FC3->FC4 upgrade hangs whilst installing kernel-smp package

[Colin Paul Adams]

>>>>> "Colin" == Colin Paul Adams <colin at colina.demon.co.uk> writes:

    Colin> There WAS a slightly older version of the 2.6.9 smp kernel
    Colin> installed (two versions in all - no UP kernel), and the FC4
    Colin> smp kernel had been written to disk.

    Colin> I physically deleted (I can't boot my FC3 kernel fully at
    Colin> the moment - it hangs somewhere in the system tasks startup
    Colin> phase, so I could do any rpm -e commands) the FC4 kernel
    Colin> and the redundant FC3 kernel from disk.

    Colin> This time the install proceeds, not attempting to install
    Colin> the kernel at all - so I think what must have been
    Colin> happening was it was trying to upgrade the kernel twice (is
    Colin> that likely)?  So I suspect I shall end up without a 2.6.11
    Colin> kernel installed.

This indeed seems to have been the case.

I was ALMOST able to complete the install. The process hung with
remaining time at two minutes, whilst attempting to install (or having
just completed) fonts-xorg-truetype.

But now I was able to reboot with the FC3 kernel sucessfully, and do
an rpm -e nodeps on two kernel-smp packages marked as installed (one
was the FC4 kernel, another was an older 2.6.9 kernel) but not
physically present.

Then I rebooted the FC4 Install option (i.e. I restarted the upgrade
process), and kernel-smp, firefox, fonts-xorg-truetype, and a handfull
of tiny packages, were all upgraded, and the post-installation now ran
sucessfully.

So my conclusion from all this, is that before I upgrade my production
system, I should ensure that rpm -q kernel-smp shows only one entry,
that of the current running kernel.

When I login to GNOME, I get a dialog box displaying an error message:

No volume control elements and/or <something - I can't read my
scribble> found.

What does this mean? Is it harmless? How can I make it go away for
next time I login?
-- 
Colin Adams
Preston Lancashire