How to Update Your Systems Kernel
Red Hat & CentOS
Updating the kernel on Red Hat Linux or CentOS Linux is a very simple process. You can begin the upgrade process with the following command once you are logged into the server through SSH as a root user.
yum -y update kernel
In this case, yum is the rpm-based package manager for both Red Hat and CentOS, -y, gives yes as an answer to any question which would be asked by running the command, update is for updating the package, and kernel is the package you’re updating!
After you update the kernel, you must restart the system to complete the kernel update. To reboot the server, run the reboot command.
reboot -n
Once your system reboots it should have the latest kernel installed. You can verify the kernel version with the following command.
uname -a
Debian
To update the kernel on a Debian based system first run an update on your repository’s.
apt-get update
Next, check what kernels are available to install.
apt-cache search linux-image
You should now see a list of available kernels. Select the one you would like to install and run a command as follows.
apt-get install linux-image-your_version_choice
This will install the kernel you have chosen.
After you update the kernel, you must restart the system to complete the kernel update. To reboot the server, run the reboot command.
reboot -n
Once your system reboots it should have the latest kernel installed. You can verify the kernel version with the following command.