Hi,

The http://www.linode.com/kernels/ page does a great job of explaining which kernels are available and when they are updated, etc.

However, I'm wanting to know a bit more info behind the stable vs paravirt kernels.

- It looks like the stable kernels are no longer being updated. Do I need to go to paravirt if I want security support?

- Why aren't the paravirt kernels labelled 'stable'? Is this misleading me? I really want as stable as I can (security updates welcome though).

- What are the technical differences between the two types of kernel? I know that one is xen specific and one is paravirt_ops, but don't know what the consequences of this are in terms of how the kernels work.

- I'm using Debian stable - do you think it'd be better to boot into Debian's own kernel, since it can run in Xen? Seems like it would be a hassle setting that up though.

Thanks in advance

subscribed to this thread, I'm also interested in the answer.

Anybody there?

I'd mainly like to know if the 'stable' kernel, which is quite an old kernel, is getting security support? Seems not to have been updated all year.

Raise a support ticket and ask them.

We certainly patch Latest Stable when security problems are found in it. The main difference between the two is how the kernel is Xen-aware; in latest stable, it is patched, and in latest paravirt it uses the built-in paravirtualized guest support.

The reason there's two is because Xen themselves still recommend the 2.6.18 kernel for domUs (last I checked, anyway), and newer distributions like Lucid use a version of udev that does not work with 2.6.18. If security issues are discovered that affect Latest Stable, we wouldn't hesitate to patch it, so don't feel hesitant to use it...Latest Paravirt has more features and such, though, as it is much newer.

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Disclaimer: I am no longer employed by Linode; opinions are my own alone.