Paul Harris <PaulHarris at bigfoot.com> wrote: > > I can't believe I can't find the information for this, but... I run > Debian/Woody, and would like to upgrade the kernel (as part of learning > about Linux). I'm happy to stick with 2.2.x kernel at the moment. The > problem is I think there is a way to do this automagically via the gift > of apt-get, but I can't find how anywhere. I know I could compile my > own, but I'd rather do it the easy way for now. Kernel upgrades are still kind of hairy in Linux, especially if you're using a relatively dumb bootloader like LILO (I should really start using GRUB again...) What I usually do is `apt-cache search kernel-image'. That will print out a list of all of the kernels available through apt-get, and the architectures that are available for you. If you're on a Pentium system and want to get kernel 2.4.12, do `apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.12-586'. Transitioning between 2.2 and 2.4 is slightly hairy, as Debian uses initial RAM disks with 2.4 kernels. You'll have to modify your LILO (or other bootloader) configuration appropriately to handle it. On most systems I run Debian on, I have these entries in lilo.conf: image=/vmlinuz label=current initrd=/boot/initrd read-only image=/vmlinuz.old label=previous initrd=/boot/initrd.old read-only Debian kernel packages automatically create symlinks for the kernel (/vmlinuz and /vmlinuz.old) and the initrds (/boot/initrd and /boot/initrd.old) that point to whatever is current and the previous version. With the above configuration, I can just apt-get, run /sbin/lilo, and reboot when I'm going from 2.4.x to 2.4.y But, like I said, going from 2.2 to 2.4 is a little more complicated. To prevent the package installer from yelling at you, you must add a line to /etc/kernel-img.conf that looks like this: do_initrd = Yes The /vmlinuz and /vmlinuz.old symlinks should be created properly during the installation, but the initrd symlinks might not. Certainly, there won't be an initrd.old link, since the 2.2 kernels didn't use initial RAM disks, and there's nothing to create a link to. For the time being, you can just comment out the initrd.old line, until you make another upgrade in the 2.4 series. The other symlink problem might be that the /boot/initrd link didn't get created. Just go into /boot and make it if it doesn't exist. I've sometimes had that problem during initial upgrades to 2.4, but it's usually gotten worked out after that. I hope that is understandable to you. Oh yeah, another issue is that Debian likes to have a line in the config file (something like `default=Linux') that says which image will be loaded by default. This seems redundant and annoying to me, so if you use my labeling conventions, you'll either have to change the default to `current' or comment out that line. -- _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ ___ _ _ __ Most people feel that / \/ \(_)| ' // ._\ / - \(_)/ ./| ' /(__ everyone is entitled to \_||_/|_||_|_\\___/ \_-_/|_|\__\|_|_\ __) their opinion. [ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088 at tc.umn.edu ] -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 232 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://shadowknight.real-time.com/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20011115/b26c133a/attachment.pgp