Hello,

I performed "yum update" as a preparation
to upgrading my FC17 to FC19 using a "fedup".

The "yum update" process went OK but when I rebooted,
I've been directed into "emergency mode" slightly
after the "filling teardrop" shape stage of the GUI boot.

The updated kernel which got stuck is:

3.9.10-100.fc17.x86_64

I temporary changed the grub.conf to use my
previous kernel

3.8.13-100.hpfs.fc17.x86_64

(recompiled to add HPFS support, I need it for an old OS/2 disk)

but I think I can't run "fedup" unless I'm not at the latest
update (correct me if I wrong).

How can I debug a boot failure? What files to look in?
Any keystrokes during boot to show more information as to in what
stage the problem is?

TIA,

Try your initrd. man mkinitrd - you can specify the options. The readymade initrd does not work for me ever, and provides huge wads of modules that have nothing to do with your system.

I have only expletives to describe this process. As soon as you are happy with your initrd they will update the kernel again and screw you over. I ran with a slackware kernel which did not need an initrd, and that was fine.

i would do a 100% new clean install of fedora 19
fedora moved from "preupgrade" to "fedup"
and introduced a new experimental replacement for "yum" called DNF

a in place upgrade skipping a version has NEVER been a good idea

That's the trouble with fedora: some of their experiments fail miserably - e.g. installer in F18.

well Fedora is "the great experiment"
it is for trying out new things , and sometimes they fail big time
or fail for a single version
remember the pulseaudio issue with fedora 6

Thanks for everyone who responded,

I found the solution: after removing the "quiet" option from the "inintrd" line in grub.conf
I saw that the "Welcome to emergency mode" lines start after error messages related
to OS/2 disks (HPFS) and I remembered that before starting the "yum update" I didn't
comment the 3 lines in /etc/fstab which mount the 3 HPFS partitions. Since the new kernel
is without the HPFS support, attempts to mount HPFS partitions fail. After commenting
the above 3 lines, the system booted OK.

OK, I solved it now but how I'll remember in 2 years when I'll repeat this process to
comment HPFS-related lines first? :-)
And it's not going to improve with age... :-)

men whe you upgrade to 3.11.1-200.fc19.x86_64 kernel version you have a problem when your systems starts (don´t work the gui start)
but is only a troubled with the nvidia drivers!!