Depending on what special features you might use on your system (virtualization, third party drivers), it might be possible to build a kernel from kernel.org.  I've tried this in the past but since the latest kernel still didn't properly support the broken hardware I didn't pursue it further.

On Apr 15, 2012, at 1:46 PM, Keith Lofstrom wrote:

> I'm running S.L. 5.6 on a few machines, and have grown somewhat
> dependent on it.  However, there are features in the kernel 
> that comes with 6.2 (like USB3) which I would like to have.
> 
> Is it possible to upgrade just the kernel and associated modules
> and "miscellaneous"?
> 
> I assume this is tricky, and fraught with dangers, and the usual
> cautions (make backups, work on a copy of the disk, tweak yum 
> updates so they won't regress the 2.6.32 kernel, etc) apply.
> 
> For now, I just want to know whether this is worthy of further
> consideration, or instead I should set aside a few weeks to
> upgrade everything then rebuild a lot of poorly written custom
> apps.
> 
> Keith
> 
> -- 
> Keith Lofstrom          [log in to unmask]         Voice (503)-520-1993
> KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
> Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs