Upgrading the Linux kernel

This used to be rocket science, now with yum and grub it can actually happen transparently. That is, if you don't have any kernel modules that need rebuilding.

yum update

Will do the trick (then reboot) in the simple case.

Video driver

I use an Nvidia network card, and I use the Nvidia driver so I can get good dual-head support. This means that every time I install a new kernel I need to rebuild the Nvidia driver. After a kernel upgrade, the system will thrash around trying to start the X-server, then give up and let me do what I need to do. It turns out, there is a very nice and smooth fix for all this. I put the nvidia driver file ( Something like ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run in /root and make /root/NVIDIA.run a link to it (this way I can download more recent drivers, reset the link and not change the setup I am about to describe).

Then I add the following 3 lines to /etc/rc.local

if [ -f /root/NVIDIA.run ]; then
    /root/NVIDIA.run -s -n
fi

The -s -n switches do exactly what I want, namely tell the install to shut up, not ask questions and do what it should.
Since almost the only reason I ever reboot my system is when a kernel update comes along via yum, this has the net effect of making my life easier and me happier.

If this was my home system, this would add about a full minute of delay to the time required to bootup and would annoy me. In that case the thing to do would be to do what I always used to do: take this out of /etc/rc.local and run it by hand whenever a new kernel comes along. After the system gets done thrashing around trying to start the X server, log in as root and do the following:

./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run
telinit 3
telinit 5

VMware

VMware also uses a kernel driver and this will need to be rebuilt every time a new kernel is installed. The thing to do is this:

su
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

Taking all the defaults seems to work just fine, and when offered the choice, elect to keep the network setup. If I find there is some nice set of switches for this script like the nvidia driver install script, I just might add it to rc.local as well.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Adventures in Computing / tom@mmto.org