FC6 update trying to boot FC5

Rick Stevens rstevens at vitalstream.com
Mon Feb 26 17:56:24 UTC 2007


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 -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-   The light at the end of the tunnel is really an oncoming train.  -
----------------------------------------------------------------------




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