Hi,

I have a RH 7.3 box and i am trying to upgrade my kernel from 2.4.18 to 2.4.21, when i check the version installed as per instruction from RH using:

[root@localhost root]# rpm -q kernel kernel-headers kernel-ibcs kernel-pcmcia-cs kernel-source
kernel-2.4.18-3
package kernel-headers is not installed
package kernel-ibcs is not installed
kernel-pcmcia-cs-3.1.27-18
kernel-source-2.4.18-3

Instaead of this one according to RH

$ rpm -q kernel kernel-headers kernel-ibcs kernel-pcmcia-cs kernel-source

kernel-2.0.36-0.7
kernel-headers-2.0.36-0.7
kernel-ibcs-2.0.36-0.7
kernel-pcmcia-cs-2.0.36-0.7
kernel-source-2.0.36-0.7

what should i do with this?

Welcome to LQ

Where'd you get those instructions? The 2.0 kernel is QUITE old actually, pre linux 7.3 for sure.

To check your current kernel use the command:
uname -r

And to upgrade, simply grab the source you wanna upgrade to, and get started on installing it, as it really doesn't matter which kernel you are running (as it's surely a 2.4 series).

Cool

Moving to the RedHat forum

Cool

Just make sure and stay in the 2.4 line of kernels 2.6 needs new tools that you most likely wouldn't have installed

It does? I'm running the 2.6 test3 kernel on my RedHat 8.0 box, and I didn't have to do anything different to get the kernel to compile. I just hope I didn't miss something.

slight

read this , as i am sure it will help you alot

The tools issue is a common problem if you use modules. Here is a site that may provide you with some info:

http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html

This is also documented many other places. Gentoo fixes the problem auto-magically. Other distros, of course, vary.

In addition to DrOzz's suggestion, I recommend you look into applying Red Hat's errata packages for your version of Red Hat Linux. Instead of the original and ancient kernel-2.4.18-3, you would get 2.4.20-20.7 which includes many fixes and security relevant stuff. If there is no good reason why you would need a pristine 2.4.21 kernel from kernel.org, you should be happy with Red Hat's.

Go here: http://www.redhat.com/errata

You might also want to look into Red Hat Network or alternative ways on how to apply updates automatically.

Upgrade & recompile a kernel steps
download
extract
linux
deps
menuconfig
mdcbmm
system
bzImage
mkinitrd
grub

Where to get the kernel source, http://www.kernel.org. Select F (which stands for Full source)
Then uncompress and extract the kernel source into /usr/src on your system:
cd /usr/src
bzcat linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -
Check for dependencies for and install as needed:

kernel-source-*
glibc-kernelheaders-*
cpp-*
ncurses
ncurses-devel-*
binutils-*
gcc-*
rpm -qa | grep “kernel-source”
Then create a symbolic link where linux-2.4.2x was the old link and linux-2.4.2x will be the new.

rm linux-2.4
ln -s linux-2.4.21 linux-2.4



If this is the first time you're building a kernel, start with the kernel configuration template that your system was built with:

cd /boot
ls config*
config-2.4.20-8
cp config-2.4.20-8 /usr/src/linux-2.4/.config

Then you can customize your kernel configuration by typing:

cd /usr/src/linux-2.4
make menuconfig

After customizing the kernel, you can build it:
make dep clean bzImage modules modules_install

Copy the system map and make symbolic link.

cd /usr/src/linux-2.4
cp -p System.map /boot/Sytem.map-2.4.21
rm System.map
ln -s System.map-2.4.21 System.map
What to do after you build a kernel. Copy the resulting kernel to the /boot directory with any name you'd like for it:

cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/mynewkernel
Create your initrd image, where 2.4.21 is your /lib/2.4.21 directory:
mkinitrd /boot/mynewkernelimage.img 2.4.21

If your machine is configured to boot with lilo then edit /etc/lilo.conf, and add a reference to your new kernel. Look at other entries in /etc/lilo.conf to determine what disk shoud be used, etc. Here is a sample of what one might add to /etc/lilo.conf:
image=/boot/mynewkernel
label=mynewlabel
read-only
root=/dev/hda8
Then type: lilo
If your machine is configured to boot with grub then modify /boot/grub/menu.lst file. Here is an example for the /boot/grub/menu.lst file:
title Linux 2.4.20 with all my new configuration
root (hd0,0)
kernel /mynewkernel ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrdmnk.img

r00tnuke

I pretty much want to do the same thing with a debian box I've inherited, is this a generic guide or just specific to the RH questioner? Looks applaicable across distros for what's it's worth