix, and still become the next update
Its not easy.
3) Perhaps there is an easier/better way to do this
Well, not necessarily "better", but the simpler thing to do is just not use apt and Debian's packages for kernel management. Instead, manage that yourself, especially if you recompile your own kernel anyway. I'll be flamed for going against the "Debian Way", but I have yet to see a meaningful advantage to handling the kernel in the "Debian Way", the biggest disadvantage being the one you point out: every time a new kernel version comes out you have to DL the whole freakin' thing instead of just DL'ing the patch.