Hi

I have attempted to upgrade my kernel in Debian (wheezy), and can now see that in /lib/modules there are directories for the old and the new kernel.

But I am hesitant to delete the old kernel module directory. How do I 'point out' to my system which is the new kernel? It still tries to draw modules from the old kernel when I run certain network processes.

Thank you

The next time you boot up you will see the Grub menu at that point you can specify which kernel you wish to use. For the distros I'm familiar with the default kernel used is the most recent one.
At any point you can run the following command and it will tell you what kernel is in use at that moment.
jdk

Did you install the new kernel with apt?

In that case, when the system seems to work normal after a reboot with the new kernel, you can simply remove the old kernel with apt.

Simply do apt-get remove linux-image-<old version>

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately I am logging in through ssh, so I do not have the option to select kernel at start-up.

I rebooted and unfortunately the old kernel is still being selected at start-up. So I really need to spell it out to the system that I wish to select the new kernel modules.

Thank again

Are you saying that the system with two kernels installed cannot be rebooted by anyone? Once a new kernel is installed it will be used by the system the next time that system is rebooted. Normally you don't need "the option to select kernel at start-up". If you want the most recent kernel that will be the one selected the next time anyone reboots the system unless the older kernel is specifically selected by the one doing the rebooting.
jdk

Or if the old kernel is selected as the default in the grub config.

Thanks guys

The answer seems to be that when you rent a server on OpenVZ, or in my case here at least, the virtual machine was forced to inherit the kernel from the host. So all attempts to update failed. That's what I read somewhere, seems to make sense based on everything I've tried not being successful

I have 4 to 6 Linux versions on each of my machines, each with its own /lib/modules directory.
Linux 2.4 has it own partition, because that is more than a kernel difference. Multiple versions of Linux 2.6 occupy the same partition, with a subdirectory for each in /boot/.
The boot loader, such as LILO or GRUB must be informed of the choices.
They allow selecting which from a menu, and they have a default.

It sounds like the virtual machine does not include GRUB emulation.
However, virtual machines often will allow differing OS, even Linux and Windows.
So this is a question for your OpenVZ.

Even if you have root permissions on your machine, /lib/modules may be only an inactive copy.
It is hard to test that without adding a module file and watching for differences in the dmesg after reboot.

Running it as a virtual Linux under the Linux you have would work but would be inefficient.
You probably would have trouble installing the virtual Linux too.

I don't believe that the kernel on host would affect anything but modules built for the VM, but not for the guest Os