how to clean useless kernel in /boot/

[xwwu]

Dear friends,

Server has been upgraded to be 9.0. but there are 4 kernels in /boot/: GENERIC/, kernel/, kernel.old/, and kernel.old1/. According to the upgrade documents, just kernel is useful, so can I delete other kernels?

Need your help. Thanks.

 

[vand777]

Dear Friends:

server has been upgraded to be 9.0. but there are 4 kernels in /boot/:

GENERIC/, kernel/, kernel.old/, and kernel.old1/. according to the upgrade documents,just kernel is useful, so can I delete other kernels?

Need your help. Thanks.

You can delete kernel.old and kernel.old1. I think (but not 100% sure) that you can delete GENERIC as well (I just do not have such directory in my boxes, so I do not know the origin of this folder). I assume that you copied your previous working generic kernel into GENERIC folder in the past. If so, then this folder can be deleted.

 

[gkontos]

Dear Friends:

server has been upgraded to be 9.0. but there are 4 kernels in /boot/:

GENERIC/, kernel/, kernel.old/, and kernel.old1/. according to the upgrade documents,just kernel is useful, so can I delete other kernels?

Need your help. Thanks.

Yes, nuke them

Just for your reference, when you install a new kernel, the old one is automatically being moved to /boot/kernel.old, that way if you have problems booting your new kernel you can always boot with the old.

 

[Beastie]

The default kernel (at least up till 8.2) used to be a gziped directory called GENERIC. So it must be left over from a previous installation.
As you have read /boot/kernel is your current kernel and any kernel.old? is a backup done during upgrades.

So you can simply keep /boot/kernel and remove the other 3 using rm -r for example.

 

[xwwu]

The default kernel (at least up till 8.2) used to be a gziped directory called GENERIC. So it must be left over from a previous installation.
As you have read /boot/kernel is your current kernel and any kernel.old? is a backup done during upgrades.

So you can simply keep /boot/kernel and remove the other 3 using rm -r for example.

Thanks! I will do it

 

[da1]

If you don;t know which kernel was booted last time, a little paranoia doesn;t hurt. Since I have no idea to find out which kernel was booted I would first do:[CMD=""]nextboot -k kernel[/CMD] and [cmd=""]reboot[/cmd] which means that the OS will boot /boot/kernel. If the OS comes up with no problems and everything is running fine, remove the other kernels.

I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to messing with the kernel. As a side note, I would keep 1 "old" kernel image (be it GENERIC or another one).

 

[xwwu]

If you don;t know which kernel was booted last time, a little paranoia doesn;t hurt. Since I have no idea to find out which kernel was booted I would first do:[CMD=""]nextboot -k kernel[/CMD] and [cmd=""]reboot[/cmd] which means that the OS will boot /boot/kernel. If the OS comes up with no problems and everything is running fine, remove the other kernels.

I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to messing with the kernel. As a side note, I would keep 1 "old" kernel image (be it GENERIC or another one).

but in /boot/ of 9.0, GENERIC is much smaller than kernel and kernel.old. I think there are many difference than 8.2. and other question is: where is src for kernel? Is it still in /usr/src/sys/i386/conf?

 

[gkontos]

but in /boot/ of 9.0, GENERIC is much smaller than kernel and kernel.old. I think there are many difference than 8.2.

boot/kernel contains the kernel and the associated modules. It is very normal to be different in sizes as new modules are always added.

and other question is: where is src for kernel? Is it still in /usr/src/sys/i386/conf?

This is the location of the configuration options for the i386 kernel platform.

 

[DutchDaemon]

Note that when using freebsd-update in combination with a custom kernel, the generic kernel can be placed in /boot/GENERIC; freebsd-update will then update that kernel if necessary, leaving your custom kernel in /boot/kernel alone to be updated manually.