Upgrading Red Hat kernel via RPM?

[Joshua Penix]

RedHat does not provide kernel RPM updates just because the kernel has been
updated by Linus.  It only provides them if there was a security/performance
issue that RedHat deemed critical.  For example, there are updated 2.4.3
Kernel RPMs available for RedHat 7.1 because of the ipchains(tables?)
vulnerability found in 2.4.2.

But you will not find official RedHat 2.4.9 update RPMs for 7.1.  You'll
have to roll your own.

Many people roll their own anyhow, because RedHat kernels are quite big.
The compile lots of stuff in, and compile almost all the modules...
obviously this is necessary due to the potential range of hardware that
RedHat need to support on install.  But once it's running on your machine,
you as the owner can better tune a kernel to your specific hardware.

--Josh

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dario Alcocer [mailto:alcocer at helixdigital.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 2:36 PM
> To: kplug-list at kernel-panic.org
> Subject: Upgrading Red Hat kernel via RPM?
> 
> 
> Do any of you have recommendations for/against upgrading a kernel via
> RPM?  I've got three boxes, running Red Hat 5.2, 6.1, and 7.1.  I'd
> like to upgrade them all the latest stable kernel, 2.4.9.
> 
> I assume that upgrading 7.1 is not an issue, since it's already using
> a 2.4.x kernel (2.4.2 to be specific.)  However, 6.1 used a 2.2.x
> kernel, and I believe the Red Hat 5.2 machine uses a 2.0.x kernel (I
> think it was 2.0.36, but I don't remember and the machine is not in
> front of of me.)
> 
> The other issue is updating RPM itself; I believe the older RPMs on
> 5.2 and 6.1 would need to be upgraded before trying to install a 2.4.9
> kernel.
> 
> Finally, I would guess that Red Hat may not even have RPMs for 2.4.9
> yet.  If that's the case, I guess I could roll my own RPMs, because if
> this works, I envision having to update many more machines in this
> manner.