Saving more than two kernels

[Kam Leo]

On 4/20/07, Kevin J. Cummings <cummings at kjchome.homeip.net> wrote:
> Kam Leo wrote:
>
> > After a quick exchange with the Red Hat QA/developer,
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=237203 ,  I
> > realized the default installation of the installonlyn plugin is the
> > problem.  RHEL installations need the plugin. Fedora Core users do
> > not. Why? Because the lifespan of a FC distro is short (approximately
> > 18 months). The number of kernel updates within that time is not
> > large. The majority of FC'ers will have upgraded to the next FC
> > release before their disk runs out of space from kernel installs. Just
> > disable or remove installonlyn. You are better off without it.
>
> This is not strictly true.  As the numbers of installed kernels grows on
> your system, it takes yum longer (and longer) to complete dependency
> transactions, especially those involving the kernel.  I once had 7
> kernels installed at the same time, and it took forever (it seemed) to
> install anything, or even to remove anything.  As I started to remove
> old kernels, things started to improve.  So, manage your kernels wisely.
>
> --
> Kevin J. Cummings

Strange? I have been using yum as a speedy alternative to up2date for
a long time. I have not noticed any lag in yum's performance as the
number of installed kernels increased. Should I have noticed this lag
on my old P3-133 which still has FC3 installed or is the lag just
buried in the noise with the repository delays? If there is a lag it
is not noticeable on my K6-2 450 MHz system with FC6.