Installation guide

206 Chapter 23. Upgrading the Kernel
/sbin/mkbootdisk kernelversion
Tip
Refer to the man page for mkbootdisk for more options.
Reboot your machine with the boot diskette and verify that it works before continuing.
Hopefully, you will not have to use the diskette, but you should store it in a safe place just
in case.
To determine which kernel packages you have installed, execute the following command at
a shell prompt:
rpm -qa | grep kernel
The output will contain some or all of the following packages, depending on what type of
installation you performed (your version numbers and packages may differ):
kernel-utils-2.4.18-0.12
kernel-2.4.18-0.12
kernel-source-2.4.18-0.12
kernel-doc-2.4.18-0.12
kernel-pcmcia-cs-3.1.27-12
kernel-smp-2.4.18-0.12
From the output, you can determine which packages you need to download for the kernel
upgrade. For a single processor system, the only required package is the kernel package.
If you have a computer with more than one processor, you need the kernel-smp package
that contains support for multiple processors. It is recommended that you also install the
kernel package in case the multi-processor kernel does not work properly for your system.
If you have a computer with more than four gigabytes of memory, you need the kernel-
bigmem package that contains support for up to 64 gigabyte of memory. Again, it is rec-
ommended that you also install the kernel package for debugging purposes. The kernel-
bigmem package is only built for the i686 architecture.
If you are upgrading the kernel on a laptop or are using PCMCIA, the kernel-pcmcia-cs
package is also required.
You do not need the kernel-source package unless you plan to recompile the kernel your-
self or plan to perform kernel development. The kernel-doc package contains kernel de-
velopment documentation and is not required. The kernel-util package includes utilities
that can be used to control the kernel or the system’s hardware and is not required.
Red Hat builds kernels that are optimized for different x86 versions. The options are athlon
for AMD Athlon™ and AMD Duron™ systems, i686 for Intel® Pentium® II, Intel® Pen-
tium® III, and Intel® Pentium® 4 systems, and i586 for Intel® Pentium® and AMD K6™
systems. If you do not know the version of your x86 system, use the kernel built for the i386
version; it is built for all x86-based systems.
The x86 version of the RPM package is included in the file name. For example, kernel-
2.4.18-0.12.athlon.rpm is optimized for AMD Athlon™ and AMD Duron™ systems and
kernel-2.4.18-0.12.i686.rpm is optimized for Intel® Pentium® II, Intel® Pentium® III,
and Intel® Pentium® 4 systems. When you have determined which packages you need
to upgrade your kernel, select the proper architecture for the kernel, kernel-smp, and
kernel-bigmem packages. Use the i386 versions of the other packages.