Fedora Core 2 upgrade FAILURE

[Richard Emberson]

I've tried the fedora-list without success so please bear with me
while I discribe my plight:

I've got an older VALinux machine and I can not boot from CD.

So I mounted disc1, copied vmlinuz and initrd.img to /boot, unmounted
disc1, added entry to /etc/grub.conf, then rebooted:

mount /dev/cdrom
cp -a /mnt/cdrom/isolinux/vmlinuz /boot/FC2-install
cp -a /mnt/cdrom/isolinux/initrd.img /boot/FC2-install.img
umount /mnt/cdrom
and add entry like:
title Fedora Core 2 Installation
         root (hd0,0)
         kernel /FC2-install
         initrd /FC2-install.img
to /etc/grub.conf (use /boot/FC2... when not relative to /boot)

Everything was going along fine; I did an upgrade (not install) and 
after 1 1/2 hours it said that the installation was a success and that
I should click the reboot button ... which I did.

Well, reboot started out ok, there was a single boot option on the
grub boot page, but then it asked me to insert disc1. I did so
and it then asked me if I wanted to upgrade or install.

hmmm.....

I selected upgrade and it proceeded to "upgrade" a php rpm from disc1
and compat-db rpm from disc3 and announced that the installation was
successful and that I should click on the reboot button.

Ok, reboot started and then once again it requested that I insert disc1
and once again it installed the same two rpm's, php from disc1 and
compat-db from disc3 and announced that the installation was a success.

I tried one more time with the same result.

At this point (with advise from the fedora-list) at the grub gui
I entered the command mode and looked at what was in the /boot
directory. Well, vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 is there (the only vmlinuz file)
but initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img is not there (neither is memtest86+-1.11),
though there are some initrd-2.4.* files still.

I wanted to try the following from grub:

root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
boot

but since initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img is not there I can not.

So, what can I do? None of the grub network commands, e.g., ifconfig,
seem to be available. How do I get a copy of initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
onto the disk?

Thanks

Richard

[Luciano Miguel Ferreira Rocha]

On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 10:44:44AM -0700, Richard Emberson wrote:
> root (hd0,0)
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/
> initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
> boot

Try without initrd and with root pointing to a device file
 root (hd0,0)
 kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=/dev/hda2
 boot
(or wherever is your root partition)

Initrd adds support for access by LABEL of root partition and for ext3,
that can be ignored in the meantime as an ext3 filesystem can be mounted
as an ext2.

(It also adds support for scsi and more uncommon hardware, that you
probably don't need. Anyway, try it.)

If it boots, create an initrd with mkinitrd and change grub's
configuration.

As an alternative, boot the installation kernel with the "rescue" option,
mount the partitions and then create the initrd.

Regards,
Luciano Rocha

[David Hollis]

Quoting Luciano Miguel Ferreira Rocha :
> On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 10:44:44AM -0700, Richard Emberson wrote:
> > root (hd0,0)
> > kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/
> > initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
> > boot
>
> Try without initrd and with root pointing to a device file
>  root (hd0,0)
>  kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=/dev/hda2
>  boot
> (or wherever is your root partition)

use:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=/dev/hda2 single

(note the addition of single to go into single user mode)

That should get you booted and to a command prompt.  Apparently, the kernel was
upgraded, but the postinstall failed to do it's bit and add itself to grub,
create the initrd etc.  If you can get to the command prompt, run this:

[ -x /sbin/new-kernel-pkg ] && /sbin/new-kernel-pkg --mkinitrd --depmod
--install 2.6.5-1.358
[ -x /usr/sbin/hardlink ] && /usr/sbin/hardlink -c /lib/modules/2.6.* || :

That's taken straight from the RPM.  It should add an entry to grub, create the
initrd, and you should be in good shape.

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