can boot Fedora (2.6.27.12-78.2.8.fc9.i686) but not later kernels

scook · 03-11-2009, 07:36 PM

I can boot the oldest kernel in grub but my two latest don't. Is there a way I can see what's happening via my only bootable kernel?

grub.conf:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Microsoft Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title Fedora (2.6.27.19-78.2.30.fc9.i686)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-78.2.30.fc9.i686 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.27.19-78.2.30.fc9.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.27.15-78.2.23.fc9.i686)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.15-78.2.23.fc9.i686 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.27.15-78.2.23.fc9.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.27.12-78.2.8.fc9.i686)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.12-78.2.8.fc9.i686 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.27.12-78.2.8.fc9.i686.img

watcher69b · 03-11-2009, 08:34 PM

what are you using for hard disks? SCSI, EIDE, SATA
your new kernel may not have the proper drivers loaded by default

scook · 03-13-2009, 10:40 AM

watcher69b · 03-14-2009, 08:12 AM

IDE should work out of the box. Do you have any other clues? an error message during boot? how far in the boot process do you get before it stops?

scook · 03-17-2009, 06:44 AM

The last time I booted, I was able to boot from the latest kernel,
2.6.27.19-78.2.30.fc9.i686
This sometimes happens. Usually I get to the spot where it says
udev > [OK]
and then shortly after the screen goes blank and I get no response from moving the mouse.

watcher69b · 03-18-2009, 07:28 AM

that is a strange one. what if you boot to a previous kernel and try to update or re-install the kernel that is giving you problems?

Other than that i cannot think of anything that might work

shpenat · 03-18-2009, 01:36 PM

I am not familiar with fedora, so my hints may be misleading.

From your posts I am not sure, whether it is kernel problem. Usually when booting there are three major stages.

1) Loading of kernel and initrd. This stage outputs a lot of information about hardware (to text console) and usually does not include lines such as process ... [ OK ] or process ... [ FAIL ]

2) Starting of init scripts. Typical output line is process .. [ OK ]. If booting process crash during this stage it can be caused by wrong kernel module or error in init script.

3) Starting of X. Crashes here are more often caused by wrong parameters, than by kernel itself.

So check to which stage you can get. And maybe some info can be obtained from log files.