Here's a probably not too profound newbie question. I just downloaded an updated kernel for my router. I've copied the kernel over to the right dir and everything and need to rename it to the name of the current kernel, so that next time I boot it'll be used. Before renaming it, though, I should rename the kernel I'm now using - to kernel.old or something like that. My question is just whether I can do this safely with that machine and kernel running. Seems to me like I can since, as I understand it, the kernel gets loaded into RAM and does not run from disk (I used quotation marks around "running" above since, as I see it, I'm not renaming the kernel that's loaded in RAM, i.e., really running, but the image of it which is stored on the HD). But that's just my probably not-so-enlightened deduction. I thought I should ask here first if it is ok to do this, i.e., I'm not taking any risks of system crashes or foul-ups by so doing.
Part of this is right and part of it wrong. Or maybe wrong: you don't mention what bootloader you are using, so I'm guessing it is lilo, which is the most common.
The "right" part: It is completely harmless to rename your "running" kernel, for the exact reasons you say.
The "wrong" part: with lilo, giving your new kernel the name of the old one is not sufficient to cause lilo to load it the next time you reboot. You have to run lilo (the Linux app, not the bootloader itself -- they both get called "lilo", so this can be confusing) so it updates the information in the MBR about the location of the kernel to boot. If you don't make that change, the system will continue to boot (or try to boot ... big problem if you delete the old kernel, but none if you just rename it) the old kernel.
BTW, an alternative to renaming the old and new kernels is editing /etc/lilo.conf so it has the name of the new kernel as the default to boot. You can then add a stanza for your old kernel to have it as a fallback.
Also BTW, you don't mention what you are doing about modules. Assuming you use any, you want to be sure you get the modules directory set up properly.
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