Ubuntu kernel update borked my system

[infiniphunk]

Today was one of those days that make me wonder if linux really is ready for the desktop. I should have known better than to just go ahead with an update that included kernel-image, kernel-headers, etc, I dunno, maybe I was still half asleep, I just went ahead with the update without having a peek at ubuntuforums first. Big mistake. After the reboot the system would no longer boot. Apparently the new kernel (2.6.20.16) does something where it changes discs from /dev/sdxx to /dev/hdxx. Big problem. If you check out ubuntuforums, you'll see a few threads with tons of users *****ing about fubared systems. OUCH.

[AlienNation]

Crap, now you've got me worried. Did the same thing on kubuntu yesterday before going to bed. I shutdown the computer and haven't tried starting it yet... Oh well, guess I have something exciting to look forward to when I get home tonight.

[Glennzo]

Here's your best solution to that problem: http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...re/6/i386/iso/

[mrBen]

Well - I've done it on 2 machines (1 laptop, 1 desktop) with no problems.

I suspect it's one of those things that hits a proportion of people with a specific piece of hardware.

[aNoob]

I suspect it's one of those things that hits a proportion of people with a specific piece of hardware.

I'm sure it will hit me.I have that "luck" usually. I will update soon .

[WhiteKnight]

Here's your best solution to that problem: http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...re/6/i386/iso/

i dont think the windows method of reinstalling is equivalent to a solution to us here

probably booting into a live-cd and editing fstab will solve the problem

Lessons learnt..
1. never update ur computer the windows way..(click update and pray no **** happens)
2. keep ur old working kernel... just incase **** happens

[infiniphunk]

I tried the whole edit /etc/fstab and it still didn't work. And because I run lilo and not grub, I wasn't able to simply select the old kernel until a fix came along. So I reinstalled. Took me about an hour to get everything back including nvidia driver, beryl, plugins etc.
This is why I always keep another linux on another partition; in this case Zenwalk. But I do really like ubuntu, and I hope the developers put a working update on the repos soon, because this kind of stuff really bugs me.

[AlienNation]

Crap, now you've got me worried. Did the same thing on kubuntu yesterday before going to bed. I shutdown the computer and haven't tried starting it yet... Oh well, guess I have something exciting to look forward to when I get home tonight.

Whew, I didn't get any problems with my update. Kubuntu was nice enough to even keep the old kernel and grub entry but I didn't need to use them.

On a side note I also updated my gentoo system the other day. It was long overdue and ofcourse it now fails to boot. Great.

[infiniphunk]

I'm thinking of just reformatting my / partition to reiserfs and jumping on the GRUB bandwagon. That way if it happens again at least I can modify menu.lst blah blah.
What scares me is there is at this point still no aknowledgement from ubuntu on their site, or from anyone on ubuntuforums that this update was FLAWED.

"and off he went to shop for a distro where they don't pull this on their users"

[WhiteKnight]

wat is stopping you from using grub?
maybe u could try installing grub without trashing ur /

[infiniphunk]

I keep reading about some kind of bug in grub when / is on an xfs-formatted partition. I'd rather avoid these kinds of problems.
That's not really my concern tho. I'm more worried about ubuntu putting out updates that wreak havoc on the computers of hundreds, (maybe thousands?) of unsuspecting n00bs. Imagine this scenario:
Joe Average decides to buy a new Dell. Because he's heard the linux rumors, he chooses to order some desktop with ubuntu preinstalled. He receives the order, happily plugs it in, turns it on, and gets started. "hurrah! linux is beautiful" says Joe Average. Next an icon blinks on his desktop asking him to enter his password and install upgrade packages. He carefully does so, follows the instructions and reboots. After rebooting, ubuntu fails to boot!
I'm not saying that this for sure will happen, it may just be this error aflicts only users with unusual hardware profiles, like me. (I never thought I had an unusual hardware profile, hmmm?)
At any rate, a kernel-image upgrade shouldn't fail just because you don't have partition scheme 'x'. I could be wrong.

[boxxertrumps]

I updated today, and held off on the kernal...
Needed to make sure this doesn't affect fedora.

[boxxertrumps]

I updated today, and held off on the kernal...
Needed to make sure this doesn't affect fedora.

[arochester]

For future reference:

When the *ubuntus have a kernel update video/graphics can go and there will be a terminal type login. At the prompt input the command

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

This will start a text-based wizard to reconfigure the xserver. Answer any questions you can. If there are questions you cannot answer then go with the suggested default. If at first you don't succeed then try again - this time specifying VESA. Finish with a

sudo reboot

Your graphics should restart.If you have previously downloaded and saved e.g. the appropriate NVidia driver then run (and install) it again. Beryl will not work fully without 3d acceleration.

This solution will work for the *ubuntus. It may work for Debian (I don't know for sure) - but it will not work for Fedora etc.

[victor_c26]

Don't reinstall!

Check your menu.lst settings file in the boot/grub folder.

The same thing happened on my end. Since it added the new kernel, it messed with the kernel count in menu.lst.

I had it set to 2 (Generic 2.6.20.15), since 386 2.6.20.15 doesn't boot at all.

Now since the update added 20.16, it made the 3rd kernel, the 386-20.15 kernel, hence it not booting on my end anymore.

Try either manually selecting 2.6.20.15, or the last kernel image that worked on your system.