Rare vs frequent linux kernel updates

[Circlotron]

There is always a risk with a kernel update that something in your system might stop working. Assuming the other system files always get updated when new ones are available, is there a greater or lesser risk of something going wrong with frequent kernel updates with comparatively small changes vs infrequent updates with big/more changes? I take the position that if the rest of your file system is up to date then a new kernel has less risk of breaking things.

[retiredfeline]

In my experience most people will not notice either way. The situations where I regard an update as essential are when you are the one affected by a showstopper bug, or there is a serious security issue like Spectre was and you are vulnerable. So my policy is to accept distro updates when they are available, i.e. don't overthink it.

[ataradov]

It does not matter. Kernel updates have not broken anything major in a long long time. Also, most systems save multiple previous versions of the kernel, so if something does break, you can always boot the old one.

[AntiProtonBoy]

I just trust the release schedule of the particular linux distro I'm using. If they publish a new kernel update, then I'll update. If not, then not. I haven't experience anything breaking so far.

[james_s]

I like updates to be as infrequent as possible, unless there is something really critical that needs to be fixed right away. Updating is a nuisance and few things irritate me more than software the nags and nags and NAGS me to restart for an update.

[ejeffrey]

Just stick with the update schedule from whatever distribution you use 99.9% of the time.  It's not worth thinking about.  As long as you are using a supported version of a mainstream distribution they should publish important security updates in a timely fashion and be very unlikely to break anything important.  There is no reason to treat kernel updates any different than any other software update.

[Benta]

I usually run an update once a week. Mostly small patches and program updates get installed (bug elimination and security).
Running Lubuntu 20.04 and updating with "apt update" and "apt upgrade".
No big deal, takes a couple of minutes.

Distribution updates is a different story, I'll stick with 20.04 until the next LTS comes out and is mature.

[DiTBho]

I don't update unless there is a valid reason. I have several home-made kernel drivers that would require time to be checked and adapted with new kernels.

[rstofer]

A long time back, every kernel upgrade would break the not-open-source nVidia drivers.  The drivers had to be 're-compiled' against the new headers.  I'm not certain how the process worked, I was new to Linux and just happy that it worked at all.

I haven't had this problem in a very long time.  Somehow, Linux and nVidia came to terms (just guessing).

The nVidia Jetson Nano runs Ubuntu so they must be getting along a lot better.

[SiliconWizard]

Of course depending on the distribution you use, all the basic testing work is already done by maintainers before you get access to the update.
Now if you're updating the kernel on your own, that's a different story.

But yeah, things breaking to the point of being unable to boot is pretty rare these days (and yes you normally always have the possibility to use a fallback kernel in this case - if your install doesn't provide this, your should consider adding it yourself!) Now if you don't have a fallback kernel, you'll have to boot with some live CD to get your system back to a working state.

Now, third-party drivers/tools dependent on the kernel MAY break. This happens once in a while. Especially on older hardware. I have a Lenovo laptop for instance, and very occasionally a kernel update breaks some functionality specific to the laptop, such as hardware monitoring, or fan control, or graphics card switching (my latop has 2 graphics cards, NVIdia plus integrated Intel.) There are just too many possible configurations to ensure that this never happens. But the frequency of updates doesn't really matter - it's what they change that does. As with any other important update, do not do it if you are in a rush and know you won't have time fixing something that may have broken.