Kernel Confusion

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

When I installed 11.2 (yesterday) I had two boot options - normal and failsafe.

Somewhere along the line (either something I did unintentionally or some auto-install or update) I picked up debug and debug failsafe and desktop and desktop failsafe - related to different kernels.

I’ve got very limited diskspace so I tried to get rid of all but ‘default’. debug went OK but removing desktop installs desktop-base and removing that installs desktop.

Maybe I need it?

Explanations or help would be appreciated…

2

Please open a terminal window and post output of:


rpm -qa | grep kernel-

In the meantime, you can try this, IIRC I solved exactly this problem this way:
Start the software installer. Search for “kernel-”. Tick the checkbox for “kernel-default”. It will be set to update/reinstall. Now right-click the “kernel-desktop” package and tick Delete. Again IIRC the software installer will accept deletion now. You should still reinstall “kernel-default”, since the install procedure will need to do a couple of things to your system, like creating a new bootmenu (i.e. remove the entries for which the kernels have been removed).

Some extra explanation: it is possible to have multiple kernels installed. One way or another you managed to do so.

3

Thanks for all the help, Knurpht.

~> rpm -qa |grep kernel-
kernel-firmware-20090821-4.1.noarch
kernel-default-2.6.31.12-0.2.1.i586
kernel-desktop-base-2.6.31.5-0.1.1.i586

I tried the procedure you outlined but it still wanted to install kernel-desktop…

4

Install “kernel-default-base”, then try again to remove kernel-desktop-base.

5

No luck.

I tried both at the same time as adding kernel-default-base and after install and reboot.

It still adds kernel-desktop to the automatic list.

6

Please first post another output of


rpm -qa | grep kernel-

and also of:


ls -l /boot

and


su -c 'cat /boot/grub/menu.lst'
7 
~> rpm -qa |grep kernel-
kernel-default-base-2.6.31.12-0.2.1.i586
kernel-firmware-20090821-4.1.noarch     
kernel-default-2.6.31.12-0.2.1.i586     
kernel-desktop-base-2.6.31.5-0.1.1.i586 


~> ls -l /boot
total 21244                   
-rw------- 1 root root     512 2010-05-16 12:35 backup_mbr
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       1 2010-05-16 12:34 boot -> . 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    1236 2009-12-03 01:52 boot.readme
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  108830 2010-03-17 17:19 config-2.6.31.12-0.2-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  105371 2009-10-27 11:19 config-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop 
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    4096 2010-05-17 07:39 grub                        
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      28 2010-05-17 12:37 initrd -> initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5371086 2010-05-17 12:37 initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-default          
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4537690 2010-05-17 07:39 initrd-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop           
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  164376 2009-10-19 20:21 memtest.bin                           
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  415232 2010-05-16 12:35 message                               
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  172462 2010-03-17 17:20 symvers-2.6.31.12-0.2-default.gz      
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  168720 2009-10-27 11:19 symvers-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop.gz       
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1386334 2010-03-17 17:03 System.map-2.6.31.12-0.2-default      
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1511748 2009-10-27 10:13 System.map-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop       
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      29 2010-05-17 12:37 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3674304 2010-03-17 17:03 vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-default           
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4095424 2009-10-27 10:13 vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop 

           
~> su -c 'cat /boot/grub/menu.lst'                                              
Password:                                        
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon May 17 07:39:33 BST 2010
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader          
# Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 2
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate           

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title Desktop -- openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.5-0.1                           
    root (hd0,1)                                                        
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Flash_Module_25190795140101002601-part2 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Flash_Module_25190795140101002601-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x314                                                                                             
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop                                                           

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.5-0.1
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Flash_Module_25190795140101002601-part2 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x314
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop


###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2 (default)
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Flash_Module_25190795140101002601-part2 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Flash_Module_25190795140101002601-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x314
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-default


###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2 (default)
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Flash_Module_25190795140101002601-part2 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x314
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-default
8

I recommend getting rid of the default-kernel and install the “Desktop”-flavour instead, since it has some useful features (for example PAE-support, preemption and more).

9

@gropiuskalle: I never consider that since OP wanted to get rid of kernel-desktop.

@Olmy: if you want to get rid of the kernel-desktop do:


su -c 'rpm -e kernel-desktop-base'

If you want to switch to kernel-desktop, install that, deinstall kernel-default and kernel-default-base.

10

Thanks guys.

I didn’t consider switching to desktop, partly because I had no idea what the difference was and thought ‘default’ sounded safer and partly because it isn’t (a desktop, that is), it’s just a netbook (dell mini-9).

I haven’t even tried to boot into desktop - would it be a good plan…?

Assuming not, I’ll try the command you gave but I guess I could live with the disk space (not quite as short as I feared, at least to date) and just delete the boot menu items in YaST…(I found an option)?

11

Desktop is the default selection for desktop operation default is more optimized for server operation.

The fact that the machine in a netbook is no consideration since it will still use a GUI Desktop and is not meant to be a server.

You are just confusing yourself. :stuck_out_tongue:

12

You wouldn’t see them anymore, that’s true.

Question: how much ram does the netbook have? If >= 4 GB, You’d better use the kernel-desktop. If not, and everything works as desired, I’d stick to kernel-default, remove kernel-desktop as instructed (that way you will not get confused on future kernel updates.

13

:):):slight_smile:

Done it - and all through the normal software manager, in the end.

Netbook has only 2GB RAM and the default is working fine.

It occurred that YaST must think there is something that depends on desktop, so I did a search on ‘-desktop’ and found I had a version of ndiswrapper for desktop installed.

Removing that allowed me to remove the kernel. I suspected that this all happened while I was setting up wireless (somewhat incompetently :embarrassed: )…