Changed Linux Kernel
I have had the Arch Linux
linux-hardened kernel installed on
my Qotom fanless server
since I bought it a couple of years ago.
The Qotom has had kernel panics on the last two
linux-hardened updates.
I changed to the plain linux kernel.
It was pretty easy, even though I had a case of the nerves about it.

Arch Linux, a simple, lightweight Linux distribution,
offers several alternative kernels.
All the alternatives are Linux,
just compiled with different options and maybe some patches.
I typically run linux-hardened on any server that has direct internet access,
There’s linux-zen,
supposedly optimized for performance and interactive snappiness.
I’ve superstitiously run it on several generations of Dell laptop
because some years ago, linux-zen fixed an all black screen on a Dell.
There’s linux-lts, which is the official long term support kernel.
I think it’s a good idea to run software of any sort that’s not quite
the mainstream, to avoid a software monoculture.
I’m doing my part,
although if I took this far enough, I’d be running NetBSD
like I did back in the mid-1990s.
After fixing a kernel panic in 2 successive versions of linux-zen,
I decided to put another kernel on the Qotom.
I’ve done this process several times over the years.
I can’t recall it ever being more than minimal hassle,
but I’m nervous about it every time.
This time, it was also a simple process.
It only took about 10 minutes, and half of that was triple-checking
all commands.
The Actual Commands
These commands are very Arch Linux specific, but I imagine similar things would work with other distros.
sudo pacman -R linux-hardened linux-hardened-headerssudo pacman -S linux linux-headerssudo mv grub.cfg old.grub.cfgsudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfgsudo vim grub.cfg- remove “quiet” from 2 invocations of
/vmlinuz-linuxso I can see what goes on at boot.
- remove “quiet” from 2 invocations of
sync;sync;sync;sudo systemctl reboot
Just to be very specific,
the Qotom experienced a kernel panic with the Arch Linux
linux-hardened
kernel package, versions 7.1.5.hardened1-1 and
7.1.5.hardened1-3.
I have had panics of updated kernels happen maybe twice before.
I did nothing to figure out what the cause was.
Backing off to version 7.1.3.hardened1-4 worked,
so I figured there’s just some specific weirdness in the linux-zen
kernel causing it.