Ubuntu: Automatic kernel reload after Update
Channel: Roel Van de Paar
Date: 2019-09-03

Ubuntu: Automatic kernel reload after Update


The Question: I have been managing a Ubuntu Server 8.04 for quite some time now. On top of it
I am running a VMWare Server Edition, which needs to recompile it's modules
whenever a new kernel is installed. For that I'm executing: sudo vmware-
config.pl
Until now, whenever a new version of the kernel was available I installed it,
rebooted the system and rebuild the modules. But now I realized - rather by
accident -, that rebuilding those kernel modules even worked without rebooting
the system. VMWare is even able to startup again after that. That made me
curious. I entered uname -r to see the kernel version, which showed me exactly
the version I installed right before without rebooting the system.
The http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/en/man1/uname.1.html for uname
are not exactly detailed on what is actually printed, but so far I thought it
printed the actually running kernel version.
My question now is: Is it really possible the kernel reloads itself without
rebooting? I did not install ksplice or a similar tool. From what I get it is
now even in the repositories for Ubuntu Server 8.04. What's going on with my
system? Do I have to reboot after the kernel update or not? What does uname -
r print? Is the Ubuntu Server Edition shipped with a program similar to
ksplice? I never read anything about a feature like that!
I checked what kees told me to do:
uname -r
2.6.24-28-server
The file in proc gave:
cat /proc/version_signature
Ubuntu 2.6.24-28.75-server
And dpkg:
dpkg -l 'linux-image*' | grep ^.i
ii linux-image-2.6.24-28-server 2.6.24-28.80
Obviously I should do a reboot then :) Thanks for the detailed information!

Solutions Sample (Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful)

With thanks & praise to God, and with thanks to the many people who have made this project possible! | Content (except music & images) licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 | Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music | Images: https://stocksnap.io/license & others | With thanks to user Stefan (https://askubuntu.com/users/5023), user Kees Cook (https://askubuntu.com/users/721), and the Stack Exchange Network (http://askubuntu.com/questions/10329). Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Disclaimer: All information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. You are responsible for your own actions. Please contact me if anything is amiss at Roel D.OT VandePaar A.T gmail.com.