Sorry if this question has been asked before but a search on the board & google gave me no real info.

How can I get the kernal version?

THanks in advance,
lackluster

uname -r

Follow-up question : what's the newest kernal & where do I get it?

The LinuxQuestions homepage (follow link above -- top right) always shows latest versions

the raw kernels are at kernel.org

do not use development versions

basically never use an odd number like 2.5??

some distros are not very user kernel upgradable. as a general rule you should check the distros site for the major distros, as they add many patches to their kernels.

for instance, Slack is ok, but with RedHat your asking for trouble if you just punch in the newest kernel with no patches.


In your case having Slack you can just follow the kernel Howto and load up the newest kernel, no problem at all.


Mine is using 2.4.18


that's the latest stable for now

where kernelversion would show "2.4"

uname -r would show "2.4.9-31" or whatever you have

OK, here's a daft question...I'm ok with the whole 2.odd = development kernel, but what about the 3rd number? 2.4.18=stable, but is 2.4.19 a development kernel? Or is the ol' odd numbers thing only restricted to the 2nd number?

Well, for example, 2.4.18 is a stable kernel release, where as 2.5.13 weould be a developers kernel, i.e. an unstable kernel version.

SO, you just have to take a look at the second number, 2.0 is stable, 2.1 isn't, 2.2 is, 2.3 is not, 2.4 is..it's actually not that hard to understand, even from my messed up explanation :-)

The third number in the series, 2.4.x, is the incremental patch number. So, for 2.4.18 you have the 2.4 stable verison with the 18th patch. :-)

Ah, cheers. Got it now. I knew the whole x.odd.x = development, and now I understand how the 3rd number works too. Thanks guys.