upgrade failure?

[bulwynkl]

Hi all,

I just upgraded from 6.10 to 7.04 overnight... and now the system won't reboot

what can I do to recover?

system is a dual boot winxp and kubuntu machine.
2 HDD - 80 and 300GB
winXP in the bottom half of each, Kubuntu in the top half.


I get the following error message

Starting up ...
Loading, please wait...
mdadm: No devices listed in conf file were found.
kinit: name_to_dev_t(/dev/disk/by-uuid/10f5b591-e847-4203-9e51-b9e810fc9d8d) = hda5(3,5)
kinit: trying to resume from /dev/disk/by-uuid/10f5b591-e847-4203-9e51-b9e810fc9d8d
kinit: No resume image, doing normal boot...

Ubuntu 7.04 beetlejuice tty1

beetlejuice login:


after all the usual kubuntu loading screens...

during install I:

chose replace for any config files
chose 'all' for mdadm - the system is not LVM but I have disks from previous install that are - not always mounted - so I figured that was the best option - perhaps not wise...


help... Stuck in windows land!


Ohh!!!

additional information!

just diff'd the grub menu - all the HDD refs have been changed from /dev/hd## to UUID's

e.g.
Was:

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-11-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=/dev/hda2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-11-generic
quiet
savedefault
boot

Now:

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-11-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=UUID=ba0c5c13-e4e9-4d9b-9188-7a21419378e0 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-11-generic
quiet
savedefault

So it looks like the 'all' option for mdadm was a mistake....

any idea how I fix this? this is in the automajic section of the grub menu...

(also changed is the default kernel options....

Was:
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=ba0c5c13-e4e9-4d9b-9188-7a21419378e0 ro
# kopt_2_6=root=/dev/hda2 ro


Now:

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=ba0c5c13-e4e9-4d9b-9188-7a21419378e0 ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

[penguin.ch]

Re: upgrade failure?

# kopt=root=UUID=ba0c5c13-e4e9-4d9b-9188-7a21419378e0 ro
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=UUID=ba0c5c13-e4e9-4d9b-9188-7a21419378e0 ro quiet splash

For starters, you may revert to the classical Debian approach to devices and replace those so-called UUIDs by the original nodes - as, in your case: root=/dev/hda2

[bulwynkl]

Re: upgrade failure?

Ah yes... but how...?

isn't the grub menu built by running update-grub - in which case it just replaces the /dev/hda2 with UUID=....etc.?

(since the offending section is in the automajic part of the file)

Or to put it another way - how do I get grub to use the /dev/hda2 instead of the UUID

[penguin.ch]

Re: upgrade failure?

how do I get grub to use the /dev/hda2 instead of the UUID

In /boot/grub/menu.lst, replace every occurence of root=UUID=[blurb] by root=/dev/hda2, in the "Default Kernel Options" as well as in the "Auto Kernel List" ... but be aware: any typo could prove lethal to the boot loader!

To keep your system free from this "improvement" on a continuing basis, you will actually have to revise the boot loader's configuration (as well as the file system table - but I'm zoning out ...) subsequent to any kernel upgrade.

[bulwynkl]

Re: upgrade failure?

yeah, tried that - didn't work - still get the same error message - kinit, etc. So, ignoring getting boot loader working in future for the moment - *sigh* - any one hav eany idea how to get this freakin' thing working again

[penguin.ch]

Re: upgrade failure?

yeah, tried that - didn't work

You may try the same with the file system table (/etc/fstab).

[bulwynkl]

Re: upgrade failure?

ditto... :-) fstab broke things well and truely... and when I got it working - with /dev/hda2 etc it still failed. so I can only conclude that the problem lies elsewhere - what is it that kinit is meant to do anyway?

my best guess is that mdadm is the problem - but no idea what is wrong or how to fix it.

[penguin.ch]

Re: upgrade failure?

my best guess is that mdadm is the problem

At least two points to start (read: proceed) from: man mdadm , man mdadm.conf

--

Kinit shows the same list of errors on my (virtual) test system - which, despite these, is "up and running".