Upgrading The Kernel; Overview Of Kernel Packages - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 System Administration Manual

Upgrading the Kernel

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel is custom built by the Red Hat kernel team to ensure its integrity
and compatibility with supported hardware. Before Red Hat releases a kernel, it must first pass a
rigorous set of quality assurance tests.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernels are packaged in RPM format so that they are easy to upgrade and
verify. For example, when the
image is created; thus, it is not necessary to use the
initrd
different kernel. It also modifies the boot loader configuration file to include the new kernel.
Warning
Building a custom kernel is not supported by the Red Hat Installation Support Team.
For more information on building a custom kernel from the source code, refer to
Appendix A Building a Custom Kernel .

39.1. Overview of Kernel Packages

Red Hat Enterprise Linux contains the following kernel packages (some may not apply to your archi-
tecture):
— contains the kernel and the following key features:
•
kernel
Uniprocessor support for x86 and Athlon systems (can be run on a multi-processor system, but
•
only one processor is utilized)
Multi-processor support for all other architectures
•
For x86 systems, only the first 4 GB of RAM is used; use the
•
system with over 4 GB of RAM
• kernel-hugemem
package. The key configuration options are as follows:
Support for more than 4 GB of RAM (up to 64 GB for x86)
•
Note
kernel-hugemem
PAE (Physical Address Extension), or 3 level paging on x86 processors that support PAE
•
Support for multiple processors
•
4GB/4GB split — 4GB of virtual address space for kernel and almost 4GB for each user process
•
on x86 systems
— used during installation only.
• kernel-BOOT
RPM package distributed by Red Hat, Inc. is installed, an
kernel
— (only for i686 systems) In addition to the options enabled for the
is required for memory configurations higher than 16 GB.
Chapter 39.
command after installing a
mkinitrd
kernel-hugemem
package for x86
kernel