Topic: Contrib Feedback: Kernel Upgrades

[wellsi]

Kernel Upgrades

This guide shows how to upgrade the kernel to a newer version, with examples from The Fedora Legacy Project and ATrpms.

Author(s): Ian Wells
Contributor(s): Based on a post by  Charlie Brady
License: GNU Free Documentation License

How To Link: http://no.longer.valid/phpwiki/index.php/Kernel%20Upgrades
Topic Page: Kernel

This thread is for feedback specificaly related to this How To & Contrib.
Reports of success are welcome, as well as any problems and suggested improvements.

[matics]

I would love to try this as my lm sensors is woefully broken due to some of the older modules from the old kernel, namely it87.  However, I really don't want to lose PPTP VPN capability as I often connect to my home network via my Windows laptop using PPTP.  Is there any hope of seeing updated ppp-modules for the newer kernel builds?

[wellsi]

Michel Van hees' custom kernel supports PPTP, there is a seperate How To for this:

http://no.longer.valid/phpwiki/index.php/Howto%20Kernel%20upgrade%20%28English%29

It also has support for lm_sensors.


For the Fedora Legacy & ATRpms I cannot verify if PPTP works or is broken.

[jasperminute]

Suggest you check out the following link for supported kernels and pptp. I would use rpm -ivh when installing the kernel and create a separate lilo entry then you can test and switch kernels as needed. If it works set new kernel as default in lilo


http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-redhat-73.phtml

hope above is useful

[smeghead]

I have used Michael van Hees kernels on several systems with no probs to speak of, tho, I can't actually remember if I have specifically tested the PPTP VPN on these boxes.

Kernels are stable

[wellsi]

Suggest you check out the following link for supported kernels and pptp.
http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-redhat-73.phtml
hope above is useful

It looks useful, I see that the latest Fedora Legacy kernel is listed: 2.4.20-30.7.legacy

[root@test]# rpm -ql -p kernel-mppe-2.4.20-30.7.legacy.i686.rpm
/lib/modules/2.4.20-30.7.legacy/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_generic_mppe.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20-30.7.legacy/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_mppe.o
[root@test]# rpm -ql ppp-modules
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7-e-smith/kernel/drivers/net/bsd_comp.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7-e-smith/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_generic.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7-e-smith/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_mppe.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7smp-e-smith/kernel/drivers/net/bsd_comp.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7smp-e-smith/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_generic.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7smp-e-smith/kernel/drivers/net/ppp_mppe.o

so it would appear that this provides what is needed at least for i686 uniprocesser systems.
From the page it seems that all that is needed is:

# rpm -ivh kernel-mppe-*.rpm
# depmod -a

but I cannot test it.

Has anybody upgraded to this (2.4.20-30.7.legacy) kernel, and has PPTP VPN working?
I would like to add this info if someone can verify that it works.

[RonM]

I did the kernel upgrade on my home system. As it is a p200 UP, and I used the AT rpms, there was no SMP rpm for i386, and I got an error running /sbin/lilo -v

I got around it by commenting out the smp lines (that I had previously edited)in /etc/lilo.conf:

#image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-35_39.rh7.3.atsmp
#       label=SMEServer-smp
#       initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-35_39.rh7.3.atsmp.img
#       read-only
#       root=/dev/hda3

This appears to work. Does anyone know if this is the best method, or should we run the AT i5 or i686 SMP rpms instead?

[RonM]

Now that I've had a chance to think about it, I realize the easiest method of all is just to _not_ install the kernel upgrade you're not going to use, and _not_ edit that portion of lilo.conf.

Doh!

I reinstalled SME6 and did it that way - works fine.