topic Kernel Upgrade in Operating System - Linux

Kernel Upgrade

Dan Beeler_2 — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 15:52:50 GMT

I need a step by step guideline for upgrading a kernel. I know there are several on line, but I was hoping for someone to provide a proven checklist/guide line with all of the notes about what happenend along the way.

The reason I'm considering upgrading the kernel is to get the bonding to work on my servers. I don't loaded the lastest bonding driver from HP/Compaq but it fails indicating that it is not supported. I was told that I need to be on a later release of the kernel.

My situation:

I have a fiber card (GigE) that I need to bond to a copper broadcom card. I finally got the broadcom card to work properly, but the bonding is failing. Any information that you can provide on making this work at the release of the kernel or step by step instructions on upgrading the kernel would be greatly appreciated.

Operating System: RedHat Linux 7.2
Kernel: 2.4.7-10smp #1 SMP
Hardware: Proliant DL380 G3 (2.8 GHz)

NIC Information:
Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version 5.0.43a
Copyright (c) 1999-2003 Intel Corporation.
eth0: HP Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter
e1000: eth0 NIC Link is Up 1000 Mbps Full Duplex

Current version of the driver for the fiber card.
rpm -q e1000
e1000-5.0.43a-1

Thanks,

Dan Beeler
dan.beeler@dhl.com

Re: Kernel Upgrade

Paddy_1 — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 17:14:49 GMT

1. Go to /usr/src/linux
2.View the README
3.Run "make menuconfig" or "make xconfig"
Choose your options wisely.
You are all set to compile the kernel
# make dep && make clean && make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install

In case of an error you'll know.If succesful you can install the new kernel as

# cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz.new

You would also need to make changes to /etc/lilo.conf or /etc/grub.conf depenging on your bootloader.Reboot and Pray.

Hope this helps
Paddy

Re: Kernel Upgrade

Balaji N — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 18:00:20 GMT

$ cat 087.lost
:
####[ GNU/Linux One Stanza Tip (LOST) ]#######################

Sub : Steps for kernel compilation LOST #087

1. #cd /usr/src/linux 2. #make mrproper 3. #make menuconfig
4. #make dep 5. #make clean 6. #make modules
7. #make install 8. #make modules_install
Change /etc/lilo.conf and than run lilo -v
For detailed explaination refer to Kernel-HOWTO.

####[rfowkar (at) yahoo.com]##################################
:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/custom-guide/ch-kernel.html

-balaji

Re: Kernel Upgrade

Tom Ward_1 — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 14:32:07 GMT

Dan,

Go to updates.redhat.com and get the current kernel 2.4.20-19.7. RedHat is dropping support on 7.2 on Dec. 31, 2003, so you may want to keep a backup copy. Get the source rpm as well. As an alternate you can get the current source, 2.4.21, from http://kernel.org/

From there you can follow Patty's advice.

Once you have a new kernel in place I would encourage you to make a recovery disk if you've got a floppy drive.
mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.4.20-19.7

That may come in real handy some time.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out, and please assign some points if the answers helped you.

Tom

Re: Kernel Upgrade

Manuel Wolfshant — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 14:58:29 GMT

step 1: go to updates.redhat.com and get the current kernel suitable to your processor (athlon/i686/i386). for instance kernel-smp-2.4.20-19.7.i686.rpm if you have a dual processor Intel 686 based computer
step 2: rpm -ivh downloaded_kernel-2.4.20-19.7smp.XXX.rpm
step 3: only if you use lilo:
a) edit /etc/lilo.conf : copy the existing lines which boot kernel 2.4.7, and replace vmlinuz-2.4.7-10smp with vmlinuz-2.4.20-19.7smp. do the same for initrd. replace the label "linux" with something else "linux-new" for instance
b) run lilo
If you use grub, the kernel install script will do all required modifications

step 4: reboot the machine, but make sure you select the new kernel from the boot manager.
If the machine boots OK, you might wish to make the new kernel the default one, replacing the old one. If not, reboot, using the old kernel and take the required steps to correct.

As a side note: the kernel upgrade process using packages is described here: http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/howto/kernel-upgrade/