Second Try: Kernel update not recognized

[sancho]

Michael, All,

Thanks for your patience and letting me ramble! I really want to 
understand this, but guess I'm incapable of instant "true 
enlightenment"... I pose two questions at the bottom of the note that 
may help me with an answer. read them first before wasting too much time 
on the stuff in between.

Below I've tried to take parts of your answer/suggestions and report 
back what I've done/seen so far:

Michael Schwendt wrote:
 > Well, that's a surprise. "rpm --query grub ; rpm -V grub" gives what?
 > If it's missing, you would need to re-install it before you would
 > be able to construct /boot/grub/grub.conf.
 >
Well, grub is installed. It seems that if there is a grub.conf, it is on 
the boot partition and I can't seem to get to/see it any way that I 
thought I knew of. What is "proper way"?

Michael Schwendt wrote:
 > "rpm --query --all 'kernel*'" to list all packages, which start
 > with "kernel" in the name. Then "rpm --erase kernel-PUTVERSIONHERE"
 > to erase old kernel packages.
 >
rpm --query --all 'kernel* showed all the kernel files up through the 
latest version. All installed kernels were reported in *boot partition* 
up to kernel-2.4.21-27.EL. The 2.4.21-27.0.1.EL/.0.3.EL/.0.4.EL kernels 
are in the */boot directory* in the user partition. All versions in the 
boot partition except 21-27.EL are now deleted using rpm. The boot up 
grub splash menu still shows all the deleted ones but will only boot up 
  2.4.21-27.EL without error. The splash menu does not show any of the 
three more recent ones that I can see are in the /boot directory.

Michael Schwendt wrote:
 > Well, that's a surprise. "rpm --query grub ; rpm -V grub" gives what?
 > If it's missing, you would need to re-install it before you would
 > be able to construct /boot/grub/grub.conf.
 >
rpm won't seem to let me install/refresh the latest kernel to the boot 
partition... so I'll need to see if I can create a /boot/grub/grub.conf 
file that will work without cratering my server (I can't afford to go 
without right now!)

Should I try using rpm to delete the three most recent kernels, then 
reinstall the latest to see if it goes to the boot partition and shows 
up in the grub splash menu? If I can't see/get to /boot/grub/grub.conf, 
how else might I delete the listings for the old kernels that I deleted 
using rpm?

Sanch