Keeping multiple kernel versions | openSUSE Tumbleweed

One of the really cool features of openSUSE Tumbleweed is the root system snapshots, the integration of the package manger, Zypper, into GRUB to boot into a read-only snapshots and to even roll back to those snapshots, should you have issues with updates or other system changes.

The latest Kernel version that has come down, 6.11.0 has caused my DisplayLink drivers to not install properly. I have two options, roll back or use the older kernel, 6.10.11, until things catch up. My concern now is, I only have two options of kernel to boot into but thanks to the beauty of Zypper and the GRUB integrations, I can hold the older kernel for some time. I can also hang onto more kernels, just in case and here is how you do it.

Using this resource, this is what I did:

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Keep_multiple_kernel_versions

Edit the Configuration File

First of all, I use the mciro editor instead of vi/vim or nano, so swap out your favorite terminal editor accordingly.

sudo micro /etc/zypp/zypp.conf

Next, scroll down to line 580, keep in mind that over the years, this will likely shift a bit so you can also just search “kernels” and ignore the line number bit.

Look for the line

multiversion.kernels = latest,running

This is where you can make the adjustment. For every additional kernel, you add latest-n where n is the number of additional previous kernels. I want to keep 5 kernels so this is what I did:

multiversion.kernels = latest,latest-1,latest-2,latest-3,running

Since there hasn’t been a third kernel update at the time of writing, I can’t show a larger list of kernels but I’ll do a stealth edit of this post when it does happen. 😉

Bootloader Options

Another bonus, The Bootloader module in YaST allows you to set a default boot kernel where you can set the kernel for as long as you would like. This is as easy as selecting the drop down on the Bootloader Options tab of the Bootloader module.

I haven’t tested this so I am unsure how Zypper will handle a kernel you select here past your list of kernels you are going to keep available.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of other really cool features on that Wiki that are outside of the scope of this article. You can add additional parameters for custom built kernels as well with a specific kernel version using that list. I have not tested this but also, super cool.

Just another reason why I love using Linux and open source software, tools are built by such talented people that allow you to do amazingly interesting things.

References

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Keep_multiple_kernel_versions
DisplayLink on openSUSE Tumbleweed
Top 11 Reasons YaST makes openSUSE Awesome