Random kernel update breakage

[JB]

Sam Varshavchik <mrsam <at> courier-mta.com> writes:

> 
> Every once in a while, something breaks when a kernel update gets installed. 
> It doesn't happen every time, I'd say that once in every thirty or so kernel 
> updates, grub fails to come up after a subsequent reboot.
> 
> This is just a minor annoyance -- I'd have to boot the install CD in rescue 
> mode, let it mount Fedora on /mnt/sysimage, chroot to it, and execute 
> /sbin/grub-install -- but I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing this.
> 
> This just happened again -- after installing 2.6.33.8-149.fc13, rebooting my 
> laptop only results in a black screen, with a BIOS cursor uselessly blinking 
> away in the top-left corner. Whip out the rescue CD, and now a few minutes 
> later I'm back in business.
> 
> But then, I updated a different server to 2.6.33.8-149.fc13, and it booted 
> the new kernel just fine. Previously, this same server got similarly 
> de-grubbed by an earlier kernel update, but the laptop had no issues being 
> updated to the same kernel.
> 
Hi,
I would like to add something that may be related to it (cause, effect, or
independent thing).

There is a thread started as:
22 Aug 18:24    Hoang Le        grub menu is automatically skipped
The esence of it is a presumable solution in:
22 Aug 18:34    Pawan Sood      grub menu is automatically skipped
followed by its questioning in:
22 Aug 23:38    Aaron Konstam   grub menu is automatically skipped
and my investigation of it in:
23 Aug 09:12    JB              grub menu is automatically skipped

I tested hibernation at that time.
I noticed randomness in appearance of grub menu during restoration pass from
hibernation (normally, the menu can be seen for a split of a second only;
instead the menu sometimes stopped for a timeout value, if configured, as if
during system Restart).

I thought the problem was related to hibernation only. But soon I discovered
the same random behaviour for regular system Restart as well.

Well, what can you make of it ?

JB