Only 1 lmde kernel entry in grub ?

[CiaW]

I've been using linux for about 1.5 years now (time flies!), and I started out on Fedora and CentOS. I tried LMDE because I wanted something more of a LTS with the multimedia codecs already figured out. (I had issues with dependencies with codecs in CentOS 5.5 so I gave up...) I do plan to dual-boot with CentOS 6 when it comes out, however I love lmde and plan to use it as my 'main distro'.

Ok, all of that to preface that I'm not terribly adept with grub2. In Fedora and CentOS, whenever there is a new kernel installed, it's added to the top of the grub menu and then the 2 previous kernels are also kept and available, as a sort of fall-back in case there are problems with the new one. I notice in LMDE there is only the most recent kernel entry as well as the rescue entry. It then probes and adds the entries from the other distro's on other partitions, which is currently 3 kernels for Fedora 13 and 2 kernels for rhel v6 beta and 1 kernel (plus rescue) for lmde32.

Since I've had no issues with kernel updates I haven't been too concerned about having a fallback, but I have searched to see if there's some conf file to update that would have it keep or show more than just the most recent kernel. I may not have used the right key words, but all I came up with were grub2 tutorials, etc. which were nice but not what I was looking for. I found /etc/default/grub but that doesn't seem to have what I want, nor does the README in /etc/grub.d. Is it possible? If so, how would I configure that?

[sgosnell]

Are you running "sudo update-grub" after installing the new kernel? Your post indicates that you might be, but it's hard for me to tell exactly how you're doing the kernel update. My LMDE install shows all the available kernels, so I'm not sure why yours isn't, if you're doing the grub update.

[viking777]

My LMDE Synaptic history goes back to September 2010. At that time the LMDE kernel-image was 2.6.32-5.

It still is 2.6.32-5.

Maybe that is why you don't have more than one kernel listed?

[CiaW]

I thought update-grub was automatically done when a new kernel was installed. I just ran it and I'm now going to reboot and see what I get, I'll be back to edit this with an update.

update: grub looked identical when I rebooted after running an update-grub, only 1 amd64 kernel listed plus the recovery one. As for my update methods, sometimes I use Mint update and sometimes I use command line and debdelta then apt-get upgrade.

I did install the dkms nvidia kernel package, after which there was a kernel update. I looked at the /var/log/apt history log and it looks like perhaps there's some automatic kernel update while the grub entry shows 2.6.32-5-amd64 the history log showed a (2.6.32-27 automatic) entry. What entries do y'all show and since I believe I have mostly a 'standard' install why would mine be different?

The 32 bit lmde install on this pc doesn't have the nvidia, and it only shows the most recent kernel only, also; though I installed the bigmem kernel so it does show that one and the standard kernel, most recent only.

[sgosnell]

It's not necessarily done. And as already asked, are you sure you have installed new kernels? How did you do it? Do they show up in Synaptic?

[CiaW]

It's not necessarily done. And as already asked, are you sure you have installed new kernels? How did you do it? Do they show up in Synaptic?

How would they show up in Synaptic? Where would I look? I use Synaptic to install new packages, but not for updates.

[sgosnell]

Just do a search for linux-image. Every available kernel will be there, and those that are installed will have the box at the left shown in green, just like every other package. It will show the current version and the newest available version.

I haven't seen a new kernel show up in updates for awhile.

[vrkalak]

I haven't seen a new kernel show up in updates for awhile.

LMDE is based on Debian Squeeze/testing . . . which is currently in the 'freeze' stage of it's development. (has been 'frozen' since Aug '10)
Which means that only security updates and 'bug' fixes are coming through.

Once Squeeze is released as 'stable' (Feb 5-6 '11)... then, the new Wheezy 'testing' release, will show up with many, many new and improved updates and upgrades for Kernels and Apps.

To get your newest installed kernel upgrade to show up in the Splash/Log-in screen you MUST do a sudo update-grub ... even, if it looks like it was already done during the kernel install.
I always like to keep two kernels showing in Grub ... the newest and the original 'stable' (as a back-up)

[sgosnell]

That was pretty much my point. It's not that likely that the OP has more than one kernel installed, although that will change soon. Updating grub is essential for a new kernel.

[CiaW]

I haven't seen a new kernel show up in updates for awhile.

To get your newest installed kernel upgrade to show up in the Splash/Log-in screen you MUST do a sudo update-grub ... even, if it looks like it was already done during the kernel install.
I always like to keep two kernels showing in Grub ... the newest and the original 'stable' (as a back-up)

Noted and will do on the sudo update-grub if/when I get a new kernel.

I checked synaptic, and it shows package linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 and installed version is 2.6.32-30. According to apt history.log that appears to have been installed during an upgrade on Jan 15th.

On your last sentence you wrote 'I always like to keep two kernels showing in Grub' ... my question and the whole point of this thread is -- how does one do that? I guess I didn't ask it properly to begin with.

[sgosnell]

Run "sudo update-grub" after each new kernel is installed. As long as you don't remove old kernels, they should show up in the grub menu. When grub updates, it should find all the kernels and keep them in the menu, including Windows installs if there are any. The update process should update grub automatically, but it doesn't always happen. If you manually install a new kernel, you certainly need to run update-grub. I run the liquorix kernel, so I'm not completely aware of the newest default kernel, or when updates for them arrive, but I had 4 older kernels installed until I removed some of them, keeping only the newest two which I knew worked. After updating grub, those are in the menu and the older ones went away, but they were there until I manually uninstalled the kernels and updated grub.

[robfish]

I checked synaptic, and it shows package linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 Installed and latest version is 2.6.32-30
which suggests that the latest is NOT installed.
Should I be manually installing the latest?
Is this possibly the same issue that the original poster has?

[viking777]

I checked synaptic, and it shows package linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 Installed and latest version is 2.6.32-30
which suggests that the latest is NOT installed.
Should I be manually installing the latest?
Is this possibly the same issue that the original poster has?

If you continue your synaptic investigations by highlighting the kernel image, right clicking it,selecting properties then installed files, you will see that the 'vmlinuz' file inside that package is version 2.6.32-5. As vmlinuz is what actually gets booted then that is the latest kernel that has been released. I don't pretend to understand debian version numbering and I agree it is confusing. But 2.6.32-5 is the only kernel that has been released on LMDE so far.

Also if you go to the relevant debian testing package site you will see it described thus:

Package: linux-image-2.6.32-5-686 (2.6.32-30)

Chill out - your life will not be changed by chasing kernel upgrades anyway.

[grey1960envoy]

I don't worry about the extra kernels providing my box is working, if not I just do a bit of search & rescue