Which kernel version?

[lowey23]

Question from a learner.

I live in a small country town in Australia and know no-one who knows anything about Linux.

I installed Hoary last August, upgraded to Breezy and have now (inadvisedly) upgraded to Dapper. My system works beautifully, and I have learnt an amazing amount about a wonderful new operating system, most of it with the help of the good people on these forums. However, there is still a huge amount of things I need to learn. Anyway, my question is this - tonight, while looking at my installed packages in Synaptic, I saw that I had 6 different kernels installed.

The first is linux-image-2.6.10.5.386, then 12.10.386, 12.9.386, 15.19.386, 15.20.386 and finally 15.21.386, which I am using now. These upgrades have all been obtained from apt-get upgrade's which I perform on a regular basis.

My question is, as I have an AMD processor, should I install the package marked linux-image-2.6.15.21.k7? If I should have that one, should I just do it through Synaptic? Or should I just leave well enough alone, as I should have done before upgrading to Dapper (not that there is anything wrong with Dapper, just my abilities with Linux). Is it safe (or advisable) to remove the kernels that I am not using? Finally, if I should have the k7 package, would I just install it and reboot or .......?

Thanks for your time and your patience

Cheers

Lowey

[Segovia]

Re: Which kernel version?

The only package you need to install is "linux-k7".  The newest version of that kernel, and the rest of the packages associated with it will be installed automatically.  You can do it with Synaptic, or in a terminal (sudo apt-get install linux-k7).  Either one will achieve the same result.

And yes, you must reboot after.  You'll see the new k7 kernel at the top of the list in grub.  You can remove all of the other kernels once you are sure everything is working properly. (In case there is some problem, you can always reboot and select an older kernel in grub as long as they haven't been removed yet.)  They aren't harming anything of course, just cluttering up grub and using a few MB of HDD space.

[lowey23]

Re: Which kernel version?

Thank you, Segovia, for your prompt reply,

I installed k7 and everything seems to be OK.

Not game to uninstall the other kernels just yet, though.

I don't have grub at startup. I seem to remember disabling some things some time ago so that it would just load. And it does. I might just remove the old kernels, one at a time, from Synaptic. Perhaps I will just leave one or two there just in case.

Thanks a lot for your help

Cheers

Lowey

[kubicle]

Re: Which kernel version?

Perhaps I will just leave one or two there just in case.

That's usually a good idea...having a backup kernel helps a lot if something goes wrong in updating your primary kernel for example

[Segovia]

Re: Which kernel version?

Thank you, Segovia, for your prompt reply,

You're welcome. 

[lowey23]

Re: Which kernel version?

Thanks, kubicle,

I think I will leave a couple of versions there...just in case.

Thanks for your reply

Cheers

Lowey