[PLUG] Re: Kernel removal

[Rich Shepard]

On 6 Dec 2002, Dirk Ouellette wrote:

> Thanks Rich & Steve. What think you of these methods, particularly the
> synaptic one?

Dirk,

  I've know nothing of synaptic. No comment.
 
> #1; Let me start with a disclaimer - I've only done this one time and not
> on a RH installation.  That said, make sure that the symlink
> /usr/src/linux points to the source files of the kernel you intend to
> keep.  Then, rm the tree of the source(s) you wish to discard.  Also, rm
> the related files in /boot - which is probably the partition that is
> squawking about inadequate space.
 
  This is the basic idea. I _always_ keep the kernel.org Web page open as I
go through the process because I'm not doing it every day.
 
> #2; I'm also running Red Hat 8.0 and have upgraded the kernels.  I did
> install synaptic and apt-get.  I used synaptic to select the older kernels
> to remove, and it passed the remove request to apt-get, which passed it to
> rpm.  It edited the grub config file for me too.

  I run apt-get but I don't let it "upgrade" the kernel. That's too
important to not have under your direct control at all times.

  The other option, which I did all of one time, is to get the Red Hat
kernel rpms for the new kernel. This is the simplest upgrade path, but you
get what you have because you do not go through menuconfig and set
everything yourself.

  The key to the package upgrade is to _install_ the new kernel, not
_upgrade_ or _freshen_ the existing one. When you run 'rpm -ivh
kernel-*.rpm' you install the new kernel in parallel with the existing one.
Then you copy the boot image into /boot, modify grub/lilo and pick the one
to boot. As with the other methods, when you're comfortable that the new
kernel is working properly you can remove the old one.

  FWIW, my /boot partition is 25M and I've not run out of room as long as I
build a bzImage.

Rich