My Oracle Linux 8.7 machine said this in an email after an automatic update cycle:
The following updates have been applied on 'oralinux1':
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
kernel-uek x86_64 5.4.17-2136.319.1.2.el8uek ol8_UEKR6 112 M
kernel-uek-devel x86_64 5.4.17-2136.319.1.2.el8uek ol8_UEKR6 19 M
Removing:
kernel-uek x86_64 5.4.17-2136.317.5.5.el8uek @ol8_UEKR6 136 M
kernel-uek-devel x86_64 5.4.17-2136.317.5.5.el8uek @ol8_UEKR6 75 M
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 2 Packages
Remove 2 Packages
Updates completed at Thu 18 May 2023 06:55:10 AM GMT
So, you would definately need a restart, right?
[sudo] password for opc:
No core libraries or services have been updated since boot-up.
Reboot should not be necessary.
[opc@oralinux1 ~]$
So, what is the present running kernel?
[opc@oralinux1 ~]$ uname -r
5.4.17-2136.318.7.2.el8uek.x86_64
Okay, compared to the email we should have a newer kernel, checking it again on the command line:
[opc@oralinux1 ~]$ sudo grubby --default-kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.17-2136.319.1.2.el8uek.x86_64
So this says: If you reboot, this newer kernel will be used at boot. And yes there is a newer kernel.
But why doesn’t needs-restarting say something about it? Probably, according to my Google searches, this is intended functionality and not a bug. But you can change functionality to make it work for UEK kernels. See this thread: https://forums.oracle.com/ords/apexds/post/uek-updates-do-not-register-in-dnf-needs-restarting-r-8600
As this didn’t work right away, I needed to make some minor adjustments to make it work:
sudo su -
mkdir -p /etc/dnf/plugins/needs-restarting.d/ && cd $_
touch uek.conf
echo "kernel-uek" > /etc/dnf/plugins/needs-restarting.d/uek.conf
cat uek.conf
No need to restart anything after this change, just run needs-restarting again:
[opc@oralinux1 ~]$ sudo needs-restarting -r
Core libraries or services have been updated:
* kernel-uek
Reboot is required to ensure that your system benefits from these updates.
More information: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/27943
[opc@oralinux1 ~]$
Now you can reboot your machine to boot with the newer kernel.