Re: Multiple installed kernel-image packages?
Hi Paul,
Paul Gear wrote:
> Thanks for the detailed response. Are you saying that once my system
> is installed (on 2.6.8, as it happens), it will never get an upgrade
> to 2.6.9 (once it is released) unless i explicitly install it? Does
> the fact that i asked for kernel-image-2.6-686 have any bearing on
> the situation? I thought this always pointed to the latest released
> 2.6 kernel image.
Ah, that was a complication that I wasn't sure whether or not to bring
up. Yes, kernel-image-2.6-686 is a metapackage [1] that always depends
on the latest kernel version, so if you have it installed, running an
"apt-get dist-upgrade" (not just "upgrade") will see to it that you have
the latest 2.6 kernel-image package installed. I believe (but haven't
verified) that if you use aptitude for upgrades instead of apt-get, your
old kernel images will then be uninstalled automatically, too.
[1] "metapackage" means an empty package whose only purpose is to depend
upon other package(s), making it easier to install them.
> I'm happy with removing the old ones myself. The only drama with the
> way you explain it is: how do i know when 2.6.9 is released except by
> checking for it manually every day/week/whatever?
Well, other than having it done automatically by having the
kernel-image-2.6-686 metapackage installed, you can for instance glance
at the list of "new packages" in the aptitude UI.
>> However there are often several Debian revisions of each kernel
>> version; so "apt-get upgrade" WILL upgrade you from Debian release
>> 2.6.8-6 to 2.6.8-7. Needless to say, you CANNOT install two Debian
>> releases of the same kernel version at the same time.
>
> Presumably these Debian revisions are only released to fix security
> problems or other major bugs?
For kernels in stable, that's right. For kernels in unstable and
testing, they may go through several iterations of adding new
out-of-tree drivers and other niceties in order to make them suitable
for release in the next version of stable. Right now the plan is to
release 2.6.8 with sarge, so a lot of effort is being concentrated on
that, with a bit less on 2.6.9 (for people who intend to keep running
sid). Presumably work on 2.6.9 will soon be moved to 2.6.10.
>> ... Running "grep-available -FProvides -sPackage kernel-image" will
>> give you a list of kernel packages known to APT on your architecture.
>> (The grep-available command is in the grep-dctrl package.)
>
> How is that different from what apt-cache search --names-only
> kernel-image shows me?
The latter shows every package with "kernel-image" in the name; the
former only shows packages that explicitly claim to provide a
kernel-image. There isn't much difference, except that your command
shows the "latest kernel image" metapackages and the one I posted
doesn't. As usual in Linux there's more than one way to skin a cat.
regards,
--
Kevin B. McCarty <kmccarty@princeton.edu> Physics Department
WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/ Princeton University
GPG public key ID: 4F83C751 Princeton, NJ 08544
Reply to: