Query

[cyber-dragon-14]

I am just asking a simple question, because I am thinking of returning to Mageia when Mageia 5 Final is released.
BUT....
My question is this:
What is the kernel version going to be in Mageia 5 Final?

Reason I am asking (and PLEASE FORGIVE FOR MENTIONING OTHER DISTROS BY NAME HERE), is that I recently have tried PCLinuxOS 2014.07 and witht hte kernel being 3.15.9 or newer, and also tried Manjaro 0.8.10 Xfce and when the kernel got updated beyond 3.12.24 I experienced a KERNEL PANIC with them because of the newer kernel and my OLD video card I am stuck using which is an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 PCI with 128MB of RAM, and it REQUIRES the Legacy driver 173.x to work properly. In both of those the nouveau driver also blows up with a kernel panic because of this as well.

When I was using Mageia 4 everything was nice and kosher with the kernel and the 173.x drivers.

I am becoming more and more worried that because I DO NOT have the option of upgrading my machine (aka buy a new one) I am going to have no choice but to just give up on Linux because I have trouble finding one that:
1. supports my old computer PROPERLY.
2. Has an interface that I don't mind.
3. I need to have LATEST version of Firefox, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice (currently 4.3) because I use these in WinXP and enjoy them.
Please, can someone let me know what kernel is going to be in "final"?

Thanks!!!!

[doktor5000]

Please, can someone let me know what kernel is going to be in "final"?

Nobody can tell yet, release is still 4 months in the future.

[jiml8]

You should change your configuration, stop using the nvidia packages provided by the distro (this distro or any other) and just download the 173 driver you need from NVidia and keep it on your system.

Then, whenever you change kernels or do an upgrade, just recompile that driver. Doing this will keep you going for some considerable period of time, until the modern linux system evolves enough that your driver will no longer compile...which might be a long time.

Compiling the nvidia driver is not a problem; I do it all the time for ancient and no longer relevant reasons. I just keep doing it because it has become a habit..it is the way I do things.

[doktor5000]

Then, whenever you change kernels or do an upgrade, just recompile that driver.

You can also tell the nvidia installer to use dkms support, then you don't have to care about recompiling anything.