[K12OSN] updates

["Terrell Prudé, Jr."]

Will Hatch wrote:

>Hi All,
>
>My k12ltsp (4.0.1) is working very well after an entire summer of slaving over a computer trying to figure it out.  Now, I point my mouse at the red exclamation point on my desktop and it tells me I have 75 updates!  I tried to do some a few weeks back; downloaded a critical kernal update.  I noticed when the server is rebooted, it has the old and new version of the OS.  What is the real deal with updates; which ones do I really need, can I avoid the updates for programs that I'm not even  familiar with?  Also, if I download a kernal update, am I essentially downloading another OS to my server HD, taking up storage room?  Things are running so well that I hate to mess  them up.  If someone has the time, what is the bottom line with doing updates for Fedora Core 1/k12ltsp 4.0.1?  Thanks!
>
>
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>
>  
>

Hello Will,

There are ways to choose your updates with any operating system, even 
Windows.  You've just got to set the correct options.  Generally, I 
choose all of the available updates, because I don't want some root 
compromise happening when I could've stopped it.  The updates are 
provided for a reason, and it's usually security, which is what we all 
like. 

With regard to kernel updates, you're not downloading another OS; you're 
downloading a small piece of the OS.  The kernel is the part of any 
operating system that does the low-level conversation with the hardware 
(this is where the name "GNU/Linux" comes from, BTW).  What you're 
seeing in your GRUB menu, you're seeing the old kernel version *and* the 
new kernel version.  Any time I update my kernel, I always like to keep 
the old version around so that I can roll back to it if the new kernel 
gives me problems.  I haven't yet run into that, but some have.  Yes, 
it's taking up space, but not much--maybe a few MB.  If you have an old 
kernel rev, you are vulnerable to several DoS attacks and possibly also 
a root compromise or two.

If you want to get rid of the "old" kernel entry in your boot menu, just 
edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file, and you won't see it anymore.  But 
I'd keep it around for a month or two of actual "production-style" use 
before I did that.

--TP
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