Re: New kernel won't boot...

[Keith Mastin <kmastin beechtree ca>]

>
>> I trust you ran mkinitrd after installing the new kernels?
>
>I hate to betray your trust, but no. I have 3 systems that I am working
>with.  Two have IDE drives, and the third is the Compaq Proliant with the
>SCSI Raid controller.  I installed RH7.2 on all three within about a 2 week
>period and use up2date to keep the systems updated, including the kernels.
>I assumed (don't laugh) that up2date was doing everything necessary and
>doing it correctly.
>
>After installing the new kernel on the IDE systems, I just restart the
>system.  The new kernel is the default on the grub menu, and it boots and
>works just fine.  On the SCSI system the same procedure results in the
>"panic" message I mentioned previously.  When the grub menu comes up, if I
>scroll down and select the original kernel, it boots fine.
>
>I just took a closer look at the files in boot and discovered a few
>anomalies.  Looking at the linked files I discovered that they point to
>different kernels.
>
>kernel.h -> kernel.h-2.4.9
>module-info -> module-info-2.4.18-17.7.x
>System.map -> System.map-2.4.7-10smp
>vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.18-17.7.x 
>
>On the other systems that boot, all of the links are to the newest version.
>I am thinking that up2date didn't build the kernel properly on the Proliant.
>I don't recall any error messages, but something is not right.  One other
>note, the Proliant is also the only SMP box of the 3.
>
Okay, so now we know more, maybe just enough. If you can boot from your 
bootdisk, then do so, and we'll work from there.

Remove the new kernel and get the latest smp kernel and install if with 
rpm -i.
Remove any wrong symlinks and rebuild them to point to the updated 
locations.
Run mkinitrd. SCSI systems need this, IDE systems don't.
You also might need to specify a kernel parameter in your boot loader, 
usually linear.
If you're running lilo, then run lilo before rebooting.

Also see the kernel docs at redhat.com for more details, keeping in mind 
that up2date obviously doesn't work for upgrading the kernel on SCSI 
systems. With all of this, you should be able to get the machine back 
online.

HTH
Good luck