yum removing old kernels?

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Wed, 29 Mar 2006, Danny Ciarniello wrote:

> When I do a yum update I get
>
> Installing:
> kernel                  x86_64     2.6.16-1.2080_FC5  updates            16 M
> ...
> Removing:
> kernel                  x86_64     2.6.15-1.2054_FC5  installed          81 M
>
> Since when does yum remove old kernels automatically?  Seems a bit dangerous 
> to me.  What if there's a problem and one needs a fallback?
>
> Dan.

See  /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/installonlyn.conf.

One old one is always left (tokeep=2).

But because only kernel RPMs are managed, yum updates to the kerenl won't 
work if you use external modules like nvidia or ntfs.  Yum will try to 
remove the old kernel and dependencies of the unremoved modules will force 
it to abort.  Keeping the proliferation of kernels under control isn't a 
bad idea, but it still needs some work.

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs