[K12OSN] Dangerous to upgrade K12LTSP 4.4.1 (Fedora Core 4)

[David Trask]

"Support list for opensource software in schools." <k12osn at redhat.com> on
Friday, September 30, 2005 at 10:05 AM +0000 wrote:
>Dangerous, I suppose is a relative term.
>
>It's dangerous to go out on the roads in our cars but we do it all
>the time.  Most of the time, we get home safely but not everyone
>does every time.
>
>Likewise, running yum update is dangerous.  If you have a system
>that is running, you're more likely to have it stop running after
>you update that if you just do nothing.  Welcome to the bleeding
>edge.  I've run yum update on a 4.4.1 installation and kernel
>2.6.13-1.1526_FC4 seems to be working fine here.  I can confirm
>that it isn't so broken that no one should update.  But we do so
>with the knowledge that there are crazy drivers out there (so to
>speak).  
>
>It may be that your problem has to do with more than just the
>kernel upgrade.

I've learned that if it ain't broke...don't fix it.  In other words...if
your K12LTSP box is not connected directly to the Internet (in other words
it's behind a firewall) then most of the major security issues are not a
big deal.  Then you pick and choose selectively what to update....I never
update kernels once I have a working one....at least not until the next
summer.  No need to.  I was burned by that once....machine upgraded...then
it tried to boot to the new kernel and things stopped....I simply changed
it back in grub and everything was fine....but I was out of town when I
did it via ssh....so you can imagine my issues....thus...lesson learned.

David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Coordinator
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcsvikings.org
(207)923-3100