Topic: kernel

[Patrick Kessen]

Hi all,

I'd like to upgrade the kernel+modules to 2.2.12, can this be done without risc of losing a working confugiration and if so, what has to be compiled in the kernel?
Can/will you publish a config file of the default e-smith kernel?

Patrick

[Kim Morrison]

Dear Patrick,

We actually just use the stock kernels from the Red Hat FTP site...  

Kim

[Patrick Kessen]

Hi Kim,

you mean source RPMs or ready to use update RPMs?

Patrick

[arthur]

Well, you could also jsut get the kernel from the various kernel mirrors around. They are always the fastest. However, a bit of Linux/Unix experience would be great.

Here are some hints to help you getting started. If you like more details, please follow up this thread.

1) Get the latest kernel from a mirror near you. The files are called something like "linux-2.2.12.tar.gz"
2) It might be a good idea to keep a few sources as backup. Normally, the sources are installed in a directory called after the version number and then linked to the "linux" directory. I always do it like this:
- cd /usr/src
- rm linux (this only removes the link!)
- tar -zvfx /tmp/linux-2.2.12.tar.gz
- mv linux linux-2.2.12
- ln -s linux-2.2.12 linux
3) Change to the linux directory and run "make menuconfig" or "make config"
4) Answer all these questions (you might want to copy the ".config" file from the old linux kernel source dir to the new dir to speed up things.
5) Build your kernel (also see README):
- make dep
- make clean
- make modules
- make modules_install
- make zImage
(or, for the lazy ones: make dep clean modules modules_install zImage)
6) Copy your new kernel from /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12. Also copy the System.map
7) Update your /etc/lilo.conf to include the new kernel (you might want to keep an old kernel at hand in case something goes wrong). Don't forget to run lilo!
Cross your fingers and reboot your machine.

If there are any questions left, please read /usr/src/linux/README for some hints. Also, during the config process, there is a lot of help available. If there are more questions left, I'll try to answer them.

Good luck!

bibi,
arthur

[arthur]

Thinking about this another time, it might actually be quite easy for the people at e-smith to just create a file, which everyone could download and install him/herself.

The file would contain updates for the "/boot" directory and "/etc/lilo.conf". Updates for "/lib/modules" and maybe for "/usr/src". When untarring such a file to the system and running lilo everything should be set. I guess that with a little bit of scripting this could be done.

The reason why it might be that easy is that all systems are running the same kernel complete with tons of modules to keep it flexible.

So, e-smith people, what about it?

bibi,
arthur

[Joseph Morrison]

Hi Arthur,

Thanks for your comments! Currently our policy is not to use kernels until they've been tested for a few months. Since we plan to put out new e-smith releases fairly often, we don't expect customers to upgrade their kernels often. Rather, they will usually upgrade their entire e-smith system (using backup / install / restore).

So we don't plan to devote resources to simplifying the kernel upgrade process; we'd rather stay focused on getting new e-smith versions out the door as often as possible.

That also helps us provide support efficiently - whenever a customer is using a given e-smith version we know everything about their configuration (including the kernel version) and can diagnose problems quickly.

That being said, we don't want to discourage kernel updates either - the standard kernel upgrade procedures will always work on our servers. Thanks for posting the upgrade procedure by the way!

Best regards,
- Joe

[arthur]

Hi Joe,

Can you maybe  put the config file from the kernel included in release 3.0 on the ftp-site? I could then make a kernel & modules which I could install. It would even be possible for other users to use that!

bibi,
arthur

[Patrick Kessen]

Exactly,

Thanks Arthur but I know how to build a kernel I just don't knwo the exact config of the 2.2.5 kernel shipped with e-smith and sine I'm a lazy guy I'd like to know which options I need and whch not. I don't like to find out by trial and error;)

the .config file would be a very god idea but I guess the e-smith people aren't very comfortable with people trying things at their own risk, I guess that's why "nothing"
is configurable in e-smith? Well, you've guessed right, e-smith is very configurable. So why aren't we allowed to know the kernel options?

kernel 2.2.5 is not the most secure version around.

Patrick

[Joseph Morrison]

Hi folks,

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to this thread. Since we don't build the kernel ourselves, we don't have the config information readily available. (We used to build our own kernels, but the stock kernels from Red Hat have gotten pretty good so we use them now.)

Our kernel is the 2.2.5-22 kernel that you can get from any Red Hat mirror site that carries updates. If you download kernel-source-2.2.5-22.i386.rpm there should be enough information in there to recreate the kernel shipped with e-smith.

- Joe