Bug 63959

Summary:	up2date installs kernel patch and then system no longer boots
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	Need Real Name <redhat>
Component:	up2date	Assignee:	Adrian Likins <alikins>
Status:	CLOSED RAWHIDE	QA Contact:	Jay Turner <jturner>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	7.2	CC:	gafton, mihai.ibanescu, srevivo
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i686
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2002-04-24 20:33:56 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Need Real Name 2002-04-22 18:25:24 UTC

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Description of problem:
When I run 'up2date -uf' so it installs the kernel patch it installs it find, 
but when I reboot it not longer loads just hangs.  I ran this on a server a 
while back and it worked fine (same kernel patch number).  I then took that 
server, formated the harddrive and installed everything from scratch as it was 
not going to be a dedicated firewall.  The only thing changed in the server is 
I took out 1x3com NIC and replaced it with 3xeepro100 NIC.  

I ran this on a seperate new server about a month ago and it took that patch 
fine.  I just bought a brand new system and over the past couple days it will 
not accept this patch.

It doesn't mess up lilo.conf as everything works okay.  The only setting I 
have in the lilo.conf that I have changed is in the global section that says 
vga="795".  This was the same on all of the servers that I've done this patch 
too where when it was done at least a couple weeks ago they worked.  Any 
attempts since then do not work.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Run 'up2date -u' getting all patches but kernel (as they are in skip list)

2.reboot system (optional)

3.run 'up2date -uf' to get kernel updates

4.reboot system and let it default to new kernel (or select new kernel)

	

Actual Results:  kernel loads (the message with the expanding ...'s looks 
normal) and then it says kernel uncompressed, booting kernel and then:
1...if I have the line vga="795" in lili.conf the screen goes blank (as it 
changes to vga mode) and then system hangs with no hdd activity.
2...if I remove vga="795" from lilo.conf the system just hangs (screen doesn't 
change to vga mode obviously).


Expected Results:  It should of (either in VGA mode or not) started to show 
the text that is normal while booting showing hard drive mounts, dameons 
started etc.

Additional info:

Just the fact that when I ran this patch at least two weeks ago it ran fine.  
But on systems now it will not run (most importantly that one of which is the 
same server that I ran it on before and now it does not work - the only thing 
changed on that server was the NIC cards from a 3com to eepro100 cards)

This patch is listed as highly recommended in your errata thus I feel it's 
important to have it work again.  (Maybe your file got compramized or 
something as it worked before).

Comment 1 Adrian Likins 2002-04-24 20:18:33 UTC

Hmm, very odd. 

It sounds like that system might actually be having problems
with the new kernel, since it seems like it is loading the
new kernel.

I assume the old kernel still works? Which version of the
kernel is it that is causing problems?

Comment 2 Need Real Name 2002-04-24 20:33:51 UTC

The new kernel is: 2.4.9-31 the previous one is 2.4.7-10

The old kernel still works.  And what is odd is the system that refused to run 
with it this time worked a few weeks ago when I tried it.  But I redid system 
since then.

I have another machine running fine with it but it was upraded a few weeks ago.

This is very odd.

The only thing I can think of is I have different NIC cards (eepro100 now).  
And I also am installing less as this server will be out on a DMZ network.

Comment 3 Adrian Likins 2002-08-09 03:19:20 UTC

Havent ever seen other reports like this, so I'm
going to assume it's a kernel issue with that particular
hardware.

Comment 4 redhatbug 2002-10-09 22:53:35 UTC

An update since I first reported this bug.  I bought 3 new servers of the 
exact same hardware (Asus P4B, P4/1.8Ghz 512k, ATI Rage 128, 2xMaxtor 
HDD,2xIntel Etherpro100 NIC, 1GB ECC 133MHz SDRAM).  I ran the installations 
exactly the same, (same partitions, same packages, only the IP addresses were 
different).

Again when I ran up2date -uf to get the updated kernel one servers would not 
boot on the new kernel, one would but wouldn't let me add the vga=795 option 
and the other booted perfectly.

Redhat 7.3 was out at that time so I erased everything and started from 
scratch with a brand new installation (not upgrade).  These went fine when I 
upgraded the kernel...no problems.

I never did find out why 7.2 gave me the grief it did with kernel updates.