Hi,

I have a machine with an old kernel, this machine is not connected to the internet and I would like to upgrade the kernel so I can install docker on it later.

This is the output of uname -a:
Linux hostname.com 2.6.32-431.29.2.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Sun Jul 27 15:55:46 EDT 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I have another machine with Ubuntu 14.04 which I can use to download stuff and SCP to the first machine. Can you please let me know what is the best approach to upgrade the kernel?

Thanks in advance

What kernel do you want to install? If you just want a more recent CentOS 6 kernel, you can download and install the rpm. If you want a 3.x kernel, you can build it from source. Be sure to copy the existing config file and run 'make oldconfig' so you start from RedHat's config settings. I've never had a problem running 3.10.14 on top of CentOS 6.

Docker needs at least a 3.1 kernel. Make sure you read and understand the notes.

http://elrepo.org/tiki/kernel-ml

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Custom_Kernel

Here' a guide on building your own kernel.

I know in openSUSE a few years back I've gotten away with installing RPMs of kernels from different versions of openSUSE or even from Fedora. While it was probably a bad Middle School idea, it didn't seem to result in anything going majorly wrong.

Note that a distro is built so all of the components, including the kernel, play nicely. If you change a major component such as the kernel, be understand that things may act weird or break. I'd keep a backup of your current kernel installed.

After typing this I saw the other responses that just came up - sorry answering an already better answered question.

Taking the time to give a careful answer is not a fault.

Also good point that you can keep the old kernel when installing a new one so that you can always go back.

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Thanks all. Since I need to install Docker on that machine the kernel should at least be 3.10. I've asked the sysadmin to put this machine on the internet so I can install something. Can you please tell me where/how to get the latest rpm and install it?

There is a supported kernel-3.18.17-13.el6.x86_64 available in the Xen4CentOS repo. To set up for that repo, "yum install centos-release-xen" from the CentOS extras repo. You'll want to enable that repo and install just the kernel and related packages (kernel-firmware, kernel-doc, kernel-headers, kernel-devel), not the whole "xen" group. I've been using that 3.18 kernel for hardware reasons not related to virtualization, and have had no problems with it.

Thanks much for your answer. I found out that I have RHEL6 and any kernels > 3.10 would only come with RHEL 7. Is that true? That means we can get Docker installed on RHEL6.

Thanks

That 3.18 kernel was built for CentOS 6 because the virt-sig people needed it to support Xen 4.4. It's from the 3.x LTS branch at kernel.org and so continues to receive security updates and bug fixes. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.lin...alization/2959

I would expect it to install and run just fine on RHEL 6.

but if you install a non redhat kernel on a rhel os
your paid for support contract becomes null and void


contact redhat
or migrate to CentOS
or
try using a Frankensteined mix of OS's
it is not a good idea to mix rhel and cent BASE rpm's

1 members found this post helpful.

You're right, I would probably just go with something else like Ubuntu...Less trouble