Debian is running 2.6.32-5. Recent kernels seem to have addressed some kernel soft lockup issues, I'd like to try them. Although... the patches don't seem to be in the Debian-stable repository.
# dpkg -l linux-image-2.6.32-5-686
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-======================-==================================================================================
ii linux-image-2.6.32-5-6 2.6.32-44 Linux 2.6.32 for modern PCs
- Why is the Debian "Version" 2.6.32-44 when the kernel is 2.6.32-5 ?
- What does upgrading to Debian version 2.6.32-45 (of the 2.6.32-5 kernel) buy me? I can't seem to find the Debian release notes on this upgrade/fix/patch.
- I assume Debian isn't backporting Kernel patches. Can I just download the latest deb of the kernel, modules and dependencies and dpkg -i it? Sure I won't be on a "stable" kernel, but at least my system might not be doing the soft-lockups.
Any help would be appreciated. Pointers to specific Debian documentation on this would be ideal. There's something I'm missing here.
Because that is how Debian names their packages.
Debian backports any patches for security issues. It does not add new features, or update to resolve issues only seen by a small number of people. I like the definition of stable here.
Enable the backports repository. You will get access to a many new kernels, just keep in mind that the backports repository doesn't receive the same level of coverage by the security team.
The latest packaged kernel in the backports repository seems to be
linux-image-3.2.0-0.bpo.2.