I installed Manjaro XFCE on an old laptop of a friend of mine, it initially had kernel 5.15 LTS but bluetooth and wifi didn’t work well so i installed kernel 5.19 and that laptop runs well!
Thing is kernel 5.19 reched EOL and then unsupported but it’s the latest kernel that works on that machine! Any kernel 6.x don’t work and 5.15 LTS works but with issues…
My friend said it will stay with kernel 5.19 until the end of times and he really liked Manjaro (didn’t liked mint, ubunto, arco…).
The system works as it is but will he encounter any problem in the future?
In my machine i also had that kernel installed (i had 5.15 LTS, 5.19 and 6.1 LTS running), should i keep 5.19 or just remove it?
Grateful for any advice, my first post here!
Welcome to the forum!
Well, that kernel is no longer supported, which means that it will no longer receive any security updates, and it is not unthinkable that a security flaw against said kernel may be discovered any time soon, and that it may as such also get exploited. Of course, that doesn’t mean that your friend’s machine will be targeted by whoever exploits the weakness in said kernel, but one never knows.
It is however odd that this is the only kernel that will work on your friend’s computer. Have you tried an older LTS kernel? 5.4 and 5.10 for instance are still supported until at least 2026, and they are both LTS kernels as well.
Best is to remove it, unless you intend to start a macabre collection of graveyard kernels. 
sudo mhwd-kernel -r linux519
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How are you so sure that kernels 6.x don’t work on your friend’s laptop?
Yep tried them all, didn’t boot with any of them…
What error do you get?
Embarassing enough i didn’t think on installing an older kernel, i only thought to install the most recent one, i’m go talk with him in discord and tell him to try 5.10 first and then i report to you guys!
It was a few weeks ago i didn’t recall but it boots up with 5.15 LTS and 5.19.
Yes, of course. But It seems odd, that kernels 6.x don’t boot (they are not so different after all). And if you can make them work everything will be easier. Maybe it just a kernel parameter.
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Sorry don’t be more clear about that. I actually didn’t pay much attention on the error, it didn’t boot up so i rollled back to 5.19.
So my friend tried 5.10 LTS and… it actually works! One question tho, even if all seems to be ok he wants to keep 5.19 installed but if i’m not mistaken the system always boots the most recent kernel right? Is there a way to the system always boot with kernel 5.10 LTS specifically (he has now 5.10 LTS, 5.15 LTS and 5.19 installed).
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Well, I don’t see why he would want to keep 5.19 installed, but okay, it’s his choice. If it were me, I’d remove all the problematic kernels and only keep the one that works. 
As for which kernel to boot by default, yes, you can specify this in /etc/default/grub. Change this line below… 
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
… into the entry that corresponds with the “Advanced options for Manjaro Linux” submenu and the number (starting the count at 0) corresponding to the place of the 5.10 kernel in that submenu. So for instance, if the 5.10 kernel is the 5th item in the submenu, then it is the number 4, and the submenu itself has number 1, so then it is…
GRUB_DEFAULT=1>4
Also, change the line…
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
… into…
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=false
Then, save the file and run…
sudo update-grub
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Thank you so much for the help, I go tell to my friend follow those instructions!
Funny how, on that old laptop 5.10 LTS and 5.19 work, 5.15 LTS work with issues and any kernel 6.x don’t even work at all. Some machines are indeed a mystery!
I have an old notebook Asus Eee PC intel atom 1.6 GHz 2 GB RAM and i installed Q4OS and every time i updated the system it breaked, re-installed several times and still the same, installed AntiX Linux and works perfect; on the other hand i have a very old Acer laptop with only 512 mb RAM that has Q4OS installed, almost 1 year later i updated the system all ok! That notebook really didn’t like Q4OS xD
One more question if i may related with gaming, i have a very old CD with MAME GUI (for windows) and ROM’s of NeoGeo and other’s (don’t quite recall where i get it, i think was a friend that gave me that CD, it’s original tho maybe from a magazine…), i wanna play those games on Manjaro, could you guys recommend me a good emulator for NeoGeo?
RetroArch flatpak maybe?
Sorry for the incovenience, I will do it later on!
That depends on your fríends behavior.
99% of all computer related issues is caused by user.
The chance of a kernel related security issue hitting your friends computer is slim.
So if your friend uses the computer responsibly - no warez, porn and illegal activities - I’d say the the chance is next to none.
Manjaro builds older kernels from - at time of writing 2023-05-19T22:00:00Z - kernel 4.19 and onwards is in the core repo.
He only uses the laptop mostly for work (see, edit and print documents) and multimedia…
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