I have recently installed Redhat 8 and let the Redhat Netork Program update all the packages and stuff. That all seemed to go well. But When I let it update the Kernel the update did not take, it still boots the old kernel.

I keep getting this message in the Critial information section of the updater
Your system is currently running kernel-2.4.18-14, but the newest installed kernel is kernel-2.4.18-27.8.0. It is recommended that you reboot at the first opportunity to test this new kernel.

From what I can tell RHN never generated a initrd-2.4.18-27.8.0.img file or updated grub.conf file to use the new kernel.

Did it fail for some reason?? How do I find out what happened to finish the update?

Also, What is the overall opinion of RHN's auto updater? Does it normally work?

It is recommended that you download and install the kernel files seperatly from other updates. When you say the update did not take do you mean that it never installed the new kernel or it is just not showing up in GRUB?

Try running up2date again to see what it does. If everything is well then you probably already have the new kernel installed but you have to edit your grub.conf for some odd reason. Usually the update will do it for you.

Up2date reports the system is updated. The Alert notification tool reports in the Critical Information tab:
Your system is currently running kernel-2.4.18-14, but the newest installed kernel is kernel-2.4.18-27.8.0. It is recommended that you reboot at the first opportunity to test this new kernel.

Yea, I have booted many times, since. I am pretty sure the update process failed at creating the initrd-<version>.img file for the new kernel, failing the Kernel Update, as that required file does not exist, nor was Grub updated. According to the documentation RHN should update all the way thru grub, hence the reboot note to reboot to test the new kernel. There is a file at /boot/2 that contains the text: mkinitrd failed

In /boot there is a matching new kernel file, 2.4.18-27.8.0, for each old kernel file, 2.4.18-14, except initrd-2.4.27.8.0.img does not exist for the new kernal.

How would one go about retrying the update if the tool thinks its already done? Or would that be wise? Is the process documented someplace so I may find out were it failed and how to recoup it; start over or finish some steps?

I am no expert by any stretch, but there is no need to have an initrd file load in most cases. If one hasn't been created then don't put the line in grub.conf that points to it. I only have one kernel that calls for an initrd file and all the rest work fine.

I tried removing the inirtd line and pointing to the new kernel only with the vmlinuz line and the boot ended in a Kernel panic line saying it could not mount fs.

Not really sure what these lines in grub.conf really do.

Here is my current grub.conf

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15 ide2=0 ide3=0 ide4=0 ide5=0 ide6=0 ide7=0 ide8=0 ide9=0
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img
title Windows 2000
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive 1
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

Any Ideas?

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Upon further attempts I changed the lines in grub to(see below), removing the initrd line but replacing the LABEL in the vmlinuz line to the actual location of root is the disk tree, /dev/hda2

timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-27.8.0 ro root=/dev/hda2=/ hdd=ide-scsi ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15 ide2=0 ide3=0 ide4=0 ide5=0 ide6=0 ide7=0 ide8=0 ide9=0

And now the new kernel boots. Although the new kernel will no longer mount the NTFS volumes on my computer I suppose I will just have to reapply that update to the new one.

It works, woopie. Thanks again.

Thats what we are all here for.

I don't use NTFS so I can't answer that one for sure but I believe RH doesn't enable NTFS as default. You may have to load the module or reconfigure the kernel.

Yea you will have to get a new NTFS rpm in order to read the NTFS partition. Then all goes back the way it was.

First, you'll have to forgive my newness to the OS. I am entering my 25h hour using Linux. EVerything is going great except my via southbridge is not supported by my current kernel. I downloaded all of the updats via RHN like the first post here and also running grub. I type rpm -q kernel in a terminal and get both old and new kernel listed. I have read as much as I can find and cannot for the life of myself understand what is going on, again forgive me.

please help, If you can type the steps and commands I need to follow. Thanks,

TC