Problem with GRUB 2 in SUSE 12.3 after kernel update from 3.7.10-1.1 to 3.7.10-1.16

yurval · October 10, 2013, 2:56pm

In a meanwhile I am running SUSE 12.3 with automatic update notification. Recently it suggested me to install update, in particular the kernel was updated from 3.7.10-1.1 to 3.7.10-1.16. After kernel update it asked me to reboot the system but I decided to postponed this. There were probably some more updates coming later. Now I have tried to reboot the PC. It does not work. Grub2 hanging after ~3.8 seconds since it can not boot the system from the device hd0. I manage to boot the system with old kernel without any problem but it does not boot with new kernel although /etc/default/grub looks reasonable. It looks like the device id for root partion is set properly now but it does not help. I would very much appreciate any advice. Thank you for your help and reading!

Below please find my /etc/default/grub file.

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Oct 10 13:24:33 CEST 2013

THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader

For the new kernel it try to figure out old parameters. In case we are not able to recognize it (e.g. change of flavor or strange install order ) it it use as fallback installation parameters from /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

If you change this file, run ‘grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg’ afterwards to update

/boot/grub2/grub.cfg.

GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=“openSUSE 12.3”
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=8
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=" resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000528AS_9VP5ALDN-part2 splash=silent quiet showopts"

kernel command line options for failsafe mode

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_RECOVERY=“showopts apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe”
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs

This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains

the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD …)

#GRUB_BADRAM=0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef

Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)

GRUB_TERMINAL=gfxterm

The resolution used on graphical terminal

note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE

you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo’

GRUB_GFXMODE=auto

Uncomment if you don’t want GRUB to pass “root=UUID=xxx” parameter to Linux

#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries

#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY=true

Uncomment to get a beep at grub start

#GRUB_INIT_TUNE=“480 440 1”

Skip 30_os-prober if you experienced very slow in probing them

WARNING foregin OS menu entries will be lost if set true here

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
GRUB_THEME=/boot/grub2/themes/openSUSE/theme.txt
GRUB_BACKGROUND=/boot/grub2/themes/openSUSE/background.png

wolfi323 · October 10, 2013, 3:14pm

That /etc/default/grub looks ok, and it (and the grub2 installation) should be ok if you still can boot the old kernel.

Could you please post a directory listing of your /boot?

ls -l /boot

yurval · October 10, 2013, 3:37pm

Here it is:

total 178676
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 512 Jul 16 09:43 backup_mbr
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1 Jul 16 09:35 boot → .
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1484 Feb 26 2013 boot.readme
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 135989 Jun 7 11:14 config-3.7.10-1.16-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 136018 Jun 7 11:12 config-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 136028 Mar 1 2013 config-3.7.10-1.1-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 136057 Mar 1 2013 config-3.7.10-1.1-desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 10 14:04 grub
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Oct 10 13:24 grub2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Mar 6 2013 grub2-efi → grub2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 Oct 8 09:20 initrd → initrd-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
-rw------- 1 root root 32237329 Oct 8 09:20 initrd-3.7.10-1.16-default
-rw------- 1 root root 32007526 Oct 8 09:20 initrd-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
-rw------- 1 root root 32238890 Oct 8 09:20 initrd-3.7.10-1.1-default
-rw------- 1 root root 32010384 Oct 8 09:20 initrd-3.7.10-1.1-desktop
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 621056 Jul 18 10:56 message
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 241410 Jun 7 12:02 symvers-3.7.10-1.16-default.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 241451 Jun 7 12:28 symvers-3.7.10-1.16-desktop.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 241420 Mar 1 2013 symvers-3.7.10-1.1-default.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 241475 Mar 1 2013 symvers-3.7.10-1.1-desktop.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 409 Jun 7 12:02 sysctl.conf-3.7.10-1.16-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 516 Jun 7 12:28 sysctl.conf-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 409 Mar 1 2013 sysctl.conf-3.7.10-1.1-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 516 Mar 1 2013 sysctl.conf-3.7.10-1.1-desktop
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2445599 Jun 7 11:51 System.map-3.7.10-1.16-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2531845 Jun 7 12:17 System.map-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2446078 Mar 1 2013 System.map-3.7.10-1.1-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2532324 Mar 1 2013 System.map-3.7.10-1.1-desktop
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5561407 Jun 7 12:02 vmlinux-3.7.10-1.16-default.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5813683 Jun 7 12:28 vmlinux-3.7.10-1.16-desktop.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5561332 Mar 1 2013 vmlinux-3.7.10-1.1-default.gz
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5815075 Mar 1 2013 vmlinux-3.7.10-1.1-desktop.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Jul 16 10:35 vmlinuz → vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4774200 Jun 7 13:26 vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.16-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4998200 Jun 7 13:48 vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.16-desktop
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4773814 Mar 1 2013 vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.1-default
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4999478 Mar 1 2013 vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.1-desktop

wolfi323 · October 10, 2013, 4:08pm

That looks ok, but why do you have kernel-default and kernel-desktop installed?
Which 3.7.10-1.1 flavor did work? And which 1.16 one did you try to boot and didn’t work? Try the other. (desktop vs. default)

Maybe your hard disk has problems? Please post the output of:

sudo /usr/sbin/smartctl -a /dev/sda

yurval · October 10, 2013, 4:33pm

Thank you for your help and time wolfi323!

Concerning packages: in former times we had a code which required a source codes of the kernel and I simply install the package in case I need to get this old software running on this PC, kernel_desktop - is not something I am using, but description looks interesting therefore I wanted to play with it at some point.
I have tried to boot all versions of 3.7.10-1.16, they all do not work. The first copy of 3.7.10-1.1 worked right a way.
Below please find an output of smartctl
smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [x86_64-linux-3.7.10-1.1-desktop] (SUSE RPM)
Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, smartmontools

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
Device Model: ST31000528AS
Serial Number: 9VP5ALDN
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 01fe6a928
Firmware Version: CC38
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is: SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is: Thu Oct 10 16:28:20 2013 CEST

==> WARNING: A firmware update for this drive may be available,
see the following Seagate web pages:
Firmware Updates for Seagate Products
Barracuda 7200.12 Firmware Update

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 609) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 182) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x103f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 099 099 006 Pre-fail Always - 231320160
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 095 095 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 64
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 066 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 5192370
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 067 067 000 Old_age Always - 29065
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 32
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 005 005 000 Old_age Always - 95
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 095 000 Old_age Always - 25
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 064 046 045 Old_age Always - 36 (Min/Max 31/48)
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 036 054 000 Old_age Always - 36 (0 21 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 029 011 000 Old_age Always - 231320160
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 7
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 7
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 272876452213208
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 1544218988
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 3114344874

SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 95 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It “wraps” after 49.710 days.

Error 95 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 29062 hours (1210 days + 22 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH

40 51 00 0e 76 45 01 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0145760e = 21329422