I installed "Red Hat Professional Workstation" (basically the same thing as "Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS") on my laptop which already had Windows XP Pro on it. Keep in mind that I'm an extreme newbie to Linux and Red Hat. After I installed the Linux, the bootup menu gave me 2 options to choose from as follows .....

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-4.EL)
Windows XP Professional

Since then, I downloaded and installed some packages and updates. After the next reboot, the menu now has 3 options as follows .....

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-9.0.1.EL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.4.21-4.EL)
Windows XP Professional

I think I downloaded an updated Linux kernel but I'm not too sure. If I did, shouldn't it have just replaced the older one - why are both listed as login options? Should I get rid of one? If so, how?

Feedback much appreciated. Thanks.

 

Linux distros usually give you an option to boot an older kernel, in case the new one sucks rocks (ie: doesn't boot or run your hardware). Doesn't really matter if everything works, just pick the higher number. If you want to spend a few days screwing with it, compile your own kernel

 

Yup, you installed an updated kernel package. I generally tend to manually remove the old versions, but this will probably work for you (and is more "newbie friendly" :-) ):

1) Open a terminal window:
- Redhat menu icon (the equivalent of the WinXP 'start' button)
- System tools menu item
- Terminal submenu item

2) Become root
- Type (without the quotes), 'su -'
- Enter your root password

3) Check to see if the package can be removed easily/automatically for you:
- Type (without the quotes, and yes, that's two dashes in front of 'test'), 'rpm -e --test kernel-2.4.21-4'

4) If that doesn't give you any errors or warnings, do the command again, but for real (not test):
- Type (without the quotes), 'rpm -e kernel-2.4.21-4'

That *should* be it; however, like I said, I tend to take the more manual approach, and haven't actually tried what I posted above

(BTW, it's OK/"safe" to have those extra boot options, and you might even want to keep the one that the above steps remove - it should "guarantee" that you can boot into a known working setup if you manage to mess something up with your setup while trying to learn/experiment with Linux).

Good luck!

 

Thanks to both of you for your assistance.

Nice detailed explanation, Audball. I'll try it out later today - thanks.