hi,

I'm new to Cent OS (and linux too)..

when i run the command

rpm -qv kernel

why does it display 2 entries....

kernel-2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64
kernel-2.6.32-358.14.1.el6.x86_64

also at boot time i get 2 entries which look similar to above....
does this mean 2 kernels are installed.
are both needed or can i remove the older among the two.

You have two kernels installed. This is Good Thing if a new kernel were to introduce problems. They cause no harm (except maybe filling up /boot), but you can remove any kernel you're not currently booted in to if you want to.

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You can also limit the number of kernels installed on your machine by adding the following line under the [main] section in /etc/yum.conf
this will tell to the package manager to preserve only the last kernel previously installed, other than the newest one. As AlucardZero already pointed out, preserving at least one working kernel is a good idea: if the newly installed kernel has problems with your specific hardware and it doesn't boot for some reasons, you can always boot the old kernel and act accordingly (remove the problematic kernel) in order to return to a stable configuration.

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I do believe that the centos 6 default is to have 3 kernels
two in back up

though fedora i think went to 5

3 is a good value , leave it there

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hey, thanks for the quick reply