Fedora

Yes, you can. It often ends up as just a package like everything else, capable of being upgraded and replaced. You can even update it outside the package manager, just putting the right files in the right places -- though the package manager may never forgive you... I lost a Mandrake/Mandriva system that way, the package manager just locked up and never did anything else ever again, at all, ever, when I upgraded my own kernel. That's one reason I use gentoo, it installs kernel source, not kernel binaries, so you can do what you please with them and it won't throw a fit when I upgrade it when I want, or boot it with 3 different kernels should I want to.

Wow I didn't know that! So updating kernel outside distro' package manager renders it useless. I assume that if gentoo keeps updates in source form it requires recompilation of a kernel.
I've been researching it online and I guess it is logical to ask at this point:
1. Why don't they release Kernel updates in packaging format (would't it be easy for everybody), or is it possible "format" in into a package, so the package manager would be happy with it? After all when we get it from distro it is pre-formatted for package manger (or I'm wrong)?
2. In a case of Gentoo, how difficult it is to compile new kernel from updated sources? Is it something that mere mortal can do?

No one?

You agreed not to bump posts when you registered. And if you didn't know then you really should know now as it looks like you've been deleted for it once already. We're not "on call". And I've been away due to an injury. If you don't get answered immediately, wait!

Gentoo installs kernel source and lets you compile your own kernel. (It also has a 'genkernel' system to build it for you, but it doesn't work that well. Fortunately there's no pressure to use it.) It can install many different kernel sources side-by-side, and doesn't stop you from installing your own.

If I invented a new distro out of nowhere that doesn't oblige the kernel maintainers to start doing my work for me, packaging binary kernels in its special format. It's the distribution's job to manage that. It's pretty fundamental to the distro after all, doing it wrong could mess a lot of things up (as I've seen!)

In fact I don't think the kernel maintainers distribute binaries at all, just source.

I needed to upgrade my kernel by hand because my distribution wasn't updating it fast enough to keep up with drivers I needed. What it means is running 'make menuconfig' in the source dir, checking that you have the drivers enabled that you need, quitting the config program and running 'make' and 'make install', copying the bzimage into your boot partition, editing a config file so your bootloader knows it's there, and rebooting into your new kernel.

Just building a default kernel without changing any options (running make menuconfig and immediately quitting, then continuing on) should build a kernel that works on most machines, but will have tons of drivers you don't need too and take longer to build. Not really a big deal though, it won't run slower.

How to edit your bootloader depends on what your bootloader is and how its config files are set up. I don't like the new grub 4, it's way more complicated than the old one for mostly no good reason. On gentoo I just install grub-static and get the old grub that way.

The #gentoo channel on freenode can be very helpful if you run into trouble

Corona688,

Thanks! It is VERY nice and useful post! It clears a lot of sky for me!