Using yumex, rather than doing a full update to SL 7.5 production, I 
attempted to update over the network the kernel, firmware, and libgcc, 
allowing yumex (essentially yum) to establish the needed dependencies 
(other applications, etc., that also needed to be updated).  The 
resulting kernel will not boot, but merely hangs.  If one waits long 
enough, the "progress bar" at the bottom of the screen does show the 
typical blue/white progression, but that is all.  When I reboot and 
manually select the previous kernel, the system reboots.  I am using 
MATE for a "control" GUI, although as the system never gets to the login 
screen, MATE should not be "active".   It appears that yumex (yum) does 
not fully resolve all required dependencies.  What other components must 
I update?

At one time, SL (EL) allowed one to do an update from local media during 
the boot from local installation media (e.g., a USB stick flash drive) 
-- this no longer directly is supported.  As I do not have the time to 
extract from the previous source how this was accomplished, and have not 
found a script (or GUI version thereof) that accomplishes the same task, 
I attempted a minimal update using yumex.

Yasha Karant