Update Linux Kernel Image

The kernel is the core of the operating system. It's primary functions are controlling execution of processes, handling memory management, providing a filesystem, and providing a portable interface through which programs may communicate with hardware.

A kernel image is a compiled and usually compressed & self-extracting kernel (generally with the name of bzImage). In the linux distributions, it is copied from /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/ to /boot .

The uncompiled kernel source can be obtained from [1] in .tar.gz or tar.bze format . To compile the system one uses "make xconfig" in XWindows environment and later make dep; make clean; make bzImage; to compile the modules make modules make modules_install.

The kernel image is booted changing [Lilo] /etc/lilo.conf :

• image=/boot/X.X.XX
• label=KernelX.X.XX8
• read-only
• alias=2

We have to update this image kernel in order to improve performance and the compatibility with new device. To update this image kernel, we can use Synaptic Package Manager (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager) or from terminal using "sudo apt-get update".

After update, we could not use this new image kernel automatically. We have to edit menu.lst in /boot/grub so when booting we could use new kernel image

Before :

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

After:

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-21-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic