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From: johnr@lotus.lotus.com (John Rouillard)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: installing new kernels
Message-ID: <1991Jun14.150541.13747@lotus.com>
Date: 14 Jun 91 15:05:41 GMT
References: <2534@sud509.ed.ray.com> <MEISSNER.91Jun9184314@curley.osf.org>
Sender: news@lotus.com
Reply-To: johnr@lotus.lotus.com (John Rouillard)
Organization: Lotus Development Corp.
Lines: 15

The way I install kernels on Sun workstations is to move my new kernal to
/vmunix.new.  THen I execute a shutdown -h to halt the cpu. Then at the boot
prompt I do a "b vmunix.new" to boot off the new kernel.  Granted a few ps's
in the /etc/rc* stuff get confused, but I expect that and use them as a test
to make sure everyting is working fine.

Once the system boots on the new kernel, I move /vmunix to /vmunix.old and hard
link /vmunix.new to /vmunix. Then I run ps and if everything works fine, I am all set.

If at any point the reboot with the new kernel bombs out, I just reboot or power
off the machine, and my old configureation is still in place, so a standard
reboot will get me going again.


-- John