Re: [PLUG] Which Kernel to Run?

[Rich Freeman <r-plug@thefreemanclan.net>]

On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 8:41 PM, Casey Bralla <MailList@nerdworld.org> wrote:
> Gentoo-sources
> A highly patched kernel that has worked well for me over the years.  Currently
> still at version 2.6.39-r3.  This is probably my "default" kernel.

This is what I run, and almost always the stable branch.  Greg
Kroah-Hartman maintains it, and obviously he knows what he is doing.

The strategy for the maintenance of this branch is outlined at:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/kernel/maintenance.xml

Basically it aims to be upstream, but they occasionally backport fixes/etc.

That isn't to knock any other kernel distributors - I'm just not as
familiar with them.  Debian itself no doubt is going to be more likely
to backport and support a release a lot longer.

In general, I don't really see much value in maintaining a
bleeding-edge kernel, unless your intent is to file bugs/etc and be a
test subject.  If I can't name the feature I'm looking for I just run
stable.  As it is gentoo-sources tends to stay pretty current - I just
got 2.6.39-gentoo-r3 this morning on stable amd64.

Also - don't knock genkernel too much - it is an easy way to have a
reasonable install, and just about everything is in modules so it
doesn't waste a ton of RAM.  I don't run it since it tends to leave
out stuff like tuner cards and I haven't been bothered to figure out
how to reconfigure it, but for a typical desktop/server it works
great.  Genkernel is also likely to be a little more intelligent if
you have a complex root device situation (lvm/raid/etc), since it
supplies a fairly good initrd.

Rich
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