Re: [LUG] Getting a USB AC68 dongle to work in Mint 19.3

[Michael Everitt <michael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/04/20 18:53, comrade meowski wrote:
> On 03/04/2020 12:18, Brad Rogers wrote:
>>
>> It may depend on which meta package (if any) you have installed - kernel
>> updates are not automatic in several distros.  This is a security
>> measure.  Kernel updates may cause things to fail catastrophically.
>>
>> For example, in Debian testing if I have installed;
>> linux-image-5.4.0-3-amd64
>> updates will be limited to linux-image-5*
>> As soon as (say) linux-image-6.0.2-1-amd64 comes out, the kernel will not
>> be updated automatically.
>>
>> To get automatic upgrades to the latest kernel I have to install the
>> meta-package;
>> linux-image-amd64
>> which depends on the latest kernel available in testing.
>>
>> You should also keep at least one older kernel available on your machine
>> because, if things do go belly up with the new kernel, you've still got
>> an old one around to boot up with.  To that end, most distros don't
>> automatically remove old kernels at update time.
>
> Unhelpfully I don't think downstream distros usually keep all the same
> sensible Debian conventions so "linux-image-amd64" isn't an installable
> target on Mint or Ubuntu. I'm not even sure that there is a general
> "latest distro kernel" metapackage in either that you can reliably apt
> install and know you've got the latest available. I probably should know
> that really I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
>
> Think you're perhaps overstating the whole kernel update disaster
> scenario a bit as well. That just doesn't happen any more, especially
> with distro managed released kernels. Unless you're using Sid perhaps?
> Considering that the new kernel is exactly the same as the crappy old
> kernels except with additional incremental bug fixes layered on top and
> newer hardware support it's a bit tricky to see how an older kernel is
> better than a new one in any way whatsoever. Linus and the thousands of
> other kernel devs aren't wasting their time you know! Worse case scenario
> is your box doesn't boot on the new kernel and you just have to reboot
> and use the old one instead. Hardly major.
>
> Julian is also specifically square in the middle of a "my weird old
> hardware doesn't work" problem - stage 1 of solving that particular issue
> is always to fully update and grab the latest kernel to see if that now
> has support.
>
> Not really disagreeing with you here, just less convinced of any risk or
> issues even worth mentioning with kernel upgrades.
>
I suppose there's a small chance I could grab the relevant default
debian/mint kernel config, apply some tweaks, patches, compile it and
package in a deb for you ... but even that is a moderate amount of work for
a geek/nerd like me ...

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