[Techtalk] kernel upgrades

[Rebecca J. Walter]

On Thu, 2001-10-11 at 09:23, wolf wrote:
> Having never done a kernel upgrade, I'm using red hat 7.1, I would be
> very grateful if someone would list
> the steps to doing so or perhaps offer up a link they followed to learn
> how to do this?

I just installed a new kernel yesterday for my laptop.  It is SuSE
though.
Most important thing: Do not change your default kernel or remove the
old kernel until you KNOW the new kernel works.
I currently have 3 kernels configured in my LILO:  the benh kernel I
actually use, the default SuSE kernel, and the new beta kernel I
installed yesterday to test.

Basically it is a matter of installing the new kernel (i unpacked a
tar.bz2 as directed), editting your boot mechanism (usually lilo) to
offer another kernel choice (are you using a graphical boot mechanism or
entering the name? i enter the name), and rebooting.  select the new
kernel when you reboot.  if it works great, change your default kernel
if desired.  if it doesn'rt work, reboot and use your old kernel again
and try again.

Probably one of the more tech-skilled people on the list can give you
better, more specific directions or a link to a nice howto, but I can
tell you that new kernels are nowhere near as scary as I thought they
were!  The first time Olaf told me I needed a new kernel on my iBook, I
almost ran away screaming.  But it really isn't that hard!  Now I'm
helping beta-test iBook2 kernels. :-)

bex