Old Kernels . . .(never die!)

[Karl Bowden]

2009/1/7 Paul Gear <paul at libertysys.com.au>:
> Karl Bowden wrote:
>> ...
>>> Not that it's all that important really.  It's just a matter of
>>> aesthetics.  And the frustration at trying to fix something that should
>>> be quite easy
>>
>> Just as a matter of - hey this is how I manager my old kernels.
>
> Just to chime in with a "me too", my method is this: DON'T DO ANYTHING.
>  A kernel package is never likely to fill your disk, and leaving it
> there costs absolutely nothing.
>
> More importantly, you have a fallback if you need to do something like
> move your hard disk into another system which for some reason doesn't
> work on newer kernels.
>
> I've been burned by other distros which overwrite the currently running
> kernel, and i'm glad Ubuntu lets those old ones build up.  They come in
> handy from time to time!
>
> Paul

I would also second this point! I normally only keep the latest two or
three kernels around and have - even in ubuntu - had a minor kernel
update kill wireless functionality and had to revert to the previous
kernel again.

Another point of interest in this case is that if if just the grub
boot menu that you want to keep clean, maybe the best way would be to
change the 'howmany' option in menu.lst to 2. This will not remove old
kernels from the system, but will only display the 2 latest kernels in
grub. (After you have installed the package maintainers version of
menu.lst again)

- Karl