On Mi, 14 mai 14, 15:59:08, Theodore Alcapotaxis wrote: > I wrote: > > > > However, if you're on stable (or oldstable) there will be no major > > upgrades (whether you want them or not) unless you point your sources to > > the next release. > > What happens if I am using Debian current stable but my linux-image is > 3.12 (wheezy-backports)? Assumptions: 1. You did not change the default priority for backports 2. You installed the linux-image-<version>-<flavor> package from backports and *not* the corresponding meta-package linux-image-<flavour>. As far as I understand from lurking on -backports the backported kernels "track" testing. If the package in testing receives a security upgrade most probably the package in backports will too. If assumption 1. is correct you will receive such security upgrades. However, if the package in testing is replaced by a newer one the same will happen in backports. If assumption 2. is correct you will be stuck with the same kernel package (no upgrades of any kind) while backports moves on to newer versions. Since linux-image-<flavor> packages in backports are already depending on 3.13 images I assume 3.12 packages will be removed soon. I would recommend you install linux-image-<flavor> from backports and let it keep you kernel to the latest version available in backports. Kernel upgrades are usually quite safe to do, assuming you always keep around at least one known working kernel as backup. In case of kernels from backports you probably could/should keep two: the latest stable kernel and the previous backports kernel. To play it extra safe watch for security upgrades to the stable kernel and test that it still boots for you (see the recent thread where a security upgrade made a system unbootable). Also, it may happen that the kernel in stable gets an ABI change (e.g. it changes from linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64 to linux-image-3.2.0-5-amd64). These are rare, but did happen in the past. If your linux-image-<flavour> is from backports such changes will not be picked up automatically. Hope this helps, Andrei -- http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser Offtopic discussions among Debian users and developers: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/d-community-offtopic http://nuvreauspam.ro/gpg-transition.txt
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature