[SOLVED] 14.2 hangs on startup, some kind of kernel mismatch.

thethinker · 08-12-2020, 06:27 PM

I update my Slackware system using

Code:

# slackpkg update 
# slackpkg install-new
# slackpkg upgrade-all

Nearly every time I do this on my vanilla installation (not multilib) I get kernel mismatches when I finally restart the machine (which I do very rarely). For example, this last time, hung on restart. So I grabbed my USB boot stick, booted into it, mounted the partition, and investigated. In /boot, I have things like

Code:

vmlinuz-huge-4.4.227
vmlinuz-generic-4.4.227
....

(i.e. all numbers referenced kernel 4.4.227). Checking out lilo.conf, the mkinitrd_generate_command.sh entry there indicated that the initrd was created with 4.4.217, and I've got the lines

Code:

image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-4.4.217

in lilo.conf. So lilo like didn't get run after the kernel update? I've tried:

* chroot-ing to the mounted partition, editing the lilo.conf file by hand (to change .217 to .227), and re-running lilo. That seems to work, but upon restarting I get errors like

Code:

No kernel modules found for Linux 4.4.227
mount: mounting /dev/sda3 on /mnt failed: No such device
ERROR: No /sbin/init found on rootdev (or not mounted). Trouble ahead.

* Following advice here, which is this:

Code:

mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc
mount --rbind /sys /mnt/sys
mount --rbind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --rbind /run /mnt/run
chroot /mnt env -i HOME=/root TERM=$TERM PS1='\u@\h:\w# ' PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin bash --login +h

That looks familiar, but now when I run mkinitrd I get

Code:

Modules for kernel 4.4.14 aren't installed.

Any advice? It would appear I don't have the kernel models installed for x.227 on the drive, but don't have the kernel 4.4.14 installed on the USB stick...

bassmadrigal · 08-12-2020, 06:57 PM

Once the packages are upgraded, slackpkg doesn't do anything to prep your system to use them. You'll need to manually update your initrd (if used) and your bootloader (lilo on a stock system using legacy booting).

To generate a new initrd, you need to specify the kernel that you want to generate the initrd for, otherwise, it will use the currently running kernel. You can do this with the -k option for both mkinitrd and /usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh

After that, it's a matter of making sure your lilo.conf is updated to show the new kernel and then run lilo to store that. Finally reboot.

thethinker · 08-12-2020, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

Once the packages are upgraded, slackpkg doesn't do anything to prep your system to use them. You'll need to manually update your initrd (if used) and your bootloader (lilo on a stock system using legacy booting).

To generate a new initrd, you need to specify the kernel that you want to generate the initrd for, otherwise, it will use the currently running kernel. You can do this with the -k option for both mkinitrd and /usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh

After that, it's a matter of making sure your lilo.conf is updated to show the new kernel and then run lilo to store that. Finally reboot.

This 100% worked, I really appreciate it.

I know I have to redo initrd and lilo after the kernel gets updated, but I'm just not that good at noticing when it happens I guess. Some leftover *-buntu bad habits I suppose.

enorbet · 08-12-2020, 08:24 PM

Hello thethinker, and congratulations on your success in embracing a distro that exprects a bit more from you and in return hands you The POWA!

allend · 08-12-2020, 09:24 PM

Quote:

I know I have to redo initrd and lilo after the kernel gets updated, but I'm just not that good at noticing when it happens I guess.

It was this issue that led me to write my own custom function for slackpkg to prompt to update the initrd and run lilo.