On Tue, 2007-01-30 at 16:38 -0500, Mark Hull-Richter wrote:

I shoulda knowd....

Okay, this may seem dumb, but I imagine I've already been there....

Here's what I get when I try the install with rpm:

[root@localhost x86_64]# rpm -ivh kernel-*.rpm Preparing... ########################################### [100%] package kernel-2.6.9MHRsmp-1 (which is newer than kernel-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr) is already installed

If the "newer" package is the non-working kernel from earlier attempts, and not the one you are running, it should be safe to do

# yum remove kernel-2.6.9MHRsmp-1

or

# rpm -e kernel-2.6.9MHRsmp-1

Your naming convention seems to be confusing RPM.

[root@localhost x86_64]#

Now, I _really_ want to install this, but when I try yum localinstall, I get this:

[root@localhost x86_64]# yum localinstall kernel-*.rpm Setting up Local Package Process Examining kernel-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr.x86_64.rpm: kernel -

... snip ...

--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

========================================================================

Package Arch Version Repository Size ======================================================================== ===== Installing: kernel x86_64 2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr kernel-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr.x86_64.rpm 34 M kernel-debuginfo x86_64 2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr kernel-debuginfo-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr.x86_64.rpm 961 M kernel-devel x86_64 2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr kernel-devel-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr.x86_64.rpm 11 M kernel-largesmp x86_64 2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr.x86_64.rpm 39 M kernel-smp x86_64 2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr kernel-smp-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr.x86_64.rpm 34 M Updating: kernel-largesmp-devel x86_64 2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr kernel-largesmp-devel-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr.x86_64.rpm 11 M kernel-smp-devel x86_64 2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr kernel-smp-devel-2.6.9-42.0.3.mhr.x86_64.rpm 11 M

Transaction Summary

===== Install 5 Package(s) Update 2 Package(s) Remove 0 Package(s) Total download size: 1.1 G Is this ok [y/N]: N Exiting on user Command Complete! [root@localhost x86_64]#

Since this is going to update the two *-devel packages, I need to know if this is safe to do, i.e., will this damage anything I need to get back to if the new installed kernel doesn't boot or work right (even though rpm says it's the same one)?

The -devel packages should have nothing to do with booting (unless you have dkms packages installed that want to rebuild drivers at boot time - not standard CentOS stuff).

If you want to install rather than update the "-devel" packages, put the following (or something like it tailored to your preferences) in /etc/yum.conf:

installonlypkgs=kernel kernel-smp kernel-largesmp kernel-devel kernel-smp-devel kernel-largesmp-devel

Phil