I've been keeping my debian server up to date with apt_get but not the kernel.

But it's probably about time I upgraded the kernel.
Any suggestions on the safest way to do this so if I do mess it up it can be fixed rather than requiring a full reinstall?

The biggest problem is that I'm not sure if my server is booting using grub or lilo so I don't know which one to update. Both seem to be installed on my server but I don't know which one it's using. How can I tell?

Thanks for any advice....

Why upgrade the kernel? I fail to understand why linux people feel like they have to upgrade their kernel every couple months. I understand that the RHEL folks have an excellent reason to upgrade their kernel.. but aside from that, what's the point?

UD.

Well at least one of the patches was for security related stuff.
And I've not upgraded it for a long time.

You should be able to apt-get the kernel and it'll handle everything for you, including lilo/grub.

apt-cache search kernel

I guess I can try it. Just a little scared it won't come up again

Welll I'll back up the stuff I need and try it I suppose

just dont delete the old kernel, and if it doesnt come back up we can reboot it into the working kernel. make sure to label them though