Removing Old Kernel versions

OldTango · l33t Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Posts: 722

I would like to know the best way to remove or unmerge Old Kernels no longer in use, and hopefully source tree and all the files associated with them. If I simply rm the kernel file it won,t remove the other files installed with it. Or maybe I shouldn't do it this way in the first place.

Any advise?????????????????/

dotcomaset · n00b Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 17

i did emerge unmerge "kernel"

tuxwatcher · Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2004 10:36 pm Post subject:

I loaded gentoolkit and ran

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2004 10:42 pm Post subject:

OldTango,

Remove the following:-
The kernel source tree in /usr/src
The installed modules in /lib/modules/<kernel_ver>
The kernel bzImage file from /boot
The refernces in /boot/grub/grub.conf

Do make sure that you have not left the /usr/src/linux symbolic link pointing to nothing. You will get many emerge errors otherwise.

Since emerge does not build the kernel for you, it doesn't know about the modules or how you have renamed the bzImage file when you copied it to /boot
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

OldTango · l33t Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Posts: 722

Thanks guys all the info was very helpful.

I did manage to emerge unemerge one old kernel source but still had one the emerge process could'nt find.

So I am going to follow Neddy's advice and manually remove the unnecessary kernels and sources.

I do have the gentoolkit and it a great tool.

In time I hope to assist others as well. After only 2 weeks of working with linux, I don't feel qualifyied to try at this point. Except for maybe grub. After at least 50 bad installs I have that down patt...............lol

kevmille · Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2004 7:41 am Post subject:

I wrote this based on comments from the Gentoo users mailing list:

charlieg · Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2004 9:43 am Post subject:

Oi! You're all making this sound so difficult! It's so easy!

OldTango · l33t Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Posts: 722

Well I guess I have to relink the old kernel before I can remove it because all I get is a pakcage can't be found when I attempt any of these above options.

I removed the link to the old kernel to compile a newer version of the same kernel. So I belive I can simply make a new link to the old kernel, than remove it.

Is it safe to have 2 links to 2 different kernels in /usr/src/linux at the same time. And will removing the old one affect the Kernel currantly in use.

Thanks so much for your help. I am learning a lot fast.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Feb 29, 2004 12:11 am Post subject:

OldTango,

The link /usr/src/linux (there can only be one at a time) is used to find the kernel when things must be built against it. If it doesn't exist, some emerges will break. If it points to the wrong kernel, its dificult to forecast the effects
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

OldTango · l33t Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Posts: 722

Thanks Neddy..............I will manually remove the old kernel and any files I know for sure are linked to the old soruce alone. The rest I will leave alone until I gain more knowledge about linux...............not to self...when in doubt don't delete............

sapphirecat · Guru Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 376

I usually rm -rf the source trees before doing the emerge -C so that Portage doesn't have to compute the MD5s of every file it installed.

kevmille · # emerge -C gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r5 *