Ken,

On Mon, 17 Oct 2005, Ken Teh wrote:

> I see that /etc/yum.d/yum.cron/excludes in SL 305 excludes kernels from 
> being updated.  Is there some reason for this?  I've not encountered any 
> problems with SL 303 having the kernels being updated.  yum correctly
> installs the kernels instead of doing an update.  No problems also after a
> reboot.  Is it just precautionary?

No.  It is to keep all those users who have modified their kernel from 
"shooting us".

Yum has no idea if a user has a modified kernel running.  This includes 
kernel modules that have been added or modified.  So if yum were to 
upgrade new kernels automatically then anyone who has either a modified 
kernel or added/modified modules may not work or even boot for that 
matter.  A example is  "custom nvidia kernel modules".   

There is also the need for a reboot to have the new kernel become 
effective.  Yum does not do rebooting.  Maybe this would be a good thing 
as if yum had really updated to a new kernel it would not "actually" take 
effect until the new reboot.

The upstream vendor also excludes the kernel in up2date.

You can if you want to take out of the excludes the exclude for kernel if 
you feel safe with it.


> 
> Ken
> 

-Connie Sieh