Instructions on how to handle kernel upgrades

[Mark Shuttleworth]

Colin Watson wrote:

>On Sat, Aug 28, 2004 at 10:05:47AM -0700, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
>  
>
>>On Sat, Aug 28, 2004 at 09:55:57AM -0400, James Blackwell wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Are there any insructions yet on how to handle kernel upgrades? 
>>>      
>>>
>>Are you referring to the fact that the installer currently installs
>>kernel-image-x.y.z rather than a kernel-image-x.y metapackage?
>>    
>>
>
>The installer will automatically use it if we put it on the CD.
>
One interesting challenge is making sure that a new kernel doesn't 
entirely replace the old one. We want to keep a "known-working" kernel 
around for a while to make sure that it is still possible to boot using 
that kernel, in case the new shiny kernel is somehow flawed. Using 
aptitude, for example, I always make sure that one known-good kernel is 
installed directly rather than simply as a dependency, so that it will 
not be uninstalled when a new one is installed because of the 
meta-package upgrade.

I'm not yet sure that the basic depends / replaces / conflicts machinery 
covers the functionality we need, but for the moment it's all we have.

Installing the metapackage for the moment would mean that new kernels do 
get installed, and old kernels are not uninstalled, which is ok.

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