How to install upgraded/fixed kernel?
 

I got an email from security@debian.org about a new kernel which fixes a vulnerability. apt-get update; apt get upgrade says I don't have any packages to upgrade. I can't tell which sub-version of the kernel I'm running, nor how to upgrade it to the fixed version that just came out. How do I do this? Thanks.

uname -r will tell you which kernel you are running.

Thanks for your answer.

uname -r tells me I'm running 2.4.18-bf2.4 .

The email says:

For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in
kernel-source version 2.4.18-14.1 and kernel-images versions
2.4.18-12.1 and 2.4.18-5woody6 (bf) for the i386 architecture.

So, how do I know if I have the -12.1 or the -5woody6 version or some other one? Also, how do I get apt-get to upgrade it?

Thanks again.

You have neither and you told yourself that with uname -r. You can do an apt-get install kernel-image-2.4-18-YOURARCHITECTURE. apt-cache search kernel-image and install the appropriate one.

The -12.1 and -5woody6 ones aren't listed by apt-cache. Does this mean they're not available yet (even though the email from Debian said they are)? Also, mine is listed as (bf variant), what does that mean? And will a patched bf version be available at some point? Thanks again.

bf stands for boot-floppies, which is what the Woody installer is called. It's a generic kernel with no machine-specific optimizations.

The kernel-source-2.4.18 was patched recently. If you do

apt-cache show kernel-image-2.4.18-bf2.4

You'll see that it has:

Version: 2.4.18-5woody6

Which is what you want, correct?

apt-get update again, and apt-get upgrade. Maybe the mail beat the deb to the servers. I dunno to be honest. But hopefully apt-cache show will help you in the future...