I Dont understand Fedora 16 policy

[Haber_Nir]

when fedora 16 was released it released with kernel 3.1 .

and when people ask here if they will upgrade to kernel 3.2 people said that the chances is very low
but fedora team was upgrade the kenrel to 3.2.

i just want to know why they decided to upgrade the kernel in fedora 16 ??
i think last year it was the same thing in fedora 15 .

[nonamedotc]

Originally Posted by Haber_Nir

when fedora 16 was released it released with kernel 3.1 .

and when people ask here if they will upgrade to kernel 3.2 people said that the chances is very low
but fedora team was upgrade the kenrel to 3.2.

i just want to know why they decided to upgrade the kernel in fedora 16 ??
i think last year it was the same thing in fedora 15 .

I am not sure what you mean here!

As far as I know, fedora tries to update the kernels as quickly as possible once it is released upstream. Not getting kernel (or any other) updates might be true if you are talking about an EOL version.

Are you sure you are referring to kernels and not DEs like GNOME/KDE?

[bob]

We are a users' Forum, not where the Devs hang out or give us information. If you want to know what's happening with them and their plans, then click on the FedoraProject link (above) and start scanning their posts.

[Fenrin]

Releases of the Fedora distribution are like releases of the individual packages that compose it. A major version number reflects a more-or-less stable set of features and functionality. As a result, we should avoid major updates of packages within a stable release. Updates should aim to fix bugs, and not introduce features,
[...]

read more here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy#Philosophy

Look to me like they didn't follow their updates policy when they updated from 3.1 to 3.2 in F16. Well they probably had good reasons for it. Maybe they wanted to offer better sandy bridge drivers or something...

[DBelton]

They also kinda "bent" the policy in F15, too. They went from the 2.6 kernel to the 3.0 kernel, although they kept the 2.6 naming (2.6.40). They probably did that to keep from breaking things that depended upon a 2.6.xx kernel in the middle of a stable release.

But kernels get special treatment sometimes due to them fixing security holes, etc... It's possible that a security fix can't be backported to a prior version so the update would become necessary.

[Haber_Nir]

i think the reason is that there is no support for kernel 3.1 and they have to move to kernel 3.2.

[nirik]

Well, the kernel is kinda a special case.

Backporting security and bugfixes to older kernels would take many more kernel maintainers than Fedora has. Additionally, new kernels are needed for new hardware enablement. Also, if there's a serious issue with a kernel, it's the only package you can have multiple older versions installed and can simply boot back into one of them.

So, for all those reasons Fedora is tracking closely with kernels on all versions...

[solo2101]

hmm... well...
I don't mine getting updates...

[BBQdave]

Originally Posted by DBelton

But kernels get special treatment sometimes due to them fixing security holes, etc... It's possible that a security fix can't be backported to a prior version so the update would become necessary.

Trying to understand too. I am running Debian 6 (2.6.32 kernel). I receive kernel patches; is that done by Debian or kernel.org?

From what is stated in previous posts: kernel mainenance and security fixes are patched and thus upgrade the linux kernel?

[jamielinux]

Originally Posted by Haber_Nir

i think the reason is that there is no support for kernel 3.1 and they have to move to kernel 3.2.

When a kernel is no longer supported at kernel.org, the burden for bug fixes and security fixes then moves to distribution developers. The Fedora kernel packagers will then have to decide whether they want to maintain it themselves, or move to a version supported upstream.

In some cases, there will be some critical bugs and they might consider upgrading even though upstream still supports it, such as F14:

https://lwn.net/Articles/458107/
"Going forward, we're at sort of an impasse. The two most likely options
are staying on 2.6.35.x, or moving to 2.6.40 as F15 did. We know that
there are areas where 2.6.35.x is just broken or insufficient (USB 3
support, various suspend/resume issues) that might be improved in 2.6.40
but that comes with the risk of hitting userspace interaction bugs.
We're keeping an eye on this and trying to come up with the best all
around decision, but it is not an easy choice."

[EvilRedHorse]

# Every new kernel version will go through the rawhide repo for testing
# If you are impatient and daring then install and use the rawhide repo
# This is not suggested because you could temporarily/permanently disable your OS

yum -y install fedora-release-rawhide
yum -y update kernel --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=rawhide

# As of today the rawhide kernel is 3.3.x while the stable kernel is 3.2.x