How do I upgrade my standard Amazon Linux 2 kernel version 4.14.x to Amazon Linux Extra kernel versions?

Short description

The default kernel installed on Amazon Linux 2 instances is 4.14.x. You can upgrade the default kernel to an Amazon Linux Extra kernel version 5.4.x, 5.10.x, or 5.15x.

Note: You can upgrade directly from Amazon Linux 2 kernel version 4.14.x directly to 5.10.x or 5.15.x. You don't need to upgrade to 5.4.x first. For more information, see Amazon Linux 2 supported kernels.

Resolution

To upgrade your Amazon Linux 2 default kernel from 4.14.x to Amazon Linux Extra kernel 5.10.x, complete the following steps:

1. Review the current active kernel version. In the following example, the current system kernel version is 4.14.268-205.500.

   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ uname -r
   4.14.268-205.500.amzn2.x86_64

2. Patch your Amazon Linux so that it's up to date, and then reboot:

   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ sudo yum -y upgrade
   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ sudo reboot

3. Review the kernel versions that the amazon-linux-extras repository offers:

   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ sudo amazon-linux-extras | grep kernel
     _  kernel-5.4               available    [ =stable ]
    55  kernel-5.10              available    [ =stable ]
    62  kernel-5.15              available    [ =stable ]

   This output lists the three kernel options available from the Amazon Linux Extra repository:

   • kernel-5.4
   • kernel-5.10
   • kernel-5.15

4. To install the kernel 5.10, use the amazon-linux-extras tool:

   sudo amazon-linux-extras install kernel-5.10 -y

5. After the installation completes, verify that the state is changed in amazon-linux-extras:

   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ sudo amazon-linux-extras |grep kernel
     _  kernel-5.4               available    [ =stable ]
    55  kernel-5.10=latest       enabled      [ =stable ]
    62  kernel-5.15              available    [ =stable ]

   The following output line shows that the state is changed from available to enabled:

    55  kernel-5.10=latest       enabled      [ =stable ]

6. Verify the installed kernels from the RPM database:

   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ rpm -qa | grep kernel
   kernel-tools-4.14.268-205.500.amzn2.x86_64
   kernel-4.14.268-205.500.amzn2.x86_64
   kernel-5.10.201-191.748.amzn2.x86_64
   kernel-tools-5.10.201-191.748.amzn2.x86_64

   There are now two different kernel versions available: kernel-4.14.268-205.500 and 5.10.201-191.748.

   The following example shows that the old kernel is still active:

   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ uname -r
   4.14.268-205.500.amzn2.x86_64

7. To activate the latest installed kernel version, reboot the instance:

   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ sudo reboot

8. Log in to the instance again, and then verify that the new kernel is active:

   [ec2-user@kernel-upgrade ~]$ uname -r
   5.10.201-191.748.amzn2.x86_64

Note: To upgrade the Amazon Linux 2 kernel from 5.10.x to Amazon Linux Extra 5.15.x, follow the same steps that are detailed in this article. Replace 5.10 with 5.15 in the example commands used in this article.