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| Synopsis: The kernel is the main code that is used by the computer. It is the interface between the applications and the hardware like the memory, the CPU or storage devices. It is loaded at start before any application. Wikipedia says : The first Linux kernel was written by Linus Torvalds in the beginning of the 90's. Today it is developed by hundreds of developers across the world. Mageia is provided with different kernels that can be chosen according to your hardware or your preferences. At installation, the installer chooses one according to which hardware it finds. After the installation, you can choose and install a different kernel according to your taste. |
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About your kernel
If you want to know which kernel your computer is using, you can check with a console to get something like:
The indication 5.15.23 matches to the kernel release, and desktop to the flavour as explained below.
To know which kernel packages are installed, you can use in console:
| $ rpm -qa|grep ^kernel |
which lists all packages starting with "kernel". The -devel package contains tools for building modules according to the kernel version. Such modules are graphical drivers or virtualization tools.
The {kernel*, kernel*-devel*, virtualbox-kernel} -latest packages are needed in order to automatically have updated kernel, kernel*-devel and virtualbox-kernel updates when available.
When more than one kernel is installed, you can select which one to boot on with the bootloader interface (Mageia Control Center -> Boot -> Set-up boot system) , which proposes a line for each installed kernel. When a kernel is updated, the bootloader uses the new version by default. If this one can not boot the box, then you can try an older one which is on another line.
As you checked that the new version is fine, you can uninstall the previous version.
Default kernels
Three flavours are used at installation and are provided for 32 bits (i586, i686) or 64 bits (x86_64) architectures.
kernel-desktop
This kernel is issued from a stable branch which receives patches from Mageia team.
The 32 bits version is optimised for i686, multicore (SMP).
This kernel is the default one, except if:
- your hardware has more than 3.8 Gb and you chose a 32 bits architecture,
- you have a server hardware.
kernel-server
The 32 bits version is optimized for i686, multi-core (SMP) and is able to address up to 64 Gb memory. The Mageia installer selects it if your hardware has more than 3.8 Gb memory and you have a 32 bits architecture, or if it finds that your hardware is a server. Server hardware means if dmidecode reports special kinds of chassis only reported on most rackmounted servers.
This kernel is proposed with the same version as kernel-desktop
kernel-desktop586
This kernel is for processors with a unique core like pentium I (i586 architecture) and is able to address till 4 Gb memory.
This kernel is proposed with the same version as kernel-desktop
Other kernels
kernel-linus
The linus version is a vanilla version of the linux kernel, without any of our patches (exceptionally there can be a patch for a critical bug).
The release follows the up-to-date "release candidates" from kernel.org and can provide support for recent features if not available in standard kernels.
