linux-generic vs . linux-image-generic vs. linux-image-2.6.31-22-generic

[littlebigman]

Hello

While running "aptitude search generic" on a 9.10 or 10.04 hosts, I notice there seem to be three options to upgrade a host to a newer kernel:


linux-generic
linux-image-generic
linux-image-2.6.31-22-generic


What's the difference? Which should I choose?

Thank you.

[arubislander]

Go with linux-generic. You'll get everything that it depends on including linux-image-generic and its dependency linux-image-2.6.31-22-generic.

If you want to know what dependencies linux-generic further has, fire up synaptic, select the package, pull up the properties and perview the dependency tab.

The idea is to help with automatich upgrades of the kernel. The linux-generic package is a meta package that will always depend on the latest version of the linux-image-generic, which in its turn will always depend on the latest linux-image-x.x.x-yy-generic package

[littlebigman]

Thanks for the info. Running "apt-file show linux-image-2.6.31-22-generic | less" shows what the package contains (kernel + bunch of modules).