[100490] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Patching a running kernel
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Cunning)
Sat Nov 21 00:28:58 1998
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 21:33:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Jim Cunning <jcunning@NTS.cts.com>
To: "David E. Fox" <dfox@belvdere.vip.best.com>
cc: redhat-list@redhat.com
In-Reply-To: <199811180639.WAA12907@belvdere.vip.best.com>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
On Tue, 17 Nov 1998, David E. Fox wrote:
> >
> > Someone tells me there is a way to patch a running kernel and
> > upgrade it without shutting down and rebooting. I've never heard
>
> I don't see how it can be done. You'd be running the old kernel
> until you rebooted.
>
> There are some parameters that can be tuned via echoing values into
> some pseudofiles under /proc, but as for changing something that's
> already running, I don't think so. But it would be very intriguing
> to be proven wrong on this :).
This is admittedly a special case, but it is possible to unload a module
and load a rebuilt one without rebooting the entire kernel. I did exactly
that just this week when I replaced the tulip.o module that wouldn't talk
to my NetGear FA310TX NIC. I loaded the patched source from the NetGear
FTP site onto a floppy on another system, went to the misbehaving one,
copied it and rebuilt the modules. Success, and no reboot. This may not
work in all cases, however.
Jim Cunning
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