[svlug] a dumb question re: linux upgrade

[Drew Bertola]

On Thu, 2003-07-03 at 14:36, Brian Street wrote:
> Isn't upgrading the kernel the same as upgrading the version? I would
> imaging unless there were significant changes made to the newer version of a
> distro that I should be able to upgrade the kernel and packages and
> basically have the new version.
> 
> Am I right or wrong?

Wrong.  It may be possible to use the newer kernel from a newer version
of a distribution with an older base distribution on your system, but
there are other considerations.

Here's what you'd get with a kernel only upgrade:


- newer modules. 
- newer kernel.

Here's a few (not all) places you may get hungup:

- newer kernel usually needs newer modutils package.
- newer kernel may require newer mkinitrd.
- newer kernel may require newer fileutils.

Going with a custom kernel should work, so long as the major.minor rev
numbers are the same.  Still, there could be issues.

With a full upgrade of your distro to a new version of that distro, you
also get new libraries and header files, a new compiler, and all sorts
of bug and security fixes (but not necessarily the latest fixes).


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