removing a kernel

[simone89]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and was wondering if it's safe to remove a linux kernel in order to get updates. I've never had to remove a kernel before. What are some of the reasons for removing a kernel?

I'm trying to run a software update and the message is to
remove The Linux Kernel

I can't get any updates without removing it first. I'm running Fedora release 14. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Hewjr100]

If you want to remove a kernel go in terminal login as root, ie su enter then password. at the root prompt type in "yum remove kernel" without the quotes. It should not remove loaded kernel and will let you know which one is being removed.

Henry

[stoat]

Originally Posted by simone89

I'm trying to run a software update and the message is to
remove The Linux Kernel

I can't get any updates without removing it first.

I hope you will return and explain the situation in more detail. I have never experienced what you described and would like to know more about it.

P.S.: Regarding removing a kernel, you can first list the installed kernels and then specify by version number the one you want to removed. That should work with either rpm or yum. It's what I do anyway. But for me, manually removing a kernel is a rare event.

[simone89]

I have automatic updates and one of the messages is to remove the kernel. It's not the main kernel that I use.

The message is:
>remove The Linux Kernel
>kernel-2.6.35.12-88.fc14 (i686)

Is it okay to remove it?

[stoat]

Okay thanks. I have never used automatic updates, so maybe that's why I have never heard of this. All of those package manager thingies in Fedora are front-ends for yum. By default, yum retains the two most recent old kernels (for a total of three counting the newest kernel). When the kernel has been updated enough times for you to have those three, subsequent kernel updates result in yum removing the oldest kernel to maintain the number of installed kernels at three (that number can be adjusted, BTW). That kernel version you mentioned is at least three or four versions old. All three of my installed kernels in Fedora 14 are newer than that one. So maybe that automatic update thingie is just confirming with you before it lets yum remove the oldest kernel. I use simply yum update once a week. Without the -y option, yum always stops to ask me if what it is about to do is okay, but it never makes a special effort regarding kernels. Maybe somebody else who uses automatic updates can confirm this or clear it up. Anyway, I would agree with that prompt and get on with the system update.

[marriedto51]

I'd agree with stoat, and let the update remove the old kernel.

To answer your other question, the only reasons I know of for removing a kernel are: (1) to conserve disk space (the usual reason); and (2) because it didn't work

[lensman3]

I had to remove a kernel the other day. My /boot is about 100 meg and there wasn't enough room to install the latest (fc15). I had to go in an remove the oldest kernel, on boot file system, and the compiled module listing from /boot. I also checked the /boot/grub/menu.conf to see if the oldest was removed after the boot.

I then did yum update and reboot to get the latest kernel running.

This is MY FAULT. I have partitioned my disk so that /boot was only about 100 meg. I think about FC 10 (or so) /boot had to be about 300 megs in size. I have partitioned by main disk to have /boot, /, /usr, opt, /home, /tmp, swap and a /u1 partition ( /u1 is for user 1). This allows me on upgrades to not have to reformat /home, /opt, and /u1. Each new release has the "programs part" formatted and starts fresh. This doesn't fix the problem of configuration files that are old and out of date and don't get updated on install. My partitions were chosen for backup purposes back when I used "backup and restore".