How to Install Kernel 6.x on Rocky Linux 8

Kernel is central component of an operating system that manages operations of computer and hardware. It basically manages operations of memory and CPU time. It is core component of an operating system. Kernel acts as a bridge between applications and data processing performed at hardware level using inter-process communication and system calls.

Prerequisites

  • Access to RockyLinux command line terminal.
  • Root privileges or Sudo privileges.

Step 1 - Find current kernel version

Use the uname command to display the current version of kernel the system is running.:

uname -r

Output:

[root@server netdata]# uname -r
4.18.0-305.3.1.el8_4.x86_64   

Step 2 - Enable ELRepo

Import the public key and install the ELRepo RPM package using the below command.

rpm --import https://www.elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
dnf install https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-8.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm

Output:

[root@vps ~]# rpm --import https://www.elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
[root@vps ~]# dnf install https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-8.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm
Last metadata expiration check: 1:26:24 ago on Tue 03 Jan 2023 02:10:56 PM UTC.
elrepo-release-8.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm                       41 kB/s |  13 kB     00:00
Dependencies resolved.
============================================================================================
Package                Architecture   Version                   Repository            Size
============================================================================================
Upgrading:
elrepo-release         noarch         8.3-1.el8.elrepo          @commandline          13 k

Transaction Summary
============================================================================================
Upgrade  1 Package

Total size: 13 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing        :                                                                    1/1
Upgrading        : elrepo-release-8.3-1.el8.elrepo.noarch                             1/2
Cleanup          : elrepo-release-8.0-2.el8.elrepo.noarch                             2/2
Verifying        : elrepo-release-8.3-1.el8.elrepo.noarch                             1/2
Verifying        : elrepo-release-8.0-2.el8.elrepo.noarch                             2/2

Upgraded:
elrepo-release-8.3-1.el8.elrepo.noarch

Complete!

Once the repository has been enabled, you can use the following command to list the available kernel related packages:

dnf --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="elrepo-kernel" list available

Output:

[root@vps ~]# dnf --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="elrepo-kernel" list available
Last metadata expiration check: 0:10:54 ago on Tue 03 Jan 2023 07:59:44 PM UTC.
Available Packages
bpftool.x86_64                           6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-devel.x86_64                   6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-devel-matched.x86_64           6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-doc.noarch                     6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-headers.x86_64                 6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-modules-extra.x86_64           6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-tools.x86_64                   6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-tools-libs.x86_64              6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-tools-libs-devel.x86_64        6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
perf.x86_64                              6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel
python3-perf.x86_64                      6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo        elrepo-kernel

Step 3 - Install kernel

Run the following command to install the latest mainline stable kernel:

dnf --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel install kernel-ml

Output:

[root@vps ~]# dnf --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel install kernel-ml
ELRepo.org Community Enterprise Linux Repositor 105 kB/s | 121 kB     00:01
ELRepo.org Community Enterprise Linux Kernel Re 709 kB/s | 1.0 MB     00:01
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package              Arch      Version                  Repository        Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 kernel-ml            x86_64    6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo       elrepo-kernel     18 k
Installing dependencies:
 kernel-ml-core       x86_64    6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo       elrepo-kernel     57 M
 kernel-ml-modules    x86_64    6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo       elrepo-kernel     52 M

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  3 Packages

Total download size: 108 M
Installed size: 147 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/3): kernel-ml-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64.rpm   41 kB/s |  18 kB     00:00
(2/3): kernel-ml-modules-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86  11 MB/s |  52 MB     00:04
(3/3): kernel-ml-core-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64  10 MB/s |  57 MB     00:05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                            19 MB/s | 108 MB     00:05
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                        1/1
  Installing       : kernel-ml-core-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64               1/3
  Running scriptlet: kernel-ml-core-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64               1/3
  Installing       : kernel-ml-modules-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64            2/3
  Running scriptlet: kernel-ml-modules-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64            2/3
  Installing       : kernel-ml-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64                    3/3
  Running scriptlet: kernel-ml-core-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64               3/3
  Running scriptlet: kernel-ml-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64                    3/3
  Verifying        : kernel-ml-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64                    1/3
  Verifying        : kernel-ml-core-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64               2/3
  Verifying        : kernel-ml-modules-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64            3/3

Installed:
  kernel-ml-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64
  kernel-ml-core-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64
  kernel-ml-modules-6.1.2-1.el9.elrepo.x86_64

Complete!

Step 4 - Verify the kernel version

By default, the system will set the newly installed kernel as the default version to use and boot with.

You can verify this by running the below command,

grubby --default-kernel

Once confirmed, reboot the system to boot with the latest kernel installed. This can be further verified by running the uname command,

uname -r

Output:

[root@vps ~]# uname -sr
Linux 6.1.2-1.el8.elrepo.x86_64

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