How do you clear a botched kernel on a PPC system?

[Bill Davidsen]

Kam Leo wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 5:05 PM, David Timms <dtimms at iinet.net.au> wrote:
>> On 09/26/2009 08:27 PM, Joel Rees wrote:
>>> I find myself in another nice catch 22.
>> ...
>>> So I'm having a hard time with things today. Can someone put me out of
>>> my misery?
>> Yeah, mate, take that .22 above and...
>>
>> No seriously:
>>  Without having a ppc machine, I imagine that you can hit escape or any key
>> during boot, so that you get the boot loader's option menu, and move the
>> cursor to the previous kernel entry, hit enter...
>>
>> As long as the older working kernel is still installed, it should be enough
>> to yum remove kernel.specific.bad.version, and the rpm should take care of
>> setting the previous versions item as the one to boot.
> 
And after booting the old kernel, "yum erase" will remove the offending new one.

> For Fedora 11 the default maximum number of kernels for yum to keep
> installed is set at 3. The two prior kernels plus the broken one
> should be available.
> 
> Now, if you really care about what is happening to your system during
> boot I recommend that you edit /boot/grub/grub.conf (alias menu.lst).
> Comment out the "hiddenmenu" line (put a '#' in front of the 'h').
> This will allow the other installed kernels and/OS's to be displayed
> as selectable boot options. (Increase the number in the "timeout="
> line if you want more time at making a selection.)  Delete "quiet" and
> "rhgb" from all the kernel stanzas if you want to see additonal
> details and status of drivers and services during the boot process.
> 
About the only thing I think is really needed is the timeout increase, since 
once you get the menu up by hitting a key you can do the rest. I also want more 
than 3 old kernels, I'd increase that one as well. Deleting rhgb is a good idea 
with some video hardware, for sure, unless I have problems quiet is fine, I just 
want to know if there's a problem.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot