Update to latest kernel with secure boot enabled

1

Hi,
I have secure boot enabled on my system. I need to update kernel of AlmaLinux 8.4 to any kernel higher than 5.8. Please help me in this matter.
Thanks for your help and support.

2

I’m afraid you misunderstand how the system works. The kernel is 4.18.0 and will always be so for and RHEL 8.x derivative. One of the important things in an enterprise server system is stability over the release’s lifetime.
If you manage to configure and install a 5.8 kernel, then you will not be running AlmaLinux 8.x, you will be running your own distribution which you will need to maintain. Perhaps you need to consider Fedora Server since Fedora 34 is powered by kernel 5.12

3

Thanks for the info.

4

If you need to, you may be able to use a kernel from the elrepo repository. They have 5.x kernels there. Do you know how to use that?

5

Hi Jack. Good point about elrepo. You’re way more knowledgeable than me, but I’m a little confused now. running # dnf repository-packages elrepo list | grep 5\. doesn’t show any 5.x kernels. I see all the kmod packages for the drivers, but no full kernels.

OK, further digging. You need the elrepo-kernel repository, not elrepo itself. There’s both 5.4.124 and 5.12.9 there.

Yet more digging. Please read Elrepo’s kernel-ml page, in particular the middle paragraph in the notes section:

These packages are provided ‘As-Is’ with no implied warranty or support. Using the kernel-ml may expose your system to security, performance and/or data corruption issues. Since timely updates may not be available from the ELRepo Project, the end user has the ultimate responsibility for deciding whether to continue using the kernel-ml packages in regular service. These packages are not signed for SecureBoot.

6

I tried elrepo ML and also LT. It did update the kernel but it failed to boot due to unsigned key. I was looking for something that can boot with secure boot enabled. I have a display that works only with Linux kernel 5.8 and above. I can use it with secure boot disabled but I was hoping to find a solution with SB enabled. Thanks