Re: Need Support on Debian10 Linux Kernel Upgrade

Christian Britz

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Dec 16, 2021, 10:40:04 AM12/16/21

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On 2021-12-16 16:04 UTC+0100, Balasubramanian Ravuthan wrote:
> We are looking support from you on the Linux Kernel upgrade on Debian 10.
>
> We are currently using Debian10 Buster Linux Kernel 4.19 version and
> trying to upgrade to Debian10 Buster Linux Kernel 5.10 version. Is there
> any impact on this upgrading.
>
> In other words, what are the things will get affected if we do kernel
> upgrade.

Kernel 5.10 for buster is available as a backport (backports.debian.org).
There should be no negative impact, but I would suggest to upgrade
a test system first. There should be some Linux expert available at HCL,
otherwise I would suggest to pay a Debian consultant.

Please give an indication that you actually read the replies on this
mailing list, otherwise I will stop trying to help you.

Regards,
Christian

Dan Ritter

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Dec 16, 2021, 11:10:05 AM12/16/21

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Balasubramanian Ravuthan wrote:
>
> We are looking support from you on the Linux Kernel upgrade on Debian 10.
>
> We are currently using Debian10 Buster Linux Kernel 4.19 version and trying to upgrade to Debian10 Buster Linux Kernel 5.10 version. Is there any impact on this upgrading.
>
> In other words, what are the things will get affected if we do kernel upgrade.

Buster was not released with a 5.10 kernel. A 5.10 kernel came
with Bullseye, Debian 11. Are you getting this from backports?

In general, Linus is pretty flexible about what kernels are
being used. The difference will be that the 5 series presumably
has fixed some old bugs, introduced some new bugs, and some
things will be faster or slower. Overall, more hardware is
supported, but if everything was working well with 4.19, then
there's no immediate reason to suspect it won't work with 5.10.

For more details, you're going to have to ask a more specific
question.

-dsr-

Thomas Schmitt

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Dec 17, 2021, 3:30:05 AM12/17/21

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Hi,

Balasubramanian Ravuthan wrote:
> 1. Debian 10 Buster is not released with Linux Kernel 5.10 ; That means We
> cant upgrade Kernel 5.10 with Debian 10? - Please confirm.

No.

There are kernel source packages of 5.10 in backports
https://packages.debian.org/buster-backports/linux-source-5.10
https://packages.debian.org/buster-backports/linux-config-5.10

In general you can compile an own kernel and use it with your existing
Debian installation.
I did this on Debian 10 with 5.10-rc3 from git (branch "linux-next")
when i explored how to fix various old bugs in cdrom, sr, and iso9660.
It works fine for me, although being much newer than the 4.19 kernel
which was installed with Debian 10 (and still can be booted if i want).

This is not recommended by Debian, of course, and you might get mockery
from other Debian users if you report about problems which arise from
such a individual kernel upgrade.
Better first try with the source packages from backports.

> 3. In order to upgrade Linux Kernel to 5.10 means we have to install Debian
> 11 BullsEye. Please Confirm.

See 1.

> 5. What will be the impact for upgrading Debian 10 with Kernel 4.19 to
> Debian 11 with Kernel 5.10.

At least "bracketed-paste" and maybe other unsolicited changes.

(Yesterday i had to learn how to repair vim on a SuSE system: set t_BE=
I'm looking forward to my first upgrade to Debian 11 ...)

> 2.
> 4.

Were these items supposed to contain questions ?

Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Tim Woodall

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Dec 19, 2021, 4:40:04 AM12/19/21

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On Fri, 17 Dec 2021, Balasubramanian Ravuthan wrote:

> Hi Dan,
>
> Thanks for your reply. We need few more information.

>
>
> 1. Debian 10 Buster is not released with Linux Kernel 5.10 ; That means We cant upgrade Kernel 5.10 with Debian 10? - Please confirm.

As Dan says, it's in backports. I've been running a rpi buster with
backports kernel for ages with no issues.

> 2.

> 3. In order to upgrade Linux Kernel to 5.10 means we have to install Debian 11 BullsEye. Please Confirm.

Of course not. It's certainly one option but by no means the only one.
The kernel is probably one of the easiest parts to replace with
different versions as most of userspace doesn't much care.

> 4.

> 5. What will be the impact for upgrading Debian 10 with Kernel 4.19 to Debian 11 with Kernel 5.10.

This is impossible to answer. I've had two headaches on the systems I've
upgraded so far : bracketed paste in bash (how to revert to old
behaviour posted to this very list) and amd64 xen hypervisor not
powering off on shutdown (most recent version now has this fixed)