FC6 update trying to boot FC5

Mon Mar 5 18:01:34 UTC 2007

On Mon, 2007-03-05 at 07:40 -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> > On Mon, 2007-02-26 at 05:36 -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> >> > On Sun, Feb 25, 2007 at 12:28:55PM -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> > On Sat, Feb 24, 2007 at 02:14:29PM -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> >> >> >> I just did an update from FC5 to FC6 on my laptop, but the machine
> >> is
> >> >> >> trying to boot FC5, which it can't find. How do I fix that?
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Not sure, but try this oft-repeated mantra (yeah, I need to put it
> >> >> > into the FAQ):
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Boot to rescue mode with your FC6 Disk 1.  (At the boot: prompt,
> >> >> > put "linux rescue".)  Let it mount your Linux installation when it
> >> >> > finds it.  Then
> >> >> >
> >> >> >   chroot /mnt/sysimage
> >> >> >   grub-install /dev/hda # or whatever your boot drive is
> >> >> >   exit
> >> >> >   exit
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Yeah, exit twice - once from the chroot shell and once from rescue.
> >> >> > Pop out the cd and the normal grub stuff should come up when it
> >> >> > reboots.
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> Hmmm. That didn't work. But, my Ghost For Linux backup got me back
> >> >> working
> >> >> with FC5. I sure like having such a backup!
> >> >>
> >> >> I suspect the problem is that various yum updates have filled my
> >> /boot
> >> >> partition, so the FC6 updated could not put anything more there.
> >> Here's
> >> >> a
> >> >> look at /boot and df ...
> >> >>
> >> >> [root at hhlaptop boot]# ls -al
> >> >> total 93350
> >> >> drwxr-xr-x  4 root root     1024 Feb 25 11:59 .
> >> >> drwxr-xr-x 24 root root     4096 Feb 25 11:55 ..
> >> >> -rw-r--r--  1 root root    58952 Jun 23  2006
> >> config-2.6.17-1.2139_FC5
> >> >> -rw-r--r--  1 root root    62875 Nov 10 10:41
> >> config-2.6.18-1.2239.fc5
> >> >> drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     1024 Nov 15 20:54 grub
> >> >> -rw-r--r--  1 root root 87666688 Jul  2  2006 image.img.gz
> >> >
> >> > Umm, what's that doing in there.  I'd say punt that and try again.
> >> >
> >> >> -rw-r--r--  1 root root  1808129 Jun 30  2006
> >> >> initrd-2.6.17-1.2139_FC5.img
> >> >> -rw-r--r--  1 root root  1413120 Nov 15 20:56
> >> >> initrd-2.6.18-1.2239.fc5.img
> >> >> drwx------  2 root root    12288 Jun 29  2006 lost+found
> >> >> -rw-r--r--  1 root root  1078172 Jun 23  2006
> >> >> System.map-2.6.17-1.2139_FC5
> >> >> -rw-r--r--  1 root root  1118384 Nov 10 10:41
> >> >> System.map-2.6.18-1.2239.fc5
> >> >> -rw-r--r--  1 root root  1967671 Nov 10 10:41
> >> vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2239.fc5
> >> >> [root at hhlaptop boot]# df
> >> >> Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
> >> >> /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
> >> >>                       93448028  29311576  59313004  34% /
> >> >> /dev/hda1               101086     99184         0 100% /boot
> >> >> tmpfs                   253852         0    253852   0% /dev/shm
> >> >> [root at hhlaptop boot]#
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> I suspect I could get rid of everything that's 2.6.17* and still have
> >> >> the
> >> >> system work, freeing up some space. What's image.img.gz? It's pretty
> >> >> big!
> >> >> Nothing in the grub directory is very big...
> >> >>
> >> >> I went with the default partitions on the original install of FC5,
> >> which
> >> >> is why, I suspect, I ran out of room on boot.
> >> >>
> >> >> So... Should I be ok deleting all the 2.6.17 stuff? How about
> >> >> image.img.gz?
> >> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Well, I tried deleting the 2.6.17 stuff and image.img.gz, which did
> >> clear
> >> out a lot of space in /boot. I then did another update attempt with
> >> FC6_64. Same result! When booting, I get the menu that lets you choose
> >> which version you're going to load. The only version listed is an FC5.
> >> Selecting that gives a file not found error.
> >
> > The odds are that your /boot got filled up, so the /boot/grub/grub.conf
> > file couldn't be updated and you were stuck with only the FC5
> > options.  Then you deleted the FC5 kernels and blooey!
> >
> > How to get around it?
> >
> > 1. Boot off the first FC6 CD in rescue mode and let it mount the
> > existing system as /mnt/sysimage.
> >
> > 2. Enter "chroot /mnt/sysimage"
> >
> > 3. Make sure /boot has adequate room for the new kernel.  Also make sure
> > /lib has enough space (remember, the modules go there).
> >
> > 4. Figure out where the CD is mounted.  Odds are it's /mnt/cdrom, but it
> > could vary.
> >
> > 5. Run:
> >
> >     rpm -ivh --force /mnt/cdrom/Fedora/RPMS/(KERNEL-NAME)
> >
> > Replace "(KERNEL-NAME)" with one of the following:
> >
> >     kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.i586.rpm (Intel 586)
> >     kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.i686.rpm (Intel 686, 32-bit)
> >     kernel-PAE-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.i686.rpm (Intel Xeon with PAE support)
> >     kernel-xen-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.i686.rpm (Xenified 32-bit)
> >     kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.x86_64.rpm (AMD Opteron/Athlon 64, 64-bit)
> >     kernel-xen-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.x86_64.rpm (Xenified 64-bit)
> >
> > depending on what processor and kernel you want.
> >
> > 6. Verify that the /boot/grub/grub.conf file has the correct entries
> > in it.  You should see a stanza like:
> >
> > title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
> >         root (hd0,0)
> >         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb
> > quiet max_luns=256
> >         initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
> >
> > 7. If everything appears OK, enter "exit" twice (once to exit the
> > chroot, one to reboot the system), pop the CD out and boot the system.
> >
> >> I probably need to update that menu, but it SEEMS the FC6 update should
> >> take care of it.
> >
> > Not if "/boot" filled up.
> >
> >>                 This is an update from FC5_64. I've gone ahead and put
> >> FC5 from my g4l backup back on the machine for now. Ideas as to what I
> >> should try next? After this machine, I want to try updating my FC4
> >> server
> >> to FC6...
> >
> > Always remember that upgrades require more disk space than a raw
> > install.  Before doing upgrades, make sure there's plenty of space
> > in /boot and / (the root partition).
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > - Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer          rstevens at vitalstream.com -
> 
> 
> As a follow-up to this, I removed this file from /boot:
> -rw-r--r--  1 root root 87666688 Jul  2  2006 image.img.gz
> 
> This dropped usage in /boot from 100% down to 19%. The upgrade to FC6 then
> went smoothly.

Wonder what file THAT was.

> However, I noticed during bootup that the wlan did not come up. The
> message said ndiswrapper could not be found. Later, through the network
> manager, I was able to bring up the network. A while later, though, I
> could not bring up the wlan. I don't know if I changed something and
> messed it up or what. So, to get me going again, I loaded my FC5 image
> back and all works again. I'll try the upgrade again next weekend. I
> understand the kernel now includes a provision for driving Broadcom wifi
> chip sets directly (with fwcutter), so I may give that a try.

The bcm43xx driver has never worked reliably for me under any
circumstances, so I'm back to using ndiswrapper.  I prevent bcm43xx from
loading by blacklisting it in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-compat.

> Anyway, getting rid of the img file in /boot allowed the upgrade to work.

I'm still wondering what that file was.  87MB is AWFUL big for a ramdisk
image...I'd expect something <3MB.

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- Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer          rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-    I don't suffer from insanity...I enjoy every minute of it!      -
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