Topic: New user - when to patch?

[Phil Hyde]

Hi,

OK, admittedly I've been using SME 5.5 for about a year now.  SME is so incredibly stable and secure that I usually pay little attention to updating it (versus my Windows 2000 server which seems to want to pull down some freakin patch almost daily!!!).   Now I notice that there are other "recommended" patches on the site, as well as 5.6 upgrade.

Since SME is so stable, the question I have is when should I patch or update?  It is perhaps wise to patch with all of the latest and greatest, but what are the risks to a home/hobbyist user?

Thanks much,
Phil

[Bill Talcott]

Do some reading here on 5.6. It has switched to the 2.4 kernel and iptables, so a lot of things need to be done differently. A lot of contribs require changes between the two versions. Many have been updated, but some have not. There still seem to be a few bugs with 5.6 also, like PPTP. Personally, I'm sticking with 5.5 for now, as everything we do works great, and I don't think 5.6 adds any new features we need.

FYI, the official 5.5 updates can be found at ftp://ftp.e-smith.com/pub/e-smith/updates/5.5/. If you check that and the e-smith.org front page occasionally, you should be fine.

[Phil Hyde]

I should have said that my server is running 5.5 with update 2.  It does not appear that there are any further updates available, besides 5.6.

Thanks for the suggestion - I think to keep my sanity I'll stay with 5.5 for right now.  Unless someone has a very good reason to upgrade.

[Kelvin]

Hi Phil,

My 2 bits on upgrading :-

I want 5.6 mainly because of :-
1. Built in support for some newer hardware I have (add in controllers, etc).
2. Better crash tolerant file system (less likely to corrupt due to power failure, etc. if you don't have a UPS).

The unstable PPTP is the only current sore point.

But at the same time, I also believe "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Kelvin

[Ray Mitchell]

Phil
There is an update3 for v5.5 to do with denial of service attacks. It is a recommended upgrade, I have not heard any bad reports of problems with update3.
see
ftp://ftp.e-smith.org/pub/e-smith/updates/5.5/Update3/RPMS/

You would only update to v5.6 if you particularly need or want its features, but essentially it is performing the same server functions as v5.5. While some rpms won't work on 5.6, there are a few that will ONLY work on 5.6 (at least at present), so your choice of rpm requirements may also be a deciding criteria.
v5.6 also appears to have a higher hardware specification eg faster processor and more RAM, so some older boxes running 5.5 happily, may not be suitable for 5.6.

I personally do like the stability of the file system and the large file size support, but I have experienced some printing problems and the pptp VPN issue, so I think there are a couple of significant things to sort out yet.

Regards
Ray Mitchell