[NBLUG/talk] Re Installing kernel RPM update

Dustin Mollo dustin at sonic.net
Sun Jan 11 15:46:01 PST 2004


On Sat, Jan 10, 2004 at 11:46:34PM -0800, HarryH wrote:
> Hi,
> Back on December 25, I did a "up2date -u" from the Red Hat Network for a kernel update to my 7.2 machine.  The up2date process did not go to total completion, that is it could not run a "sh /sbin/grubby" as I had run out of "/"  directory space and it could not get to /sbin.  I can tell by looking at /boot that not all is completed.  That problem is now fixed.  I just tried to re-update the kernel with a "rpm -Uvh package name" (same package and version) and it complained that the existing kernel files conflict with the fresh rpm package.  I tried to use the -F option but that did absolutely nothing.  Do I need to use the "-i" option in order to force the rpm to overlay the unsuccessful prior install?  Or, should I use the "-e" to try and back it out first?  The best I can tell, the machine is running on the prior version of the kernel.

while redhat may suggest otherwise, i've always found it to be bad form to
either upgrade or freshen the kernel rpms - what happens if the upgrade
fails in such a way the old kernel no longer exists on the box and the new
kernel wasn't installed properly, so now you have no way to boot your box?

personally, i always do a rpm -ivh kernel-blahblah.rpm.  once you've booted
the new kernel and confirmed it works, you can safely rpm -e the old one (of
course, make sure that the removal leaves your new kernel still bootable so
far as the boot loader is concerned.)

it sounds like your old kernel still works, so try removing the new kernel
and installing it again.

-dustin



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