Red Hat Knowledgebase

The easiest way to upgrade from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 to Update 1 is using the up2date program. To initiate the update with a system that is already registered with Red Hat Network (RHN), enter up2date -uf at the command line prompt or launch the RHN applet on the panel.

Note: The u option tells up2date to update the existing package set on the system and the f option will force any packages in the skip list to be updated. The kernel related packages are in the skip list by default. See man up2date for additional options.

Once up2date is done updating all packages, your system will be updated. If a kernel package was updated, a system reboot will be required in order to use the new kernel.

Warning: RHN will have the most recent version of a package available. For example, if RHN released a security or other updated kernel package after the Update 1 kernel-2.6.9-11.EL, then the system being updated would be on a higher release kernel, but still have the base kernel for Update 1. Also, if you compared the packages installed from the Update 1 ISO images downloaded from RHN and the package set with updates from RHN, you would discover that some packages may be at a higher version. This is because RHN will update packages to a system with the most recent version available for your version of the operating system.

Note: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 1 is not called version 4.1. You may also see references to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 U1 which is correct notation, in addition to Update 1.