FC5/FC4 Update Problem With Newer Kernels
I've run into a problem trying to update a system from FC3 to FC5 ... or
even FC4. I updated one of my home systems (a clean install) from FC4
to FC5 without a hitch. So I decided it was time to update my wife's
FC3 system (MS-6390 mainboard with VIA KM266 & VT8233A/8235 chipset,
external Nvidia NV5M65 RIVA TNT2 video card, onboard Realtek
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ LAN adapter, etc.) to FC5 and then the rest of my
system that are still running FC4.
I tar'ed and copied the /home file system to another system so my wife
can continuing working and proceeded to do a clean install of FC5. I
noticed that the installation process didn't detect the graphics card,
mouse or ethernet NIC but pressed on to completion. At FirstBoot, it
was obvious that I had a problem with the "missing" devices. On a whim,
I decided to try a FC4 install which went just fine - everything was
detected just fine and FirstBoot setup went smoothly running the base
2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 kernel. Then I ran a 'yum update' to update the
system which pulled in the 2.6.16-1.2111_FC4 kernel. When I reboot the
system with the new kernel, I ran into the same problem of missing
devices again.
I have the same problem with an old laptop (Dell Inspiron 8100) at work
with FC4 - the PCMCIA ethernet adapter (Linksys EtherFast+ 10/100) is
not found with newer kernels. It stopped working after a couple of
kernel updates - somewhere in the early 1400's builds.
It seems that some changes in the kernel internals is causing the
hardware detection to fail and/or udev to not install the necessary
devices. I'd appreciate any suggestions and insights as to the cause of
my problems and how to fix it.
--
Rod