up2date problems with new kernel

Rick Stevens rstevens at vitalstream.com
Fri Sep 3 21:42:39 UTC 2004


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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-    Admitting you have a problem is the first step toward getting   -
-    medicated for it.      -- Jim Evarts (http://www.TopFive.com)   -
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