30.2. Preparing to Upgrade
Before upgrading the kernel,
take a few precautionary steps. The first step is to make sure a working
boot diskette exists for the system in case a problem occurs. If the boot
loader is not configured properly to boot the new kernel, the system
cannot be booted into Red Hat Linux without a working boot diskette.
To create the boot diskette, login as root at a shell prompt, and type
the following command:
/sbin/mkbootdisk `uname -r` |
 | Tip |
|---|
| | Refer to the man page for mkbootdisk for more options.
|
Reboot the machine with the boot diskette and verify that it works
before continuing.
Hopefully, the diskette will not be needed, but store it in a safe place
just in case.
To determine which kernel packages are installed, execute the following
command at a shell prompt:
The output contains some or all of the following packages, depending on
what type of installation was performed (the version numbers and
packages may differ):
kernel-2.4.20-2.47.1
kernel-debug-2.4.20-2.47.1
kernel-source-2.4.20-2.47.1
kernel-doc-2.4.20-2.47.1
kernel-pcmcia-cs-3.1.31-13
kernel-smp-2.4.20-2.47.1 |
From the output, determine which packages need to be download for the
kernel upgrade. For a single processor system, the only required package
is the kernel package.
If the computer has more than one processor, the
kernel-smp package that contains support for
multiple processors must be installed for the system to use more than
one processor. It is highly recommended that the
kernel package also be installed in case the
multi-processor kernel does not work properly for the system.
If the computer has more than four gigabytes of memory, the
kernel-bigmem package must be installed for the
system to use more than four gigabytes of memory. Again, it is highly
recommended that the kernel package is
installed for debugging purposes. The kernel-bigmem
package is only built for the i686 architecture.
If PCMCIA support is needed (such as on a laptop), the
kernel-pcmcia-cs package is necessary.
The kernel-source package is not needed unless a
recompile of the kernel is desired or the system is used for kernel
development.
The kernel-doc package contains kernel
development documentation and is not required. It is recommended if the
system is used for kernel development.
The kernel-util package includes utilities that can
be used to control the kernel or the system's hardware. It is not
required.
Red Hat builds kernels that are optimized for different x86 versions. The
options are athlon for AMD
Athlon™ and AMD Duron™ systems,
i686 for Intel® Pentium® II, Intel® Pentium® III, and Intel® Pentium® 4 systems, and
i586 for Intel® Pentium® and AMD K6™
systems. If the version of the x86 system is unknown, use the kernel
built for the i386 version; it is built for all
x86-based systems.
The x86 version of the RPM package is included in the file name. For
example, kernel-2.4.20-2.47.1.athlon.rpm is
optimized for AMD Athlon™ and AMD
Duron™ systems and
kernel-2.4.20-2.47.1.i686.rpm is optimized for
Intel® Pentium® II, Intel® Pentium® III, and Intel® Pentium® 4 systems. After determining
which packages are needed to upgrade the kernel, select the proper
architecture for the kernel,
kernel-smp, and kernel-bigmem
packages. Use the i386 versions of the
other packages.
