I am running one of ElasticHosts’ pre-installed Linux images. How do I update the kernel?

Our pre-installed systems use the EXTLINUX bootloader instead of the more common GRUB. If you have just installed a new kernel but find that you are still booting into the old version, it may be because your distribution has attempted to update GRUB instead of EXTLINUX.

To fix this, simply update the vmlinuz and initrd.img symlinks EXTLINUX uses to find the kernel. Depending on your distribution, these will either be in the root (/) or /boot directory. For example, if they are in the /boot directory, you can update them by running:

ln -s /boot/[new kernel image] /boot/vmlinuz
ln -s /boot/[new initrd] /boot/initrd.img

When this is done, simply reboot to start using your new kernel.