Kernel update via up2date (was Re: Yet another IIS hole)

[Charles Steinkuehler]

Rob Becker wrote:
> Can a kernel update be done using Redhat's up2date tool?  I tried to use
> it earlier today and it seems as though the kernel package it listed did
> not have a complete version number.  Does anyone have thoughts or links
> that might help me figure this out?
> Any help greatly appreciated.

I use up2date all the time to upgrade kernels, execpt on my one RH box 
that needs a custom kernel to support all the recent hardware it's 
populated with.

Note that the default RedHat installs typically exclude the kernel from 
updates, so a simple "up2date -u" will not update your kernel, but 
should indicate that the kernel package(s) are being skipped.

To update your kernel, simply run "up2date -uf".  The -f "forces" the 
updating of all packages, even if they are flagged to be skipped by your 
config file.

One warning.  Earlier versions of up2date and the kernel RPMs did not 
always install cleanly without slight manual intervention. 
Specifically, when RH switched to grub as the default boot-loader, the 
lilo configuration was not getting properly updated when updating 
kernels via RPM/up2date.  A simple edit of lilo.conf and re-running lilo 
was enough to get the new kernel booting (if you did nothing, the system 
would still boot, just with the previous kernel version).  These 
problems have been fixed for quite a while now, so as long as your 
up2date is up-to-date, and you're installing recent kernel RPMs, you 
should have no problems.

A sample from my RH7.2 box:

[root at basic root]# up2date -l

Retrieving list of all available packages...
########################################
<snip>
Name                                    Version        Rel
----------------------------------------------------------
MAKEDEV                                 3.3            4
apache                                  1.3.27         1.7.2
<snip>
xinetd                                  2.3.7          4.7x

The following Packages were marked to be skipped by your configuration:

Name                                    Version        Rel  Reason
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kernel                                  2.4.18         27.7.xPkg 
name/pattern
kernel-source                           2.4.18         27.7.xPkg 
name/pattern

</sample>

Note the kernel up2date wants to install is 2.2.18 release 27.7.xPkg, 
which tranlates into kernel-2.4.18-27.7.x.i686.rpm, if you're worried 
about "complete version numbers".

-- 
Charles Steinkuehler
charles at steinkuehler.net