kernel versioning in RHEL: what are the differences between minor versions of the rhel kernel?
How can I determine what the differences are between minor revisions of the kernel package? For example, we have 2 servers built on the latest rhel 5 x86_64 available that were built several months apart. The first is rhel 5.6, and has
kernel-2.6.18-274.el5 , the second is rhel 5.7 w/ kernel-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5. What does the extra "12.1" mean, and what would we loose if we replaced it with kernel-2.6.18-274.el5 ?
Responses
Red Hat
Guru
4649 points
kernel-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5 is a newer kernel released after kernel-2.6.18-274.el5 which has some bug fixes added to it. If you use kernel-2.6.18-274.el5, you will hit those bugs and if you use kernel-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5, you will not.
To know the differences between those two kernels, you can look at "rpm -q --changelog kernel-2.6.18-274.12.1" and read changes till [2.6.18-274.el5]
Active Contributor
297 points
One of the greatest failures in Red Hat documentation / changelogs is the flagrant and widespread reference to private bugzillas in public documentation. Especially so where a private BZ is listed in a change log in place of real comments.
Nobody wants to see:
CRITICAL CHANGES:
[01 / 02 / 12 ] - bz#12345, bz#44313, bz#31337
- please refer to bz#99999
- obsoletes bz#8675309
and every one of those are marked private.
You guys are terribly guilty of this and it is very frustrating to deal with as an end user.
Red Hat
Guru
3695 points
Greg, thanks for the comments! The reason for references to private bugzillas are due to the fact that confidential information contained could expose the reporter (a customer or partner) if made public. In the meantime, Red Hat would be happy to provide you specific (and sanitized) details of any private Bugzilla in a support case of a Bugzilla. We are currently evaluating the best way to provide public information from the Bugzillas while excluding NDA information -- but we aren't there yet.
Believe me, this is not a new or rare comment from our customers. This has high priority to resolve and we value your honesty and candor.
Regards,
Andrius Benokraitis
Red Hat, Inc.
Supporting success. Exceeding expectations.
Red Hat Customer Portal http://bit.ly/accessRH
Twitter http://bit.ly/RHsupport
Facebook - http://bit.ly/RHsupportFB
Google+ http://bit.ly/RHsupportG
Welcome! Check out the Getting Started with Red Hat page for quick tours and guides for common tasks.