Any reason not to install CentOS package updates?

Distro Discussion & Help
1

One of the things I did after installing the FreePBX Distro was to install Webmin, and as usual I set it to notify me via e-mail if new software packages are available. This morning it notified me of a several available updates (full list attached below) but what concerns me is that some of them are Linux kernal updates (kernel, kernel-devel, and kernel-headers). If I allow these updates to proceed, would they “break” Asterisk or anything in the FreePBX distro, or can I go ahead and install them without fear that my system will become non-functional?

Reason I ask is that I also have a small HTPC system running Ununtu Linux, and every time they push a kernal update on that it breaks the NVIDIA video driver (which then has to be reinstalled) but doesn’t seem to affect anything else. I doubt I’ll have to worry about a video driver issue under CentOS but is there anything else this might adversely affect, that anyone knows of?

Full list of available updates, in case anyone cares:

An update to NetworkManager from 0.7.0-10.el5_5.1 to 0.7.0-10.el5_5.2 is available.

An update to NetworkManager-glib from 0.7.0-10.el5_5.1 to 0.7.0-10.el5_5.2 is available.

An update to apr from 1.2.7-11.el5_5.2 to 1.2.7-11.el5_5.3 is available.

An update to autofs from 5.0.1-0.rc2.143.el5_5.4 to 5.0.1-0.rc2.143.el5_5.6 is available.

An update to bind-libs from 9.3.6-4.P1.el5_4.2 to 9.3.6-4.P1.el5_5.3 is available.

An update to bind-utils from 9.3.6-4.P1.el5_4.2 to 9.3.6-4.P1.el5_5.3 is available.

An update to cups from 1.3.7-18.el5_5.7 to 1.3.7-18.el5_5.8 is available.

An update to cups-libs from 1.3.7-18.el5_5.7 to 1.3.7-18.el5_5.8 is available.

An update to e2fsprogs from 1.39-23.el5 to 1.39-23.el5_5.1 is available.

An update to e2fsprogs-libs from 1.39-23.el5 to 1.39-23.el5_5.1 is available.

An update to freetype from 2.2.1-28.el5_5 to 2.2.1-28.el5_5.1 is available.

An update to glibc from 2.5-49.el5_5.4 to 2.5-49.el5_5.7 is available.

An update to glibc-common from 2.5-49.el5_5.4 to 2.5-49.el5_5.7 is available.

An update to glibc-devel from 2.5-49.el5_5.4 to 2.5-49.el5_5.7 is available.

An update to glibc-headers from 2.5-49.el5_5.4 to 2.5-49.el5_5.7 is available.

An update to gtk2 from 2.10.4-20.el5 to 2.10.4-21.el5_5.6 is available.

An update to initscripts from 8.45.30-2.el5.centos to 8.45.30-3.el5.centos is available.

An update to kernel from 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5 to 2.6.18-194.32.1.el5 is available.

An update to kernel-devel from 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5 to 2.6.18-194.32.1.el5 is available.

An update to kernel-headers from 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5 to 2.6.18-194.32.1.el5 is available.

An update to krb5-libs from 1.6.1-36.el5_5.5 to 1.6.1-36.el5_5.6 is available.

An update to krb5-workstation from 1.6.1-36.el5_5.5 to 1.6.1-36.el5_5.6 is available.

An update to libxml2 from 2.6.26-2.1.2.8 to 2.6.26-2.1.2.8.el5_5.1 is available.

An update to libxml2-python from 2.6.26-2.1.2.8 to 2.6.26-2.1.2.8.el5_5.1 is available.

An update to logrotate from 3.7.4-9 to 3.7.4-9.el5_5.2 is available.

An update to module-init-tools from 3.3-0.pre3.1.60.el5 to 3.3-0.pre3.1.60.el5_5.1 is available.

An update to mysql from 5.0.77-4.el5_5.3 to 5.0.77-4.el5_5.4 is available.

An update to mysql-server from 5.0.77-4.el5_5.3 to 5.0.77-4.el5_5.4 is available.

An update to nscd from 2.5-49.el5_5.4 to 2.5-49.el5_5.7 is available.

An update to nss from 3.12.7-2.el5.centos to 3.12.8-1.el5.centos is available.

An update to nss-tools from 3.12.7-2.el5.centos to 3.12.8-1.el5.centos is available.

An update to openldap from 2.3.43-12.el5_5.2 to 2.3.43-12.el5_5.3 is available.

An update to openssl from 0.9.8e-12.el5_4.6 to 0.9.8e-12.el5_5.7 is available.

An update to pam from 0.99.6.2-6.el5_4.1 to 0.99.6.2-6.el5_5.2 is available.

An update to poppler from 0.5.4-4.4.el5_5.13 to 0.5.4-4.4.el5_5.14 is available.

An update to poppler-utils from 0.5.4-4.4.el5_5.13 to 0.5.4-4.4.el5_5.14 is available.

An update to postgresql-libs from 8.1.21-1.el5_5.1 to 8.1.22-1.el5_5.1 is available.

An update to python from 2.4.3-27.el5 to 2.4.3-27.el5_5.3 is available.

An update to selinux-policy from 2.4.6-279.el5_5.1 to 2.4.6-279.el5_5.2 is available.

An update to selinux-policy-targeted from 2.4.6-279.el5_5.1 to 2.4.6-279.el5_5.2 is available.

An update to sox from 12.18.1-1 to 12.18.1-1.el5_5.1 is available.

An update to sudo from 1.7.2p1-8.el5_5 to 1.7.2p1-9.el5_5 is available.

An update to tcsh from 6.14-17.el5 to 6.14-17.el5_5.2 is available.

2

From the top of my head, the only thing that I can remember that might break when updating a kernel is DAHDi.

UPDATE: Yes, it broke DAHDI. It might be my setup. I will check and get back to you.

3

No do not do yum udpate. They are always very dangerous. We are working on getting our repos updated and pushing the 6.0 and 6.1 to our yum servers so we can get a new Centos 6.1 or 6.0 ISO out.

4

Okay, I’ll hold off and wait for you guys (even though I don’t have any DAHDI trunks). Thanks for the advice.

EDIT… Oh, wait, a new ISO? How will that help those of us with existing installations? Is there an upgrade path for us?

5

I thought I’d give this distro a whirl heard nothing but good things.

Decided to install it this after noon - everything went without a hitch till i 'yum update’ed. Knew something wasn’t right when I could no longer access the FreePBX interface.

I’ll reinstall for now - but I, too, ask: will there be an upgrade path?

6

We will always provide upgrade paths between versions. We have been doing this on our commercial side for 4 years. This includes kernel upgrades and everything else.

As far as fixing your issue.

I bet it is just the httpd.conf file from the apache upgrade.

7

Thus far, upgrade paths have been posted here:

http://www.freepbx.org/forum/freepbx-distro/distro-discussion-help/release-versions

Again, thus far, upgrades must be done sequentially, i.e. if you are three versions behind, you can’t just download and install the latest upgrade. You must download and install the upgrade for each interim version and run them in order.

To run the update, use the following commands:

wget http://upgrades.freepbxdistro.org/1.8.2.0/upgrade-1.8.2.0-2.sh
chmod +x upgrade-1.8.2.0-2.sh
./upgrade-1.8.2.0-2.sh

Replace “upgrade-1.8.2.0-2.sh” with whichever update you’re downloading and installing.

8

I am confused by this. I thought that the only repo that the Distro used was the one for FreePBX.

-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2346 Aug 27 07:39 FreePBX.repo

Would it not be safe to do a yum update from there?