Kernel Upgrades - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 5.1 - LINUX ORACLE Tuning Manual

Chapter 3.

Kernel Upgrades

Make sure to install the latest kernel where all proprietary drivers, if applicable, are certified and
supported. Note that proprietary drivers are often installed under /lib/modules/<kernel-
version>/kernel/drivers/addon. For example, the EMC PowerPath drivers can be found in
the following directory when running the 2.4.21-32.0.1.ELhugemem kernel:
$ ls -al /lib/modules/2.4.21-32.0.1.ELhugemem/kernel/drivers/addon/emcpower
total 732
drwxr-xr-x 2 root
drwxr-xr-x 19 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
-rw-r--r-- 1 root
$
Therefore, when you upgrade the kernel you must ensure that all proprietary modules can be found
in the right directory so that the kernel can load them. To check which kernels are installed, run the
following command:
$ rpm -qa | grep kernel
To check which kernel is currently running, execute the following command:
$ uname -r
For example, to install the 2.4.21-32.0.1.ELhugemem kernel, download the kernel-hugemem RPM and
execute the following command:
# rpm -ivh kernel-hugemem-2.4.21-32.0.1.EL.i686.rpm
Note
Never upgrade the kernel using the RPM option '-U'. The previous kernel should always
be available if the newer kernel does not boot or work properly.
To make sure the right kernel is booted, check the /etc/grub.conf file if you use GRUB and
change the "default" attribute if necessary. Here is an example:
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.4.21-32.0.1.ELhugemem)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-32.0.1.ELhugemem ro root=/dev/sda2
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-32.0.1.ELhugemem.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.4.21-32.0.1.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-32.0.1.ELsmp ro root=/dev/sda2
root 4096 Aug 20 13:50 .
root 4096 Aug 20 13:50 ..
root 14179 Aug 20 13:50 emcphr.o
root 2033 Aug 20 13:50 emcpioc.o
root 91909 Aug 20 13:50 emcpmpaa.o
root 131283 Aug 20 13:50 emcpmpap.o
root 113922 Aug 20 13:50 emcpmpc.o
root 75380 Aug 20 13:50 emcpmp.o
root 263243 Aug 20 13:50 emcp.o
root 8294 Aug 20 13:50 emcpsf.o
7