How can I reduce the number of installed kernels to only one on my
Fedora 17 systems? I'm asking about automated approach without the need
of manual package removal.

I haven't compiled new kernels myself for a very long time so I don't
think I'll need more then one kernel installed.

Now, I'm using package-cleanup --oldkernel but it's still cleaning up
the mess that I want to avoid.


Mateusz Marzantowicz
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On 10 July 2012 08:33, Mateusz Marzantowicz <mmarzantowicz@osdf.com.pl> wrote:
> How can I reduce the number of installed kernels to only one on my
> Fedora 17 systems? I'm asking about automated approach without the need
> of manual package removal.
>
> I haven't compiled new kernels myself for a very long time so I don't
> think I'll need more then one kernel installed.
>
> Now, I'm using package-cleanup --oldkernel but it's still cleaning up
> the mess that I want to avoid.
>

You do want two kernels installed at least in case an update fails to
boot. The installonly_limit parameter in /etc/yum.conf manages it, if
you changed it to 1 then all older kernels would be removed by a yum
update. Actually, I think possibly the running kernel will not be
removed, so maybe it's not possible to get down to 1 that way. Maybe
create a service for startup which does the cleanup? That way the old
kernel wouldn't be removed until you successfully booted into the new
one (but that still wouldn't catch things like broken video drivers or
needing to add kernel parameters to work around a problem).

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On 10.07.2012 09:47, Ian Malone wrote:
> On 10 July 2012 08:33, Mateusz Marzantowicz <mmarzantowicz@osdf.com.pl> wrote:
>> How can I reduce the number of installed kernels to only one on my
>> Fedora 17 systems? I'm asking about automated approach without the need
>> of manual package removal.
>>
>> I haven't compiled new kernels myself for a very long time so I don't
>> think I'll need more then one kernel installed.
>>
>> Now, I'm using package-cleanup --oldkernel but it's still cleaning up
>> the mess that I want to avoid.
>>
> You do want two kernels installed at least in case an update fails to
> boot. The installonly_limit parameter in /etc/yum.conf manages it, if
> you changed it to 1 then all older kernels would be removed by a yum
> update. Actually, I think possibly the running kernel will not be
> removed, so maybe it's not possible to get down to 1 that way. Maybe
> create a service for startup which does the cleanup? That way the old
> kernel wouldn't be removed until you successfully booted into the new
> one (but that still wouldn't catch things like broken video drivers or
> needing to add kernel parameters to work around a problem).
>

Thanks, a lot. But now one thing bothers me even more. Is it possible
that broken kernel which won't boot or cause any other serious problems
is released in Fedora 16 or 17? I know that in Rawhide something might
go wrong, but in 16, 17?


Mateusz Marzantowicz
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On 10 July 2012 10:15, Mateusz Marzantowicz <mmarzantowicz@osdf.com.pl> wrote:
> On 10.07.2012 09:47, Ian Malone wrote:
>> On 10 July 2012 08:33, Mateusz Marzantowicz <mmarzantowicz@osdf.com.pl> wrote:
>>> How can I reduce the number of installed kernels to only one on my
>>> Fedora 17 systems? I'm asking about automated approach without the need
>>> of manual package removal.
>>>
>>> I haven't compiled new kernels myself for a very long time so I don't
>>> think I'll need more then one kernel installed.
>>>
>>> Now, I'm using package-cleanup --oldkernel but it's still cleaning up
>>> the mess that I want to avoid.
>>>
>> You do want two kernels installed at least in case an update fails to
>> boot. The installonly_limit parameter in /etc/yum.conf manages it, if
>> you changed it to 1 then all older kernels would be removed by a yum
>> update. Actually, I think possibly the running kernel will not be
>> removed, so maybe it's not possible to get down to 1 that way. Maybe
>> create a service for startup which does the cleanup? That way the old
>> kernel wouldn't be removed until you successfully booted into the new
>> one (but that still wouldn't catch things like broken video drivers or
>> needing to add kernel parameters to work around a problem).
>>
>
> Thanks, a lot. But now one thing bothers me even more. Is it possible
> that broken kernel which won't boot or cause any other serious problems
> is released in Fedora 16 or 17? I know that in Rawhide something might
> go wrong, but in 16, 17?
>

In general kernels will boot, they wouldn't get past the
updates-testing and karma procedures otherwise. However it's possible
that a change is introduced which will fail on your hardware. For
example my laptop is currently on the F17 release kernel because of
this bug <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=834318>. The
install_only limit keeps that number of kernels installed, so you can
roll back if that does happen.

Additionally if you use a binary module for any reason (cue posts
saying you shouldn't) then any given kernel update might break it.

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On 10 July 2012 10:15, Mateusz Marzantowicz <mmarzantowicz@osdf.com.pl> wrote:

> Is it possible
> that broken kernel which won't boot or cause any other serious problems
> is released in Fedora 16 or 17? I know that in Rawhide something might
> go wrong, but in 16, 17?

It's happened to me more often than I'd like. Probably once per
release (and I've been using Fedora right from the start).

Often it's just drivers that haven't been updated, so it's just a case
of waiting a couple of days until another yum update fixes it. But I'd
be screwed if I didn't always keep the last known working kernel
around.

Dave..

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On 10.07.2012 11:26, Dave Cross wrote:
> On 10 July 2012 10:15, Mateusz Marzantowicz <mmarzantowicz@osdf.com.pl> wrote:
>
>> Is it possible
>> that broken kernel which won't boot or cause any other serious problems
>> is released in Fedora 16 or 17? I know that in Rawhide something might
>> go wrong, but in 16, 17?
> It's happened to me more often than I'd like. Probably once per
> release (and I've been using Fedora right from the start).

Lucky me, I can't remember going into such unpleasant situation with
different Linux distros so I thought only one kernel will be enough.

> Often it's just drivers that haven't been updated, so it's just a case
> of waiting a couple of days until another yum update fixes it. But I'd
> be screwed if I didn't always keep the last known working kernel
> around.
>
> Dave..

Maybe having two kernels installed is more comfortable, you'll never
know when something breaks. I must reconsider my initial idea. Thanks a
lot for any thoughts.


Mateusz Marzantowicz
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On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Mateusz Marzantowicz
<mmarzantowicz@osdf.com.pl> wrote:
> Maybe having two kernels installed is more comfortable, you'll never
> know when something breaks. I must reconsider my initial idea. Thanks a
> lot for any thoughts.

The boot images are about 20-30 MBs each, so I keep 5.

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On 07/10/2012 02:31 PM, Mateusz Marzantowicz wrote:
> On 10.07.2012 11:26, Dave Cross wrote:
>> On 10 July 2012 10:15, Mateusz Marzantowicz
>> <mmarzantowicz@osdf.com.pl> wrote:
>>
>>> Is it possible that broken kernel which won't boot or cause any
>>> other serious problems is released in Fedora 16 or 17? I know
>>> that in Rawhide something might go wrong, but in 16, 17?
>> It's happened to me more often than I'd like. Probably once per
>> release (and I've been using Fedora right from the start).
>
> Lucky me, I can't remember going into such unpleasant situation
> with different Linux distros so I thought only one kernel will be
> enough.

I don't recall the last time that it happened to me but of course
everyone's mileage varies.

> Maybe having two kernels installed is more comfortable, you'll
> never know when something breaks. I must reconsider my initial
> idea. Thanks a lot for any thoughts.

This has long been considered best practice - when I was teaching RHCE
classes 8+ years ago we always advised a kernel update procedure like:

- - install new kernel
- - reboot to test
- - remove old kernel

That way you have a get out if for any reason the new kernel will not
boot or proves unreliable.

Of course, there's rarely any harm in skipping the last step and not
removing the kernel until later. This was back in the days of manual
updates with rpm -i/F but it carries over to yum equally well (there
was a yum plugin, installonlyn, that used to automate this but I don't
see it at the moment).

Regards,
Bryn.
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On 07/10/2012 07:23 PM, Bryn M. Reeves wrote:

>
> Of course, there's rarely any harm in skipping the last step and not
> removing the kernel until later. This was back in the days of manual
> updates with rpm -i/F but it carries over to yum equally well (there
> was a yum plugin, installonlyn, that used to automate this but I don't
> see it at the moment).

Thats because this functionality got extended and merged in yum long
back. man yum.conf and refer to installonly_limit and installonlypkgs

Rahul
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On 07/10/2012 02:15 AM, Mateusz Marzantowicz wrote:

Thanks, a lot. But now one thing bothers me even more. Is it possible
that broken kernel which won't boot or cause any other serious problems
is released in Fedora 16 or 17? I know that in Rawhide something might
go wrong, but in 16, 17?


My laptop is running F17 with a kernel from F14 because every F16 kernel
I've tried on it fails to boot with the exact same problem. Does that
answer your question?

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