Updated kernel won't boot

[Michael Schwendt]

On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 10:38:13 +1930, Patrick wrote:

> I just ran "yum update" on my F10 x86_64 system, and the following
> were installed:
> 
> Dec 26 00:31:17 Updated: kdelibs3-3.5.10-3.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:31:17 Updated: audit-libs-1.7.10-1.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:31:24 Updated: kdelibs3-devel-3.5.10-3.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:31:24 Updated: kernel-firmware-2.6.27.9-159.fc10.noarch
> Dec 26 00:31:39 Updated: 1:kplayer-0.7.0-1.20081211cvs.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:31:39 Updated: fuse-sshfs-2.2-1.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:31:41 Updated: kvm-74-10.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:31:53 Installed: kernel-devel-2.6.27.9-159.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:32:01 Updated: kernel-doc-2.6.27.9-159.fc10.noarch
> Dec 26 00:32:03 Updated: kernel-headers-2.6.27.9-159.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:32:04 Updated: dstat-0.6.8-2.fc10.noarch
> Dec 26 00:32:04 Updated: audit-libs-1.7.10-1.fc10.i386
> Dec 26 00:32:27 Installed: kernel-2.6.27.9-159.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:32:27 Updated: xorg-x11-drv-ati-6.9.0-63.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:32:28 Updated: audit-1.7.10-1.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:32:28 Updated: audit-libs-python-1.7.10-1.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:32:29 Installed: 9:kdevelop-libs-3.5.4-1.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:32:41 Updated: 9:kdevelop-3.5.4-1.fc10.x86_64
> Dec 26 00:33:11 Installed: kernel-2.6.27.9-159.fc10.x86_64
> 
> Now my system won't boot. I just get the "GRUB " line, not even a
> splash screen. Could this be caused by the kernel-firmware update?

Search in bugzilla. It's a very old bug somewhere related to reinstalling
GRUB as one part of /sbin/new-kernel-pkg run in a kernel pkg's post
scriptlets. Under special circumstances, the newly installed GRUB doesn't
work. Mission objective is to find out what must happen for GRUB
reinstallation to fail like this, because it is usually not possible to
reproduce this. It's not the kernel update that is wrong. Something at
run-time has an influence on GRUB/grubby failing (perhaps as a result
of bad install parameters given to them).

> I
> don't have Rawhide or even updates-testing enabled, so this is kind of
> surprising in a presumably stable update. My video is onboard Intel
> 945 if it matters. I can boot from a rescue disk so the hardware would
> seem to be basically OK, but I don't know what to rescue ...

Just reinstall GRUB.