Uptime and Kernel Upgrade

DIGITAL39 · 12-10-2006, 04:44 AM

I am relatively new to running linux and I was under the impression that you needed reboot to change kernel. I looked at the Linux Counter website and the current top uptime is 1922 days on a 2.6.4 kernel. How is that possible? Was the update script altered or is there some way for the machine to actually upgrade the kernel without losing uptime?

Thanks,

Pete

phil.d.g · 12-10-2006, 06:19 AM

As far as I'm aware you have to reboot the system to load the new kernel, I suspect the system is reporting its kernel version or uptime incorrectly.

The machine update script is a perl script, it wouldn't be difficult to hack it to add a few thousand days onto the uptime count

huwnet · 12-10-2006, 06:22 AM

Apparently kexec allows you to load new kernels without a reboot.