multiple kernels

[Scott Talbot]

On Mon, 2004-11-22 at 15:14 -0500, Matthew Miller wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 22, 2004 at 12:05:58PM -0800, Nina Pham wrote:
> > There are 2 kernels on my FD2 box, kernel-2.6.5-1.358 and
> > kernel-2.6.8-1.521. Existing of 2 kernels on the same system would do any
> > harm? How do I know which one is the one the system is really using so
> > that I can delete the other one? Thanks
> 
> Type `uname -r` to find the release number of the currently running kernel.
> (This number should match the version-release number of the kernel package,
> by not-quite-coincidence.) You can also look at /etc/grub.conf -- that's
> where the selection is actually made. Note that "default" starts counting
> from zero, so "default=0" means "select the first kernel option by default".
> 
> Of course, ff the new kernel was installed recently and you haven't rebooted
> since then, the running kernel and the default one may be different. (Could
> also happen if you manually selected the other one at boot time.)
> 
> Having multiple kernel packages installed won't really hurt anything, since
> the RPMs are carefully designed so that different versions don't conflict.
> However, once you've determined that a newly-installed update works fine,
> you can clear up space (and remove the chance of accidentally running the
> old one, which could be a problem in the case of a security update) by
> uninstalling all but the latest.
> 
	It should be stated that if you are on FC2 the most recent is NOT the
default and therefore you might be using the older kernel.  To find the
most recent kernel you can use the largest kernel release numbers (i.e
in your case the kernel-2.6.8 is newer than the kernel-2.6.5).  (it'll
also be the 1st listed in the grub.conf file :-)

	Unless you are really strapped for disk space leave at least 2 kernels
in your /boot. once you have several you could delete older ones by
opening a terminal and using:

rpm -e kernel-2.6.5.1.358 (for example)

this will delete the kernel, initrd.img, modules and adjust the
grub.conf file for you automatically.

	Scott