Update Re: [Techtalk] RH9 upgrade problem

[Conni]

On Jun 25, Eeva J=E4rvinen conjectured:

> > The config (pressing 'e' in the loader screen) shows this:
> > root (hd0,0)
> > kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=3DLABEL=3D/
> > initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
>=20
> It looks to me (but I might be wrong; I'm not very experienced in
> this) that your /boot has gone wrong, somehow, and your kernel can't
> find the root partition (which has init on it, among the rest of your
> stuff).  Grub can find your kernel, however.  I wonder if changing the

I booted into the marginally-functional kernel (the 2.4.17), edited the
grub.conf to remove the stupid LABEL, which is so obviously wrong and make
it identical to the one that boots (except for the version numbers, of
course).  Still freaks out.

I booted it for a friend with l33t software skillz, and he thinks the
initrd is mangled.  I'll look into that, try reinstalling, and if that
still fails, I'll back up /etc (for my settings and whatnot) then try
Debian.  (Though I'm a bit petrified about the lack of hardware detection
=2E.. stupid Vaio has Problems, see.  And I know nothing about hardware
stuffs.)

Though I suppose I could go back and try to force 7.2 back on.

> I'd try `rescue' from the installation cd, and then mounting the root
> filesystem, checking its label (e2label) and seeing if /boot is on
> root partition, or if it's somewhere else.

/boot is its own partition, on /dev/hda1.  /dev/hda2 is the root
partition, and /dev/hda3 is /dev/shm, which I haven't any idea what it's
for.

I'll try this before I try the upgrade process again.

> How did you install your system?  I tried upgrading from 7.2 to 9 but

Upgrading from 7.2.

> ended up formatting my root partition (I keep /home on a different
> partition; all tarballs and extra RPMs reside on /home as well) and
> installing 9 on a freshly formatted partition.  The upgrade kind of
> worked, but it seemed broken and I didn't want to spend the time
> figuring all of it out.  Easier to install "cleanly".  Oh, and this is
> a laptop.  Better part of a day spent, again.  But it does seem I'm
> learning to be slightly distrustful on "upgrades" and just "install"
> instead.  Install took far less time that upgrading, BTW.

I have so much stuff on my computer that I really don't want to format it.
(yes, I know, I should have put root on a separate partition; I even
thought about it before installing over XP.  But I didn't.  I forgot about
it.)

> hope it works out,

Thanks!

~C

--=20
So they linked their hands and danced 'round in circles and in rows.
=09=09=09-Loreena McKennitt

=09=09  www2.one-eyed-alien.net/~ccovingt