Re: Upgrading Kernels...
On Thursday 04 December 2003 18:48, Eric D Nielsen wrote:
> I'm a little confused as to how/when I should upgrade my kernel. I'm not
> subscribed to this list a present, so please include me in the cc.
OK. I'm a rather new user myself, but to ease the workload on the security
team, who allready have their hands ful, I'll attempt an answer, but I
basically just reiterate what I've heard here... :-)
> I'm using the 2.4.18.bf2.4 kernel. I saw that new headers for it were
> added to the security server recently, but don't know what else is
> needed. Does the machine need to be reboot'ed, after the apt-get upgrade?
Yep.
If you check the recent archives of this list (they are up now, right? I'm on
a GPRS link, so I'm not going over to check), you'll see that you're not
supposed to be running the bf2.4 kernel, you were supposed to go for a
CPU-specific kernel shortly after installation.
I must admit that I never saw anything about going for a CPU-specific kernel
from the stuff I read when installing... But when I first did it, a friend of
mine was telling me "come on, you want your own kernel, own kernels are cool,
go for it". So I did... To the rest of the folks here: Do the installation
guide (or the installer dialog) tell you to change the kernel?
> I saw that kernel images were provided for some of the other Linux kernels,
> but not for the bf2.4 variant. Does this mean that the bf2.4 variant is
> already safe/patched as is, or that the packager/maintainer hasn't gotten
> to it yet?
AFA I've understood, the idea is that you shouldn't have the bf2.4 variant
shortly after installation. I might be wrong, but I got the impression they
were not going to be patched.
> I'm a little wary of moving off the bf2.4, it seems to be the only one that
> likes my network configuration. Several of the machines I need to
> administer are hard to get local access to, so if the network goes, I'm out
> of luck.
Yeah, I know how that feels... I've got difficulties physically getting to my
main server too. It's a box I had donated, it runs excellently when it is up,
but I often have to boot it several times to get it running. Upgrading a
kernel implies a reboot (I think), so that's really scary.
However, I think you have no option but to plunge into it...
It was mentioned here a couple of days ago that there are certain differences
between the bf2.4 kernel and the CPU-specific kernels in that in the latter
some things are compiled as modules, rather than into the kernel. ne2k
ethernet cards were mentioned specifically. So, there you may have a hint
about why you haven't any of the other kernels working with your network.
Loading the modules might fix the problem. I'm certainly not qualified to
help you further here, but it is a track you can pursue. Start with once you
get physical access to first, of course... :-)
Best,
Kjetil
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