Excessive kernel updates?

David Timms dtimms at iinet.net.au
Tue Sep 25 13:26:31 UTC 2007


Tim wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-09-25 at 11:10 +0200, Andrew Kelly wrote:
>> have there been excessive kernel updates lately?
>>
>> I've only been following this list for a few months, so if this is a
>> FAQ, my apologies.
A fresh one is currently being gestated at:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RahulSundaram/WhyUpstream

...
> Yes, there's been a few new kernels with the current release, I don't
> think it's been much different from prior releases.
Fedora will release kernels when there is security issues that apply to 
released kernels {btw you can now view update details in pup again}.

Since a kernel includes a tonne of code, there is a good chance of at 
least one security issue per month {imho}. The most expedient way for 
fedora to solve these issues is apply the upstream patch level {ie 
current release version}, rather than backporting just the security 
patch. This way we might get other useful enhancements that the kernel 
release includes {depending on hardware etc}.

RedHat's security articles mentioned that depending on the nature of the 
security issue, selinux can make the issue a non-starter for selinux 
enabled systems.

DaveT.




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