Re: Kernel patching

[Hervey Allen <hervey at nsrc.org>]

I'll give one minor warning on RPM-based (and dpackage as well in theory)
upgrades of kernels...

If you have downloaded kernel source and done work on compiling modules,
creating specific config files, etc. in /usr/src/linux (usually a logical
link to /usr/src/linux-2.x.x where 'x.x' is your kernel version), then I
recommend backing up this directory structure somewhere before installing
a new kernel RPM.

Kernel RPMs may either overwrite what you have, or simply remove your
/usr/src/linux directory entirely - that happened to me once, and the RPM
kernel patch did not work, but my carefully created '.config' file
was now gone as the RPM author had decided removing /usr/src/linux made
sense (even though the RPM did not install new source!). This was an
"official" kernel RPM from my distro's web site.

In the end I could rebuild what I had because I had created a backup
bootable kernel to use with grub/lilo just in case the kernel RPM left me
with an unusable kernel. Thus, I could download source again, recreate my
kernel as I had it, and get everything working.

Luckily I was at home sick and had a spare day to recover from my install
;-)

Good luck.

Sincerely,
	- Hervey Allen

On Mon, 14 Apr 2003 10:20:18 +0300
Mark Tinka <mtinka at africaonline.co.ug> wrote:

> Well, typically your distro's website should have the update package, in
> both RPM and Source RPM format.
> 
> If you download the RPM, a simple "rpm -Fvh kernel-package-name.rpm" or
> "rpm -Uvh kernel-package-name.rpm" should do just fine. You can then
> rerun LILO to update your kernel configuration - /sbin/lilo
> 
> If you download the Source RPM, you can install it with the command:
> 
> rpm -ivh kernel-package-name.src.rpm
> 
> This installs the source files typically located in /usr/src/linux/. You
> can then use the normal kernel build commands to compile your kernel:
> 
> make menuconfig; make depend; make bzImage; make modules; make
> modules_install
> 
> I hope this helps.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mark Tinka - CCNA
> Network Engineer
> Africa Online Uganda
> 5th Floor, Commercial Plaza
> 7 Kampala Rd,
> Tel:   +256-41-258143
> Fax:   +256-41-258144
> E-mail: mtinka at africaonline.co.ug
> Web:     www.africaonline.co.ug
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-afnog at afnog.org [mailto:owner-afnog at afnog.org]On Behalf Of
> David Chima
> Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 4:54 PM
> To: afnog at afnog.org
> Subject: Kernel patching
> 
> 
> Hello Afnog,
> I use Redhat Linux 7.2. I have found some package vulnerabilities on the
> Redhat site
> https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/rh72-errata.html and one of these is the
> kernel. I need to
> update some of these packages that I use on my machine including the
> kernel. I tried
> to use up2date but I was told that up2date wasnt registerd. I am told I
> can use the
> source rpms and then compile the kernel. I would like to find out what
> should I do
> inorder to update the kernel and the other packages that have the
> vulnerabilities.
> I was advised not to update the rpms with (--nodeps).
> 
> What should I begin with?
> 
> Regards
> 
> David
> 
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