Hello,
im using Manjaro since 6-7 Month now and jumped from rolling release to another rolling release, but im not a big fan from updating my system every 2 weeks and to fear something will break or not work after it. I want to stay on LTS 5.10 now.
If i look back in the past i got Kernel Updates just from regular pamac updater (GUI), is there a way to skip this Kernel updates that hidden in this updates? That i don’t have Linux Kernel 5.11 on my system.
Thanks in advance
Manjaro goes through a rigorous stabilization process. Software from Arch Stable is added to Manjaro Unstable, then goes through Manjaro Testing, and eventually ends up in Manjaro Stable. By that time, the most serious bugs have been identified and ironed out, and for the problems that remain, there is always information on a dedicated update announcement under the Announcements category.
But that all said, if rolling releases are not your thing, then you will be better off with a different distribution.
Nothing prevents you from doing that. The very fact that a kernel gets assigned the LTS suffix means that it’s not going to reach EOL any time soon. As such, nothing is going to force you to install a 5.11 kernel or newer, but at the same time, the LTS kernel will periodically be updated as well so as to fix bugs and security issues. So it is imperative that you keep updating your system.
As for the announcement from the notifier icon that a newer kernel is available, you can ignore/dismiss that if you’re on an LTS kernel. That’s only really important if you’re on a non-LTS kernel that will reach EOL soon. 
Well, you can! Up until December 2022 at least, when it becomes EOL, as you can see here. But if you stay on Kernel 5.4, you can use that up until December 2025. Or just swap to a newer LTS once 5.10 is EOL.
Unfortunately, if this is the case, I highly recommend you go to a non-rolling release distro. If you take too long to update, as in you skip multiple stable release cycles, you can cause even more breakage in your system.
And you cannot install packages without keeping your system up to date, or you cause even more breakage due to dependency issues.
Are you saying you don’t want to keep updating the kernel 5.10? You always want to keep your kernel updated for security purposes.
If you mean you don’t like your installer installing the newest kernel (i.e. 5.11 or 5.12) by itself, you probably have the linux-latest meta package installed. You can remove that if you want.
You should always have at least 2 kernels install on your computer at a time, in case something happens with one of them.
Thanks but im aware about that.
I really like manjaro, im also donated several bugs to the dev team, because i will stay, but on the other side… in this 6-7 Month im using Manjaro today, i got 2-3 blackscreens from the nvidia driver issues after Kernel swapping, i also had a printer bug (cups.service) after a Kernel release that im also had to fixed manually, even after waiting one additional week after pamac showed me updates, i had this problems… anyways all in all i could life with that, but maybe the last few month was just a dark side
for Manjaro.
The sense from LTS Kernel in Manjaro is to evade this errors and to have a more working system right?
I mean other distributions with LTS Kernels gets also patched… there would be no big difference between (LTS) Manjaro or any other distribution with LTS, don’t you think so?
That’s the answer i was looking for… this mean i have nothing to do as just updating the LTS Kernel with weaker risks of bugs right? I just though “maybe” manjaro 5.10 will hop on 5.11 automatically, but if thats not the case thats good.
This is because of NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers. They are more finicky to get working with every new kernel release.
If you stick with AMD dGPUs or iGPUs, the open source drivers are built into the kernel itself, so it just works usually.
Not really. An LTS kernel is a kernel that someone can stick with a long time, so that the user doesn’t have to upgrade the kernel to a totally different kernel, but there is no 100% promise that it will never have errors. Some stuff from newer kernels gets backported to LTS kernels, which could cause issues, but not always.
The issue with making the user totally change the kernel (i.e from 5.10 to 5.11) is that now for some specific programs such as VirtualBox or NVIDIA drivers, you’d have to install package specifically for that newer kernel. If the user can stick with the LTS kernel, they don’t have to install a different package version as the rest.
Example:
linux510-virtualbox-host-modules VERSUS linux511-virtualbox-host-modules
linux510-nvidia VERSUS linux511-nvidia
One is for Kernel 5.10 users, the other is for Kernel 5.11 users. If you use both kernels (like me, but I don’t use NVIDIA), you’d need to install the necessary packages for both kernels now. I have both the host modules for 5.10 and 5.11 for Virtual Box installed.
As long as you use an LTS kernel that is currently still supported and updated, you’re fine. There is a difference between Manjaro kernels and other distro kernels though, every distro applies their own patches to their kernels.
You can see the patches for Kernel 5.10 here for example.
Example is that our kernel is fsync compatible due to a patch, but not every distro’s kernel has that patch.
A pretty usefull info, i didn’t know that yet 
Uff i didn’t know that would happend, i stayed to 5.9 till 5 days ago and updated to 5.10.18-1…
That means i missed a few updates from 5.10… can cause this already problems?
I can’t find any big problem when i looking for errors with this 2 commands…
sudo systemctl --failed
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION 0 loaded units listed.
sudo journalctl -p 3 -xb
-- Journal begins at Thu 2020-08-06 04:21:30 CEST, ends at Fri 2021-03-05 00:54:31 CET. -- Mar 05 00:17:59 koboldx-z170 kernel: Mar 05 00:18:11 koboldx-z170 kwin_x11[1296]: kwin_xkbcommon: XKB: couldn't find a Compose file for locale "en_DE.UTF-8" Mar 05 00:18:39 koboldx-z170 pulseaudio[1379]: GetManagedObjects() failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not recei> Mar 05 00:18:39 koboldx-z170 dolphin[1626]: inotify_add_watch(/boot/lost+found) failed: (Permission denied)
Hmm are you talking about skipping the full stable release like jumping from 5.9 to 5.11 or even smaller updates cycles like jumping from 5.10.15-1 to 5.10.18-1 could even give me breakage because i didn’t updated for 3-6 weeks and missed maybe 5.10.16 and 5.10.17?
Nope, i was talking about Kernel jumps to newer releases, because i think they will gave me more/bigger problems as just regular updates. I’m wrong with my conclusion? That’s the reason why LTS Kernels exist right?
Thats right, thats what i mean. It depends on, how thats working for me now.
Because if i understand @Aragorn right, with 5.10 installed right now, there will be no jump automatically anyways.
So the linux-latest meta package would safe me atleast December 2022 when 5.10 goes EOL and redirect me to a new version, like a safety net? Or where is the reason to have this linux-latest feature installed?
No, that’s not what I meant by up-to-date. Elaboration below:
By stable update cycles, I mean of all packages, not just kernels. Such as:
Here is an extreme example of what can happen if you delayed updates. Extreme meaning this person hasn’t updated since March 2019. But it is just an example.
It can happen if you miss 3 stable update cycles, or maybe you’re lucky with 5 cycles, or maybe you’re unlucky and it was 2 cycles missed. It really depends what changed in Manjaro’s repo and what you have installed yourself.
No, linux-latest meta package is determined by the Manjaro team. It’ll probably be updated to kernel 5.11 in the future. It was on kernel 5.9 previously, which isn’t LTS.
The reason to have linux-latest installed is for users to not have to manually install the newest kernel every time; they can just let the Manjaro team decide when you get the newer kernel on your computer. The Manjaro team can just update the package to tell the package manager to install the newer kernel, i.e. 5.8 → 5.9 → 5.10
I’m afraid you completely misunderstand. @realmain was talking about keeping your entire system updated, not just the kernel. Also, Manjaro will never automatically replace a kernel by one that is of a newer generation, unless you have the linux-latest meta-package installed and the kernel you’re running is EOL.
The only thing Manjaro does with regard to kernel updates is update the installed kernels, e.g. if you have 5.4 installed, then it will be updated from 5.4.100 to 5.4.101 ─ or 5.4.102, or 5.4.103, or whatever the current patch level will be at the time ─ upon the next major update, because that’s what’s in the Testing branch at the moment.
Hmm that’s one of the reason why i created this topic, because i had this unexpected Kernel jumps in the past… but on the other side i had this 2 month old Kernel 5.9.16-1 (EOL) on my System but i still downloaded all possible Update Packages with pamac (i only evaded the manual Kernelupdate to 5.10)
but linux-latest didn’t redirected me to this newer Kernel, maybe i have it installed… maybe not.
I had just installed a manjaro default iso (not the minimal iso) in the past, i don’t know if this feature is pre installed then.
I think this won’t work with my system installation at the moment, befor i installed manjaro in the past… i was looking for help in another computerforum for help because i wanted to create my own partitions on my SSD and this people told that a Bootpartition should be big enough when i set it on 200MB.
That’s why i created 2 days this Thread:
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/boot-partition-is-full-should-i-clean-it-and-how-boot-partition-should-be-500mo-or-more/
Looks like i had to live a dangerous life, but hey atleast i have timeshift ready and do a regular backup for my system. I hope i can evade this problems with that.
Uninstall linux-latest and it won’t happen anymore.
Your /boot/efi partition could be fine at 100MB. All of my /boot/efi partitions are 100MB.
If you’re making a /boot partition though, that’s another story. You shouldn’t really need a separate /boot partition. If you don’t make a separate /boot partition, all those files just get installed within the / partition.
I have 4 kernels installed atm.
I only run 2 partitions:
/boot/efi/And I use a swapfile instead of a /swap partition. Some people like having a /home partition as well.
Im aware there are 2 differend update GUI Windows atleast in Manjaro KDE, like Manjaro Settings Manager (choosing/downloading new System Kernel only) and Pamac to install single updates for Linux/Programms and a bunch of update packages (that fixed issues and security stuff but also lead to new bugs because of new features) but what i learned today that with linux-latest this packages forced me to redirect on a new Kernel.
Anyways thanks to make this clear.
The only supported GUI we have currently to update your system is pamac. There is octopi, but I don’t think that is used anymore.
CLI package managers we have are also pamac and pacman.
This is not a package manager. It is a front end to adjust settings. Hardware detection and Kernel is a frontend GUI for Manjaro Hardware Detection aka MHWD
Just an fyi, I believe by default, pamac actually sync, refresh database, and update ALL packages, even if you are just trying to install 1 package.
It’s similar to running sudo pacman -Syu. Which is what you want to do to prevent partial updates.
I use MBR, i though it was necessary for dual booting with Windows,
when i reinstall my Linux i will skip it next time… thanks.
The same with swap partition, i also had this partition created… i didn’t know a normal swapfile could work.
Is there maybe a good reason to have this additional partitions?
At the moment i wish i never created them, but hey its my second time in my life that i’m using linux.
GPT works perfectly fine with dual booting with Windows.
For /swap, you can technically share that /swap partition with other Linux distros. But… swapfiles are just so much easier to manage and use, without the hassle of having another whole partition.
/home partition, some people like to have that separate, so that if something happens (or if they just want to), they can nuke their installation besides the /home partition. And use the same /home partition on their new installation with all of their configs still there.
Personally, I liked to start with fresh config files, and I just back up the config files that I actually want to reuse.
My mistake, i was talking about the boot partition related to dual boot… what about a boot partition if i use lukes to encrypt my files on /root, there its could be required to have access to boot files that are unencrypted right?
btw. I just use MBR because i still have a old Win7 install on my System and i don’t trust in this UEFI Stuff, with a new PC i go away from MBR… btw. i think GPT and MBR is working fine too, there is no EFI Boot required… Atleast my Linux SSD is marked as GPT as far as im aware off.
Yeah thats looks cleaner, but if all my programms like Firefox, Shotcut are using my old settings that would be nice too.
Anyways the biggest time consuming would be to adjust my KDE Desktop enviroment like Dolphin, Kate, Terminal look and feel… that would take me atleast 12 hours or more to reconfig everything.
And this won’t be safed in /home i guess or?
Ah woops.
For my desktop, I have Windows installed first in UEFI mode. It generates a boot partition for Windows. When I install Manjaro, I mount this exact partition to /boot/efi
I think you’re talking about Legacy BIOS boot vs UEFI boot
Also, I personally never had issues with UEFI boot with Windows 7 or Windows 10
Fyi, / (root) and /root aren’t the same thing.
You can boot in fine if you encrypt / and leave /boot/efi unencrypted, which is what I do on all of my laptops.
Those configs are in /home, unless you directly edited the root files. You can find your config files in ~/.config
This is getting very off topic. Please create a new post if you have more questions.
Agreed, and @Kobold, please mark the post that best answered your question as the solution ─ thank you.
Sorry about the Offtopic and thanks for the help guys 
This topic was automatically closed 15 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.