Many customers wish to use the latest Mainline Linux kernel on their AlmaLinux boxes due to the additional performance and - potentially - stability under load, that it might offer. Here is how we can achieve this:
- We're going to use the mainline kernels precompiled and made available by ELRepo. Firstly, we need to enable their repo on the AlmaLinux box.
- Then, we're going to actually install the kernel using dnf (yum) - very simple.
- Finally, we'll check the grub configuration to ensure the server reboots to the latest kernel, and then we're good to go.
- Before you start, please make sure you have console or VNC access to your server in case you need to boot back to an older kernel version!
1. Import ELRepo repository's public key and install the repository
rpm --import https://www.elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
dnf install https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-8.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm -y
2. Install the latest mainline kernel from ELRepo's repository
dnf --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel install kernel-ml -y
3. Check that the new kernel will load by default with grubby
grubby --default-kernel
4. Reboot the server to apply the kernel
reboot
