Server: Upgrade to Quantal - Wrong Linux Kernel?

Question

I did an do-release-upgrade -d of a headless Ubuntu server to quantal over SSH.

It has installed the linux-image-3.5 package however when I look at uname I still get 3.0:

$ uname -a
Linux XXX 3.0.0-12-server #20-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 7 16:36:30 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The installed packages with linux in the name are:

$ dpkg -l | grep linux
ii  libselinux1:amd64                 2.1.9-5ubuntu1                 amd64        SELinux runtime shared libraries
ii  libselinux1-dev                   2.1.9-5ubuntu1                 amd64        SELinux development headers
ii  linux-firmware                    1.88                           all          Firmware for Linux kernel drivers
ii  linux-image-3.0.0-12-server       3.0.0-12.20                    amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.0.0 on x86_64
rc  linux-image-3.0.0-14-server       3.0.0-14.23                    amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.0.0 on x86_64
rc  linux-image-3.0.0-15-server       3.0.0-15.26                    amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.0.0 on x86_64
rc  linux-image-3.0.0-16-server       3.0.0-16.29                    amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.0.0 on x86_64
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-18-generic      3.2.0-18.29                    amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-27-generic      3.2.0-27.43                    amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-3.5.0-8-generic       3.5.0-8.8                      amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.5.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-3.5.0-9-generic       3.5.0-9.9                      amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.5.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-extra-3.5.0-8-generic 3.5.0-8.8                      amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.5.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-extra-3.5.0-9-generic 3.5.0-9.9                      amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.5.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-generic               3.5.0.9.9                      amd64        Generic Linux kernel image
ii  linux-image-server                3.5.0.9.9                      amd64        Transitional package.
ii  linux-libc-dev:amd64              3.5.0-9.9                      amd64        Linux Kernel Headers for development
ii  util-linux                        2.20.1-5.1ubuntu1              amd64        Miscellaneous system utilities

How does it select which kernel to open at boot time? Is 3.0.0-12-server the correct kernel for a quantal server?

My quantal desktop install is using 3.5.0-9-generic kernel.. — jokerdino, Aug 11 '12 at 11:18
@jokerdino: Thanks, my desktop is too. Question is about server version. — Andrew Tomazos, Aug 11 '12 at 11:23
Questions about Quantal are off topic for a little while longer. — John S Gruber, Aug 11 '12 at 16:06
http://askubuntu.com/questions/18641/theres-an-issue-with-an-alpha-beta-release-of-ubuntu-what-should-i-do?lq=1 — Jorge Castro, Aug 11 '12 at 18:03

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 11 '12 at 15:32

Typically the kernel selection is done via grub for most installations. If you enter:

sudo update-grub2

you should see what kernels it sees as viable for selection. Unless you've customized it, the first listed kernel should be the one selected at boot time.

If you look at /boot/grub/grub.cfg you should see the full rendered grub config for the probed kernels, if you need to troubleshoot further. It's a bit dense of a configuration file, however. To see what settings go into it, you'll want to look at /etc/default/grub and the files inside /etc/grub.d.

Server: Upgrade to Quantal - Wrong Linux Kernel?

1 Answers1