Upgrading to the 2.0 kernel without tears

Newcomers are sometimes surprised that upgrading the Linux kernel used to be a whole-afternoon affair. Moving from the 1.2 series to 2.0 did not just swap one file; it moved interfaces that a dozen userland tools depended on. Boot the new kernel without updating them and you could find yourself staring at an init that would not start.

Read the Changes file first

The single best habit is to read the Changes file that ships with the kernel source before you do anything else. It lists the minimum versions of GCC, binutils, ld.so, libc, make, modutils, ppp, procps, sysvinit and the rest. Update those before you reboot, not after.

Let your distribution help

If you run Red Hat or Caldera, their packaged upgrades are almost always easier than hand-building each tool. We mirror them locally. Our full notes live on the Upgrading to kernel v2.0 page.

Stable or bleeding edge

The 2.1 development kernels are fun, and we fly them in several times a day. They are also development kernels. If you do not enjoy debugging, stick with 2.0 for anything you rely on.