SuSE 9.1 - problems after YaST online update
 

I have SuSE 9.1 Professional installed.

After problems getting Apache2, PHP and MySQL to work, I learned I needed to get some updates and YOU was recommended.

I (foolishly?) accepted all installs and patches. Took quite a while. When I rebooted the system I had no mouse and no network.

ifconfig doesn't see eth0. During boot I see the message "no interface found".

modprobe tells me it can't find /lib/modules/2.6.5-7.111.19-smp/modules/dep (this also appears during boot). I DO have /lib/modules/2.6.5-7.151-smp

So two questions.

Is there anything I can do to get the mouse and network back without having to reinstall?

If I reinstall and rerun the online update, is there a way to tell which downloads caused the problems?

Thanks for your help.

Sorry for the stupid question: did you really reboot, or did you just restart the graphical system? It seems like the new kernel has been installed (the /lib/modules directory is new), but the kernel in memory is still the old version.
Try to make a cold start of the system, and if it does not help, try to re-install the patch. You can do that from command-line YaST (easier if the mouse is not working). I hope you did not tell YOU to delete the packages after update. If this is the case, you need to re-install the original kernel from your CD.

Thanks for the reply.

I did a restart first. When I discovered the problem I did a cold boot. No luck.

Alas, all the patches/packages were deleted after the update, so no patching the patches.

Reinstalling isn't the end of the world. I just don't want to repeat this problem, so any suggestions about which patch/install might have been the source of the problems? I did the online update on a second machine selecting only the parts needed to fix the Apache2, PHP, MySQL problem and that worked fine, but it looks like there are lots of other parts I could (should) use.

Has no one else experienced this problem?

You don't need to reinstall the whole system! Just the kernel. Go to YaST -> Software -> Install and Remove Software, find the kernel package and select 'Refresh'. This should bring your old kernel and a running system back.

EDIT: BTW, I noticed that you are using the smp kernel for multiprocessor systems. Do you have a multiprocessor or Intel HT system? If not, take care to install the 'default' kernel.

Thanks. SMP is correct. I thought it was and selecting the default kernel generates a popup suggesting I am making a mistake by reverting to the default kernel.

Where is "Refresh"? I have tried navigating around using tabs and arrow keys (remember, no mouse) and think I have explored everything. But I don't see a "Refresh".

I selected the kernel (should it be checked or marked for "update"?) and selected Accept. A new kernel was loaded from the DVD and I did a cold reboot. No change.

Yes, I meant update by 'refresh'. Strange it didn't work. What is the output of 'uname -r' ? Does that fit with the file /boot/vmlinuz-<version>, /lib/modules/<version> and the output of 'rpm -q kernel'? Where does the link /boot/vmlinuz point to? To which kernel does your bootloader point? Do you use grub or lilo and in the later case, did you run 'lilo' after the YOU update? Sorry for so many questions, but they can help to find the cause of your trouble.

uname -r did not match /boot/vmlinuz-<version>

rpm -q kernel produced discouraging output

It is moot now. I saw another option for reloading modules and tried that. Now the system won't boot at all, so I am forced to reload. Oh well, live and learn.

My sincere thanks for your help abisko00!

Good luck next time!