Hi Paul, Paul Gear wrote:
> Thanks for the detailed response. Are you saying that once my system > is installed (on 2.6.8, as it happens), it will never get an upgrade > to 2.6.9 (once it is released) unless i explicitly install it? Does > the fact that i asked for kernel-image-2.6-686 have any bearing on > the situation? I thought this always pointed to the latest released > 2.6 kernel image. Ah, that was a complication that I wasn't sure whether or not to bring up. Yes, kernel-image-2.6-686 is a metapackage [1] that always depends on the latest kernel version, so if you have it installed, running an "apt-get dist-upgrade" (not just "upgrade") will see to it that you have the latest 2.6 kernel-image package installed. I believe (but haven't verified) that if you use aptitude for upgrades instead of apt-get, your old kernel images will then be uninstalled automatically, too. [1] "metapackage" means an empty package whose only purpose is to depend upon other package(s), making it easier to install them. > I'm happy with removing the old ones myself. The only drama with the > way you explain it is: how do i know when 2.6.9 is released except by > checking for it manually every day/week/whatever? Well, other than having it done automatically by having the kernel-image-2.6-686 metapackage installed, you can for instance glance at the list of "new packages" in the aptitude UI. >> However there are often several Debian revisions of each kernel >> version; so "apt-get upgrade" WILL upgrade you from Debian release >> 2.6.8-6 to 2.6.8-7. Needless to say, you CANNOT install two Debian >> releases of the same kernel version at the same time. > > Presumably these Debian revisions are only released to fix security > problems or other major bugs? For kernels in stable, that's right. For kernels in unstable and testing, they may go through several iterations of adding new out-of-tree drivers and other niceties in order to make them suitable for release in the next version of stable. Right now the plan is to release 2.6.8 with sarge, so a lot of effort is being concentrated on that, with a bit less on 2.6.9 (for people who intend to keep running sid). Presumably work on 2.6.9 will soon be moved to 2.6.10. >> ... Running "grep-available -FProvides -sPackage kernel-image" will >> give you a list of kernel packages known to APT on your architecture. >> (The grep-available command is in the grep-dctrl package.) > > How is that different from what apt-cache search --names-only > kernel-image shows me? The latter shows every package with "kernel-image" in the name; the former only shows packages that explicitly claim to provide a kernel-image. There isn't much difference, except that your command shows the "latest kernel image" metapackages and the one I posted doesn't. As usual in Linux there's more than one way to skin a cat. regards, -- Kevin B. McCarty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Physics Department WWW: http://www.princeton.edu/~kmccarty/ Princeton University GPG public key ID: 4F83C751 Princeton, NJ 08544 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
