Error message after automatic update

masterandservant · September 14, 2008, 6:07pm

Hello alltogether,
this morning, I started the automatic system update (I installed OpenSUSE 11.0 some days ago). The routine asked for a new start-up (apparently, a Kernel update has been installed), but the system did’nt want to re-start, giving the following message:

root (hd1,5)
filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/vmlinux-2.6.25.11-0.1-default
root =/dev/disk/by-id/scsi_SATA_SAMS
UNG-HD403LJSONFJ1CP301903-part6
resume=/dev/sdb5 splash=silent vga 0x346
Error 15: file not found
press any key to continue …

After pressing a key, the system proposed to start the secure mode suse 11, but with the same result.

Why the hell are there so many difficulties with this distribution?
Where’s the problem here? I just started a simple update routine and the whole system is down… >:(

geoffro · September 14, 2008, 8:58pm

Not sure what went wrong but you can probably fix things with the install media.
Reboot with it in the drive and choose repair. It’s pretty straight warward

oldcpu · September 14, 2008, 9:02pm

I’ve never had a problem rebooting after a kernel update, but I have read of users who have had such problems. Typically it is because the auto update to one’s /boot/grub/menu.lst file did not work.

I always recommend users keep a backup of their /boot/grub/menu.lst file, and after a kernel install, but BEFORE rebooting, one check that file’s contents, to see that the update makes sence.

For a 60-second check, it can potentially save an hour or more of grief.

mingus725 · September 14, 2008, 9:09pm

Try this . . .

At the grub boot menu, hit the Escape key. Go to text mode. With the arrow keys highlight the selection you want to boot, and hit the “e” key to edit that entry. Highlight the kernel line, and again hit “e” to edit it. Change the text that reads “/boot/vmlinux-2.6.25.11-0.1-default” to “/boot/vmlinuz” (note: in your post you show vmlinux; I assume that’s a typo, it’s vmlinuz); hit Enter. Then change the initrd line to “/boot/initrd”; hit Enter. Now press “b” to boot.

Did that work?

EDIT: The above advice is good, but I’m pretty sure this will fix it. Looks like the /boot/grub/menu.lst file was not updated as needed with the new kernel name (2.6.25.16-0.1-default) and its initrd. “vmlinuz” and “initrd” are symlinks that point to whichever kernel is installed.

masterandservant · September 14, 2008, 11:31pm

Thanks again Mingus,
that worked! (of course, it was linuz, not linux - just a typo…). I hope, I don’t have to change the boot menu by hand all the time…

@ Geoffro: that was my first idea as well, but it didn’t work. Anyway, when I try to “fix” problems with the installation disk, the routine remarks that the internet access route isn’t correct. I suppose, the updates, once downloaded from the different internet sites, can’t be fixed with the DVD…

@ OldCPU:

I always recommend users keep a backup of their /boot/grub/menu.lst file, and after a kernel install, but BEFORE rebooting, one check that file’s contents, to see that the update makes sence.
… well, even if I had kept a backup, I wouldn’t have known if the update makes sense or not. I’m not really a programmer, even if I (sometimes ) understand the stuff afterwards …

oldcpu · September 14, 2008, 11:35pm

Understand … but no worries, if you can apply and succeed with Mingus’ excellent suggestion, you can compare the menu.lst files. In essence all that you will see changed is a kernel reference to vmlinuz of some version, and everything else pretty much the same between the two files. If you don’t see a vmlinuz kernel update, or if the file structure is different, then you know something has gone wrong.

mingus725 · September 15, 2008, 4:25pm

That great.

The problem you experienced began when openSUSE started using and updating the kernel filename in the grub menu.lst file - before that, the symlink was used and therefore even if a new kernel was installed menu.lst did not need to be changed.

Now, if you haven’t already, you will want to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst. Open the file as root with kwrite (Alt-F2 “kdesu kwrite”) or another editor, find the applicable kernel and initrd lines that ref 2.6.25.11 and change that to either the symlink file names or the fully qualified names, i.e., “2.6.25.16-0.1-default”. Now the fix is permanent.

To follow up on @oldcpu’s thought . . . on rare occasion a kernel update, or a new kernel itself, can cause a problem. So as an extra - and very simple - safety precaution, some users back up the critical boot files prior to a kernel update. All one needs to do is to keep a folder under /boot (I call mine “old”), and then before an update just copy 5 files into that folder: the kernel (vmlinuz-2.6…), the initrd (initrd-2.26…), the kernel and initrd symlinks (which you used), and menu.lst. Takes less than a minute. Then, if for any reason a newly updated kernel doesn’t boot, you can edit the grub boot menu entry on-the-fly (as you did) to call “/boot/old/vmlinuz” and “/boot/old/initrd” instead of the just installed kernel. Just a thought.

masterandservant · September 19, 2008, 8:39pm

Humm,
of course, I want to install the redirection to the right Kernel permanently

Now, if you haven’t already, you will want to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst. Open the file as root with kwrite (Alt-F2 “kdesu kwrite”) or another editor, find the applicable kernel and initrd lines that ref 2.6.25.11 and change that to either the symlink file names or the fully qualified names, i.e., “2.6.25.16-0.1-default”. Now the fix is permanent.

but when I open the menu.lst, I find this:

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mo Sep 15 17:31:33 CEST 2008

default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,5)/boot/message

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.16-0.1
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_SAMSUNG_HD403LJS0NFJ1CP301903-part6 resume=/dev/sdb5 splash=silent showopts vga=0x346
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-default

So, for me it seems, that the modification you asked me to do is already installed, but it still doesn’t work… :’(

I’m completely lost…

mingus725 · September 20, 2008, 3:50pm

Here’s the quick’n’dirty fix (which is actually how it used to be done several back in the 9.x days, and I still use this) - and which makes permanent what you did interactively at the menu. (Everything below must be done as root.)

Change:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-default . . . .

to

kernel /boot/vmlinuz . . . .

and

initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-default

to


initrd /boot/initrd

To check out why using the explicit filenames didn’t work, you can post back here the outputs of these commands:

uname -r
ls -l /boot
ls -l /boot/grub

masterandservant · September 21, 2008, 7:56pm

Hello,
this is what I got by asking the system which version of kernel is in use. Everywhere its 2.6.25.16-0.1, so I don’t know where the bug is…

wa@linux-6faj:~> uname -r
2.6.25.16-0.1-default
wa@linux-6faj:~> ls -l /boot
insgesamt 12696
-rw------- 1 root root 512 7. Sep 21:08 backup_mbr
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1 6. Sep 17:21 boot → .
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 83039 22. Aug 16:16 config-2.6.25.16-0.1-default
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 19. Sep 23:37 grub
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 14. Sep 10:21 initrd → initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5913559 14. Sep 10:21 initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 433152 19. Sep 23:37 message
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 152391 22. Aug 16:17 symsets-2.6.25.16-0.1-default.tar.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 440997 22. Aug 16:17 symtypes-2.6.25.16-0.1-default.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 126778 22. Aug 16:17 symvers-2.6.25.16-0.1-default.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1175316 22. Aug 16:13 System.map-2.6.25.16-0.1-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2501474 22. Aug 16:16 vmlinux-2.6.25.16-0.1-default.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 14. Sep 10:21 vmlinuz → vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2106200 22. Aug 16:13 vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-default
wa@linux-6faj:~> ls -l /boot/grub
insgesamt 220
-rw------- 1 root root 30 19. Sep 23:37 device.map
-rw------- 1 root root 30 15. Sep 17:31 device.map.old
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 7596 6. Jun 23:11 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 7328 6. Jun 23:11 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6604 6. Jun 23:11 ffs_stage1_5
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6600 6. Jun 23:11 iso9660_stage1_5
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 8268 6. Jun 23:11 jfs_stage1_5
-rw------- 1 root root 835 19. Sep 23:37 menu.lst
-rw------- 1 root root 835 15. Sep 17:31 menu.lst.old
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6832 6. Jun 23:11 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 9216 6. Jun 23:11 reiserfs_stage1_5
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 512 6. Jun 23:11 stage1
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 105630 7. Sep 21:20 stage2
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6864 6. Jun 23:11 ufs2_stage1_5
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6204 6. Jun 23:11 vstafs_stage1_5
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 9028 6. Jun 23:11 xfs_stage1_5

masterandservant · September 21, 2008, 8:15pm

Well, even after changing the kernel and initrd lines as described by Mingus, the problem persists.

Another idea came into my mind: I’m booting from a floppy disk, so could it be possible that the start-up sequence on the floppy isn’t correct? How can I get access to these files? When I try to open it, I just get an error-Message:

*mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/fd0, missing codepage or helper program, or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so *

mingus725 · September 21, 2008, 9:47pm

You are booting from floppy??? Then most likely there is a version of menu.lst on the floppy. That’s what must be changed, not the menu.lst file on hard disk.

The floppy can be mounted in Dolphin or Nautilus, or it can mounted in a terminal window thus:

mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy

Then in your File Manager just go to /media/floppy. You can edit the menu.lst there.

masterandservant · September 24, 2008, 9:03pm

rotfl! rotfl! rotfl!
Thanks again Mingus, that was the solution for my problem!

mingus725 · September 24, 2008, 11:02pm

Good humor - that’s why I’m here.