Re: [opensuse] Safer Kernel Updates

How can I do Kernel updates but keep the old kernel as an option in
the GRUB menu? I just looked at systems recently updated and in /boot
all the files for the previous kernel are no longer there.

I used yum or smart for older SUSE products (pre 11.1).

For the zypper approach as it is in 11.1 and newer see the multiversion
setting in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf Here you define which packages are
allowed to be installed multiple times.

##
## Packages which are parallel installable with
## diffent versions
##
# multiversion = kernel-default,kernel-smp

I wonder, could this be made easier (for newer users) than having to
edit the conf file? Could it be set to keep 1 or 2 kernel versions by
default?

To compare to a competing Linux distro... Ubuntu keeps previous
versions, and that has been a major lifesaver for me when an update
went "wrong" on a friend's computer (uses Ubuntu 8.04)... when video
drivers stopped working or sound stopped working after a new kernel
was installed. I was able to tell the user how to roll back to the
previous working kernel, and it gave me time to find out what went
wrong, and arrange an ssh session to log in and tweak what needed
tweaking. This friend wants to roll over to openSUSE with the 11.1
release, and... although I could go edit the conf file, I can't expect
him to be comfortable with that just yet... he is very new to Linux.
Having multiversion enabled by default would help a lot.

On the other side of the proverbial coin though... what are the risks
and problems with having this option enabled by default, or easily
changed in some way?

C.
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