Apt/Rawhide update doesn't seem to update kernel. . .

[Jos Vos]

On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 11:31:27AM -0500, Justin Georgeson wrote:

> Apt is configured by default to allow multiple versions of the kernel, 
> so you just 'apt-get install kernel-x.y.z'. An upgrade or dist-upgrade 
> will never grab a kernel, I was told on #debian.

This is indeed the reason.  And here's recipe how to solve this:

First thought is to have an auxiliary package installed, say "mypkg",
that you update (i.e. generate a new version of it) in the apt
repository every time a kernel is upgraded, by adding

  Require: kernel = 2.4.20-18.9

in the new mypkg version in case a new 2.4.20-18.9 kernel is available. 

However, due to the fact that every RH kernel package has a

  Provides: kernel = %version

line, this means that *all releases* of that kernel version satisfy
this requirement, so the new "mypkg" will not trigger installing the
new kernel.  See earlier thread on this list and on the apt-rpm
lists, where Jeff Johnson explains why rpm and the kernel packages
behave/are like this, I won't/can't defend it myself ;-).

But Jeff also provided a nice workaround: add the line

  Requires: /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.9

to a new version of "mypkg" and this will indeed pull the new kernel
together with the upgrade of "mypkg".

Finally, if you want the new kernel to be the new default automatically,
you need to have a post-install script (e.g. an apt-rpm LUA script) to
do this (there are examples of such scripts available).

Hope this explains how to use apt-rpm with kernel upgrades a bit.

-- 
--    Jos Vos <jos at xos.nl>
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