Hi ppl, I am currently running Debian Linux and using kernel 2.6.22-3-686

My computer is a server, so it is always on, but some days ago I had to reboot and noticed that when I start my computer I have a list of kernels to choose the one which I want the system to boot with. I didn't install any linux-image / kernels, so it must have been the updating manager...

Now the question is (I am not very familiar with Kernel related issues, etc...)

- can I normally boot from the latest kernel I have on the list and remove the other later linux-images I have?

- What will happen to all the programs / software I have, packages installed and configuration system files I've changed? Do I have to backup everything?

- Do I have to compile the new kernel again? (yes, of course I do .... but, is it like formatting the computer or I will not loose anuything? That's why I am afraid, I want to update my kernel but don't know what might happen or what may be th consequences.)

I will hope for your answers, and sorry if my questions are stupid, but I'm a kernel-newbie user.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Fill

As long as the latest kernel works & all the drivers on your machine work with the new kernel, you can set it as default & boot from it normally. I wouldn't remove any old images unless you have TONS of them or are running out of space on /boot.

Nothing will be affected (effected?) other than 3rd party, kernel level drivers that you may have installed yourself (outside of the package manager for your distro).... Things like RAID drivers and/or graphics(nvidia) drivers will break if they were compiled from source. They will simply need to be recompiled to get them working again.

There's no reason to compile the new kernel. It's given to you in binary format, ready to run. Of course, if you previously compiled your kernel, you'll need to compile new ones, but if you compield your own kernel, you wouldn't want to use the ones you get through the update manager as they won't have the same config as your home-brewed kernel. That said, unless there's a GOOD reason to compile your own kernel, don't.

Yes. Use the Debian package manager, synaptic, to remove the old kernels.

Nothing will happen to the rest of your configuration except possibly /boot/grub/menu.lst. I think that Debian changes menu.lst when it deletes kernels. If it doesn't then you will have to edit menu.lst.

You should have backup at all times anyway.

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Steve Stites

Let me try to set the stage here...

"The kernel" is what IBM sometimes referred to as the system control program (SCP). And I think that's actually a pretty good moniker, because "controlling the system [hardware...]" is actually what the kernel "does."

If you can see it or touch it, the kernel controls it. But "hardware device-control" is very-nearly all that the kernel actually does. Nearly everything that you think of as "Linux" is built on top of the kernel: it runs in the execution-environment which the kernel creates.

All distributions provide several versions of "the kernel." There's one for single-processor systems, and another for multi-processor systems, for example. There's one for systems which have "huge" amounts of memory. And what you do is to pick the one that seems to be most-appropriate.

If you are using a regular, package-based distro, you should always maintain your kernel-configuration, along with everything else, by using packages. Your system might install several versions of "the kernel package," in order to give you a choice of which version you want to start. However, when you want to "clean house" you should do so by removing the package. Package-managers do not like surprises. Do not do things "behind their back."

I see, thanks for all your answers, so it means there is no danger at all... Anyway I do have backups with rsync to my external hard drive.

So, I will probably loose my printer (which was installed using CUPS + foo2zjs. Foo2zjs' package didn't work with mine so I had to download it and compile it myself. Anyway that's not difficult).

Thanks for all, today or tomorrow I'll be updating :P

See ya