comment and new question--when do upgrades take effect (was: Re: Kernel for Spectre and Meltdown)

[rhkramer@gmail.com]

On Monday, January 29, 2018 03:35:58 AM Michael Fothergill wrote:
> On 29 January 2018 at 07:52, Dextin Jerafmel <jerafmel@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I tried to search for available Kernel images but there isn't any newer
> > Kernel than 4.9.0.5

> ​Your need to upgrade to unstable (Debian Sid).  Then you need to get the
> latest kernel from the kernel.org website.

I just want to emphasize that you don't need to upgrade to unstable (Debian 
Sid).

See the response in this thread from Bastien Durel.

Also, iiuc, the fixes for Spectre and Meltdown have been "backported" (probably 
not the right word) to Wheezy (which is my "everyday" machine).  If I'm wrong 
about that, somebody can let me know.

Sort of a digression:

I regularly download "security" upgrades for Wheezy.  I assume that most of 
those don't take effect until I restart the application.  For instance, a 
Firefox upgrade does not take effect until I shutdown Firefox and restart it.

Correspondingly, I assume that a Linux kernel upgrade does not take effect 
until I reboot the machine.

I guess I can confirm by watching version numbers next time I get a kernel 
upgrade, but if someone can respond now, that would (possibly) set my mind at 
ease.