The kernel that comes with Red Hat Linux is custom built by the Red Hat kernel team
to ensure its integrity and compatibility with supported hardware. Before
Red Hat releases a kernel, it must pass a rigorous set of quality assurance
tests. The kernel RPM package now creates the initrd
image if needed. It is no longer necessary to use the
mkinitrd command after installing a different kernel if
you install the kernel from the Red Hat RPM package.
Official Red Hat Linux kernels are packaged in RPM format so that they are easy to
upgrade and verify. To upgrade to a newer version of a Red Hat Linux kernel, you
need to obtain the latest Red Hat Linux kernel in RPM format, install the new kernel
from the RPM packages, and configure the boot loader to boot the new kernel.
This chapter discusses the steps necessary to upgrade the kernel on an x86
system only.
 | Warning |
|---|
| | Building your own custom kernel is not supported by the Red Hat Linux
Installation Support Team. For more information on building a custom
kernel from the source code, refer to Appendix A.
|
Red Hat Linux now ships with the 2.4 kernel. Here
are the highlights of the 2.4 kernel as shipped with Red Hat Linux:
The directory for the kernel source is now
/usr/src/linux-2.4 instead of
/usr/src/linux.
Better SMP support.
Support for up to 64 gigabytes of physical RAM — the
enterprise kernel installed with Red Hat Linux 7.2 is compiled to
support 64 gigabytes of physical memory.
Better multimedia support including the maestro3 module for the
ESS Allegro sound card.
Better USB support.
Preliminary support for IEEE 1394, also referred to as
FireWireTM, devices.
