I hope this is completely normal but I’m going to ask about it anyways.
So my usual boot screen gives me the option of:
Windows
openSUSE 11.0-2.6.25.5-1.1
‘’ failsafe
Floppy
I just installed a bunch of ALSA stuff in my effort to get surround sound working. I had to restart the computer and now my boot screen looks like this:
openSUSE 11.0-2.6.25.18-0.2
‘’ failsafe
Windows
openSUSE 11.0-2.6.25.5-1.1
‘’ failsafe
Floppy
The top two are new. I selected the top one and things seem to be working. Can anyone explain what just happened? It’s not like I just installed a new OS so why is that new option there?
My limited understanding is that the kernel is the core of the OS. If I have the option to use the old kernel does that mean I have two kernels now? Will the option for the old one go away? If I keep updating my kernel I suspect the list might get large.
It probably would be booting by default but I already set Windows to be my default.
openSUSE 11.0-2.6.25.18-0.2 NEW
‘’ failsafe
Windows
openSUSE 11.0-2.6.25.5-1.1 OLD
‘’ failsafe
Floppy
Normally with Suse, when the kernel updates the old one is just replaced and there is no option to boot from the old one like you are seeing. other distros like Fedora do as you have just experienced, leaving the old kernel to boot from if you experience problems with the new one.
I don’t know why or how you have the old one remaining - I’m not even sure it will actually work. This is not usual in Suse - at least it hasn’t been for me.
Sometimes kernel updates cause hardware issues. The most recent one did for me on my Lenovo. So I just rolled back to the previous one for the time being.
It’s possible that the old kernel is not there and if you try and boot it will fail, I’m not sure.
Check in
/boot
to see if both are there.
Don’t worry about it. Just use the new kernel if it is working.
You can always edit the menu manually to just leave the new kernel
the file to edit is:
/boot/grub/menu.lst
you have to be su to edit