How do I fix a messed up kernel update from 3.16.7-21 to 3.16.7-24?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hey I’m a noob at openSuSE and I did an update that included a kernel. It seemed to take a very long time so I ended up rebooting the machine. But it was actually probably near the end.
I was going from kernel 3.16.7-21-desktop which still runs OK from grub. But the new kernel, 3.16.7-24-desktop, will immediately panic and say
“unable to mount root fs on unknown block (8,17)” and I’m really hoping that this is something that someone could easily fix, perhaps just by doing the update again.

Thanks In Advance for ANY help!
Rob

2

On 2015-09-08 03:16, rkfrancis wrote:
>
> Hey I’m a noob at openSuSE and I did an update that included a kernel.
> It seemed to take a very long time so I ended up rebooting the machine.
> But it was actually probably near the end.

That was a very wrong move. You should have waited.

> I was going from kernel 3.16.7-21-desktop which still runs OK from grub.
> But the new kernel, 3.16.7-24-desktop, will immediately panic and say
> “unable to mount root fs on unknown block (8,17)” and I’m really hoping
> that this is something that someone could easily fix, perhaps just by
> doing the update again.

Yes, do the update again.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

3

Boot the old kernel (should be a boot choice, perhaps with the Advanced boot menu).

Then, as root, run

mkinitrd

and wait for that to finish.

Check if that fixes the problem. Otherwise go into Yast Software Manager, and reinstall the same kernel.

4

I’ve had problems with this MSI H81M-ECO motherboard using any version of Linux on any distro including knoppix. If you run Windows and you restart to get into Linux the built-in NIC doesn’t work even with the latest Linux driver from Intel (that I installed using their instructions). You have to shutdown, wait, and then power up, and then it works (not sure if it always works). So when I rebooted I thought this was another problem.

I tried to update my way out but YaST update GUI did not give me any more updates. It probably thought it was successful. So I was stuck there.

Yes I can use the Advanced boot menu in grub to boot 3.16.7-21 if that wasn’t clear. So I wasn’t totally dead.
Thank you very much! That command made the 3.16.7-24 kernel come up!:slight_smile:
Hopefully this post is useful to other people (or noobs) like me.

5

The none working NIC is probably due to a combination hardware BIOS problem. A warm boot may not reset the firmware and the Windows and Linux firm ware may not be compatible. A cold boot doe this so it works since only the proper firmware is loaded for the OS. You may want to check on a BIOS update

6

That reminds me of a computer that I had around 1999 or so.

If I cold-booted, the NIC sometimes worked. If I first booted windows, then rebooted into linux, it usually worked.

So I compiled a kernel. I put the support for that NIC directly in the kernel, instead of having it in a module. After that, the NIC worked every time.

7

Haha, I had one the other way round: cold boot and the NIC worked perfectly in SuSE, cold boot -> Windows -> reboot -> SuSE and the NIC went berserk. Reset didn’t work, the machine had to be taken down completely to get the NIC back to work.