Let's talk about the LTS kernels

jrsilvey I still can't boot up with the current kernel, I will inevitably get stuck on the black screen with the white cursor. I've been using LTS because it's the only thing that just boots me up with no issue. It's a fairly recent Custom Built (Clevo barebones) Laptop, too.

I've wasted many mornings trying to figure out what's keeping me from booting up on current, but I can never quite figure out what it is.

I'm afraid if LTS gets removed I'll have no way to use my laptop, and I'll lose quite a bit of stuff that I have set up here for work.

I'll admit I'm not the most savy when it comes to Linux in depth stuff, but I also feel like I shouldn't be just to be able to use Solus with no issues.

I had to rollback updates because I couldn't boot up anymore when this last update hit. It's kind of an elephant in the room that I'll have to address eventually, but I'm dreading it already

If I remember correctly linux-current was fairly buggy when it was first released, and it took many point releases before they finally stopped having some regressions (one or two of those regressions were also nvidia driver related). Luckily with all the updates, I've been running linux-current without any issues for months now, but generally speaking for my Acer Aspire E5-576G laptop with hybrid graphics, I tend to experience at least one or two breakages/regressions from the kernel each year, so I have the LTS kernel as a backup that I used for about a month because the regressions don't always get fixed right away. I'm a patient person so I don't mind the wait, however, since the last couple of updates, the 4.9 kernel no longer lets me boot into a GUI, so my backup is no longer a working backup. Now I'm not too concerned at the moment since linux-current has become a very solid kernel now, but I do always have some concern when a new kernel is released that's a new major version. Having said all that, I'd be willing to test and see if the 4.14 LTS kernel is a worthy successor, but it definitely isn't an easy decision because no matter the kernel, some users will encounter problems, we just have to do our best to find and use the kernel that causes the least amount of problems for the community. I for one am glad we are having this open discussion and am hopeful we'll figure something out together.

Hello I have an 8 year old notebook Asus and Thoshiba and no problems I think we should take the new LTS kernel and sorry for my English

I wanted a backup for when linux-current breaks and also I installed Solus when it was still the default kernel and have switched to the linux-current. I have 3 Solus installations.

I selected Other because ever since I installed Solus two and a half weeks ago (as far as I can tell) it has been booting the LTS kernel by default. I'm using a 2011 Macbook Pro, so perhaps it's something to do with old hardware? Or maybe I inadvertently did something to make this happen?

I'm brand new to Linux so my cluelessness is probably on full display here. I haven't tried switching to the current kernel so far as everything has been running really well, but I could give it a try just to see if it works.

DataDrake I installed the Broadcom driver that appeared in Hardware Drivers. The wifi didn't work straight away so I followed the instructions in this old post: https://discuss.getsol.us/d/23-getting-broadcom-wireless-cards-to-work
That's when I found out I was on the LTS kernel.

davidjharder My vote for 'other' is a false positive, too. I'm perusing results. I don't have LTS installed but considering it as insurance because sometimes I do wreck the system.

i'm on the current, don't have LTS installed
no virtualbox but gnome-boxes

I need LTS for my XPS 9560.

With current, beginning with 5.3 iirc, I have very bad performance, meaning weird lagging and, even worse, the system freezes and completely locks up after some random time.

Here some more info for my issue: https://linuxreviews.org/Linux_Kernel_5.5_Will_Not_Fix_The_Frequent_Intel_GPU_Hangs_In_Recent_Kernels

and as it is still not better or fixed, switching to 5.4 worries me

On my 10y old laptop (Intel i5-460M & ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650) the current kernel causes issues with the wake-up from sleep, as I posted in ticket T8699. Since then I use the LTS kernel without issues and try every new release of the current kernel if it fixes the wake-up issue (until now it hasn't).
I had no issues with the current kernel until version 5.5, so an upgrade of LTS to 5.4 should hopefully work on my old hardware.

I haven't got any issues so far with the current and the lts kernel. But I think moving the kernel to an 5.4 lts version would be very great!

What I found curious about the recent breakage is that my old 750ti gpu was broken on nvidia current, even though it mostly worked on previous kernels. I presumed the problem for me was a gpu driver - lts kernel mismatch, but I don't know for sure.

pappkamerad There were initially quite a few posts here and on Reddit by users adressing their issues with freezing and lagging on intel at around 5.3. I for one use 4.9 whenever I need to do non-trivial stuff (even though it ruins my wifi), because performance is otherwise horrendous. If LTS is upgraded to 5.4 before this issue is fixed, I seriously don't know what to do except changing OS for the first time in some years.

I'm using HP Elitebook 2570p (in docking station most of the time) with Manjaro Gnome (switched to Budgie & having issues because of it...).
I begon to use Solus Budgie on it in...2018? I don't remember exactly. In march 2020 i begin to have issues with Current kernel & switched to LTS on which I'm having issues too. Not disqualifying issues but noticeable.
I covered them here:
https://discuss.getsol.us/d/4079-budgie-applets-on-panel-buggy/9 & here

https://discuss.getsol.us/d/3888-latest-kernel-update-borked-wifi/18
In my case...
- 5.5.7-150.current kernel had serious issues - some strange display shows when shuting down; Solus was significantly slower
- 5.4.12-144.current was fine - responsive, reliable, just working great
- 4.9.215-155.lts had issues identifying my docking station & external display
I was dreaming to be able to work with older one... I know. It ain't smart to use old kernel. But when you are having issues with new...?
If this could be a bit of solution - give people ability to download older kernel to stay on it ,,till update" or something like that, if the ,,middle" kernel Isn't an option for you.

I will be installing Solus on my new desktop PC. I hope to not experience any problems.

I was on lts for years before even realizing it. Now on current, but kept lts installed just in case.