On Mon 29 Jan 2018 at 13:43:20 (+0000), Joe wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 08:18:35 -0500
> rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
> >
> > I regularly download "security" upgrades for Wheezy. I assume that
> > most of those don't take effect until I restart the application. For
> > instance, a Firefox upgrade does not take effect until I shutdown
> > Firefox and restart it.
> >
> > Correspondingly, I assume that a Linux kernel upgrade does not take
> > effect until I reboot the machine.
>
> Yes, but it's a little more complicated. The modules used by the kernel
> (and the kernel file itself) *are* replaced during the process of
> upgrading the kernel, but the running code is not. There is a tiny
> chance of some kind of mismatch if new modules are loaded, so rebooting
> is recommended soon, and in the past I used to see a message to that
> effect, displayed during the upgrade.
For the benefit of the OP, who is unaware of the meaning of version
numbers, it's worth pointing out that during their upgrade, they got
a new set of modules along with the kernel because the new kernel was
in a new package with a new name.
However, it's not clear that, having searched for a new kernel and
found ("only") a 4.9.0-5 one, they have installed it. If they haven't,
they need to, or else they will not receive further upgrades.
Better still, install the most generic/least specific kernel metapackage
so that upgrades will be automatic (or more obvious, depending on
the tools used).
Cheers,
David.
