up2date problems with new kernel

[Rick Stevens]

Benjamin Hornberger wrote:
> At 02:42 PM 9/3/2004 -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>> Benjamin Hornberger wrote:
>>
>>> At 02:25 PM 9/3/2004 -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>>
>>>> Benjamin Hornberger wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>> I am having the following problem on RHEL AS3: When running 
>>>>> up2date, there was an error message saying something about the 
>>>>> module ieee1394 not being available for the new kernel (I don't 
>>>>> know how to retrieve the exact error message). Now it looks like 
>>>>> the new kernel won't be used, even though the kernel as well as the 
>>>>> kernel-smp-unsupported package were updated by up2date (I need the 
>>>>> kernel-smp-unsupported package for firewire support).
>>>>> Even though I have eight kernels available, there are only four 
>>>>> entries in /etc/grub.conf (see below). It looks like the last 
>>>>> kernel update (one before today's) wasn't reflected there either. 
>>>>> Also, grub by default boots the non-smp kernel. The "default=1" 
>>>>> entry in /etc/grub.conf which I inserted manually recently now 
>>>>> disappeared (after today's up2date, I guess).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Without a "default=" entry, grub will boot the first OS it sees in its
>>>> file.
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, that's why I put the default line in there. But up2date just 
>>> removed it. Anyway, why wasn't the default on the smp kernel in the 
>>> first place???
>>>
>>>>> Why doesn't up2date enter the new kernels into grub.conf? If I 
>>>>> enter them manually, is there anything important I have to 
>>>>> consider? What will happen after the next up2date (in case a new 
>>>>> kernel is available again?)?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It should insert it.  up2date will NOT make it the default kernel
>>>> because the system may not boot the new kernel.  up2date's 
>>>> philosophy is
>>>> to install the kernel and let the user test it manually.  If it's OK,
>>>> then the user must make it the default manually.
>>>
>>>
>>> But on a different machine, also 2-processor with RHEL AS3, it worked 
>>> that way. up2date gets the new kernels (non-smp and smp), inserts 
>>> them into grub.conf and leaves the default=1. And since the two 
>>> entries are added at the top, default=1 now points to the NEW 
>>> smp-kernel.
>>
>>
>> You need to look at the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date file and see what
>> options are set.  Odds are you have the kernel stuff ignored.  You can
>> tweak this with the "up2date --config" command.
> 
> 
> 
> I was now going to manually enter the new kernel in /etc/grub.conf, when 
> I realized that the new kernel files (vmlinuz) are there (in /boot), but 
> the initrd files are missing. What can I do?

To build an initrd for kernel 2.4.21-4.0.1.ELsmp:

	# cd /boot
	# mkinitrd -fv initrd-2.4.21-4.0.1.ELsmp.img 2.4.21-4.0.1.ELsmp

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-           Give me ambiguity or give me something else!             -
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