[wplug] Several questions

David J. Pryke david-wplug at pryke.us
Tue Jan 6 10:06:05 EST 2009


Jonathan Billings wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 06, 2009 at 08:01:05AM -0500, Weber, Lawrence A wrote:
>> 2.  I noticed that the kernel that is running (uname -r) is not the
>> highest numbered 9 kernel.  In fact it is not any of the kernels in
>> /usr/src
>>     2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 is listed as running
>>     2.6.25-14.fc9.i586 is in src as well as 2.6.27.9-73.fc9.i586
> 
> I'm not sure why this would be the case, perhaps the running kernel is
> detecting it's an i686 CPU, but the directory name reflects that the
> kernel source is for i586 and higher?  This is probably just a naming convention.

I've noticed on my machines with RedHat-derived distributions that it will 
utilize an i586 kernel for the install process, and then install and run an 
i686 kernel on first boot if your hardware supports it.  I discovered this 
when I needed to compile a custom kernel to support a RAID controller.  I 
needed to create both i586 and i686 versions to get the system installed.

>> 4.  Kernel numbering:  When is a dash used in the version number?
> 
> The dash usually means there is a release number.  Redhat/Fedora uses
> that number to keep track of their own releases of a particular kernel
> version that they're packaging.  So 1.2.3-1 is the first release,
> 1.2.3-2 is the second, etc.

Yes, the dash is RedHat's numbering in addition to the original kernel 
version.  Take note: RedHat backports bugfixes/security fixes from newer 
kernel versions to the released version for a given distribution number. 
So, while you may be using "kernel version 2.6.25", as long as you have been 
updating, you may have some security fixes from yesterday's kernel release 
at kernel.org (Just an example.) (This answer may be relevant to the 
original question above, as well.)

> 
>> 7. Is this list of question a sign that I should go with Red Hat
>> Enterprise?
> 
> Not necessarily, unless you are unhappy with the level of support
> you're getting.  Upgrading RHEL versions is going to produce the same
> results as you're seeing here.
> 

Agreed.

-- 
Thanks,

David J. Pryke


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