re: how do I upgrade rh version 7.3 kernel 2.4.18
 

Hello All:

I'm a newbie who has more or less made do w/ my move to linux. Lo and behold I've found that I should upgrade my os/kernel. I'm using RH 7.3 w/ kernel 2.4.2.18-3

Question: (I'm not even sure this is the right quesion): how do I do that? Where do I go, and what do I do?
How will upgrading affect my box? I've downloaded alot of stuff and am worried none or most of what I now have won't work.

Please let me know-- this is like the sighting of a world-changing event on the horizon. I'm having palpitations here.

ergo_sum

heh-heh. Calm down. Breath deeply. It's easy.

How have you downloaded and installed all your "stuff"? Did you use rpms? If so you can use rpms to upgrade your kernel too.

Read up on rpm and up2date in the manpages and on RedHat's website. If you do a few searches of this site you'll find lots of help.

John

Thanks for the quick response.

I installed from the distro: i.e., the cds. I'll follow your advice re: checking on Red Hat's web site. I'm a little leery because they seem to be getting to where their going in an ms kind of way. All of a sudden-like. You know?

ergo_sum

Yeah, there's lots of different opinion about that. I've been looking at Slackware on my work computer - highly recommended once you've found your feet a bit in Linux.

So, (as I say, do some reading to understand what's going on here), the basic steps are...

1) get the kernel rpm from RedHat's ftp site, or your nearest mirror.
2) check it with "rpm --checksig *.rpm" or with "md5sum *.rpm"
3) install it with "rpm -ivh <kernel_name>.rpm"

If any of these steps give you error messages post 'em here - though it almost goes without saying that a little reading of the manpages will solve most issues, not to mention increase your own expertise.

John

Hi John,

Another newbie here!

I'm feeling the same sense of urgency regarding my RH7.3 box... although I follow your recommendations, there are a few issues for which I cannot connect the dots:

Obtaining the kernel and executing "rpm -ivh" seems easy enough.

1) Does this require a simultaneous connection to RedHat's download center (presuming dependancy checks)?

2) How would you advise just obtaining the necessary updated packages for local installations?

3) Why rpm over apt?

4) My installation CDs are an editor's version and primarily contain server packages. I fear the upgrading process you've described will apply only to the packages currently installed on my box, yet I may wish to load other packages later... any ideas?


Thanks in advance.

well just to take a step back and disregard your questions for the time being, i recommend doing it yourself....you can check out this and it'll show you how its done...

Hello DrOzz,

Hope the yuletide brings joy and good cheer to the maritimes.

Thanks for the links; they'll come in quite handy.

Please excuse my apparent lack of breath regarding the abundance of prior questions... my broadband access narrows like the eye-of-the-needle as we enter Finals' Week; the school closes its doors at 5PM on Friday. If I can secure a copy of the update package prior to that, then the rest remains academic. (My domestic workstations are connected by conventional modems; thus, incremental upgrades may be feasible, but all errata fixes and enhancements don't seem likely.)

Seaon's Greeting from the heartland!

Hi woodyboyd,

Sorry for the slow reply. Weekend and all that.

I've seen that thread of DrOzz's before and I think it's first rate. I've taken to pointing other posters here to it as well. I would also recommend learning how to do your own upgrades - you know what's going on that way, and you can customise the process to suit your system.

But if you don't want to jump into that straight away (it took me a while to take that plunge!) here are my answers to your questions...

1) No. 'up2date' requires a connection to RedHat's site but, if there are dependency issues, 'rpm -ivh' will just tell you about them and then quit without doing anything. You can read up about forcing it to install, but that's usually not a good idea, especially when it comes to your kernel.

2) Not sure if I understand you here. Ftp is what I usually use. To decide what you need, read up on the package descriptions. I like to upgrade every package I have on my system as soon as I hear about the update, but if you're using a standalone system it's generally not that urgent. Also, unless you already know this stuff pretty well, it's generally a cyclical thing, you try rpm it complains about needing another package, you get it, it complains about a package that the new one needs. Not an infinite cycle of course, but it could take you two or three round.

3) I've heard about apt but haven't checked it out yet. That's the only reason.

4) The same command 'rpm -ivh' is meant for new packages. In fact for upgrading you should use 'rpm -Uvh'. I said 'rpm -ivh' above for the kernel because this gives you two kernels (old one and new one) which is much safer becuase if the upgrade goes wrong and you used Uvh you could have a dead system on your hands. For everything else Uvh is generally fine.

John