Etch to Lenny: Update /boot/grub

r00ster · 08-04-2010, 11:52 PM

After doing a dist-upgrade from Etch to Lenny with apt-get, my desktop is having trouble letting go of it's kernel nominatives.

Code:

rooster@royrogers:~$ uname -r
2.6.18-5-686

Code:

rooster@royrogers:~$ uname -a
Linux royrogers 2.6.18-5-686 #1 SMP Tue Dec 18 21:24:20 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

I made sure /kernel-img.conf conformed to lenny's "grub-doc package" as follows:

Code:

# Kernel image management overrides
# See kernel-img.conf(5) for details
do_symlinks = yes
relative_links = yes
do_bootloader = no
do_bootfloppy = no
do_initrd = yes
link_in_boot = no
postinst_hook = /usr/sbin/update-grub
postrm_hook   = /usr/sbin/update-grub

I also tried to revise/update /boot/grub as follows:

Code:

royrogers:/home/rooster# update-grub
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-686
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

FYI:
Did several apt-get udates.
Did 5 reboots.
installed libfam0c102

Nevertheless, I'm not seeing version 5 as per:

Code:

~$ cat /etc/debian_version
4.0

The uncommented portion of /boot/grub.menu.lst is as follows:

Code:

<snip>
## ## End Default Options ##

title		Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-5-686
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-686 root=/dev/hda1 ro installgui install standard" 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-686
savedefault

title		Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-5-686 (single-user mode)
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-686 root=/dev/hda1 ro installgui install standard" single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-686
savedefault

title Windows XP
     rootnoverify (hd1,0)
     map (hd0) (hd1)
     map (hd1) (hd0)
     chainloader +1
<snip>

I hope someone can help me find the problem and fix it. Is it possible I need to edit the .menu.lst to activate the "AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST"? If so, I'd appreciate guidance as to just how to do this..

AlucardZero · 08-05-2010, 06:56 AM

..so what makes you think you dist-upgraded?

Post your sources.list. Post

Code:

dpkg -l | grep -E "^ii.*(kernel|linux-image|base-files)"

r00ster · 08-05-2010, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlucardZero

..so what makes you think you dist-upgraded?

Post your sources.list. Post

Code:

dpkg -l | grep -E "^ii.*(kernel|linux-image|base-files)"

Code:

rooster@royrogers:~$ dpkg -l | grep -E "^ii.*(kernel|linux-image|base-files)"
ii  base-files                        4                                               Debian base system miscellaneous files
ii  libdrm2                           2.0.2-0.1                                       Userspace interface to kernel DRM services -
ii  linux-image-2.6-686               2.6.18+6etch2                                   Linux kernel 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/P
ii  linux-image-2.6.18-5-686          2.6.18.dfsg.1-13etch6                           Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/
ii  linux-image-686                   2.6.18+6etch3                                   Linux kernel image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/
ii  module-init-tools                 3.3-pre4-2                                      tools for managing Linux kernel modules

Thanks for replying AZ.

I ran "apt-get dist-upgrade" in terminal after editing my sources list to retrieve lenny.

Code:

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/ lenny main

deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib

As far as I know, it installed with no Errors. Funny thing though ... the last line ended with:

Code:

royrogers:/home/rooster# aptitudeaptitude

That isn't the way I expected. But it's the first time I've done an upgrade to a new distro... so I didn't know what it was supposed to tell me.

As you infer, and as I have been finding out, the upgrade didn't complete. Would you suggest I run the command again?

AlucardZero · 08-05-2010, 04:50 PM

You're certainly still on Etch. Did you do "apt-get update" after editing sources.list? And did it complete? Do update then dist-upgrade.

Also, if you haven't read the release notes, you should. http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...rading.en.html

pljvaldez · 08-05-2010, 05:37 PM

Try this

Code:

aptitude update
aptitude keep-all
aptitude install dpkg aptitude apt
aptitude full-upgrade

keep-all will fix dependency problems with the switch from apt-get to aptitude as aptitude is the recommended tool now because of superior dependency handling problems. Then you upgrade the core tools of the apt/dpkg system. Then do a full upgrade.

r00ster · 08-05-2010, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlucardZero

You're certainly still on Etch. Did you do "apt-get update" after editing sources.list? And did it complete? Do update then dist-upgrade.

As per my OP:

Quote:

FYI:
Did several apt-get udates.
Did 5 reboots.
installed libfam0c102

Yes, I did the apt-get updates after editing the sources.list. As far as I can remember, it did complete with no [E]rrors;
...else I would have made a note of it/them in my running notes.

Quote:

Also, if you haven't read the release notes, you should. http://www.debian.org/releases/stabl...rading.en.html

Yes, I read them. That's part of the reason I suspected Lenny failed to install.

At this moment, I'm inclined to exercise an abundance of caution and re-backup my docs and /etc
just in case I run into another snag.

r00ster · 08-05-2010, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pljvaldez

Try this

Code:

aptitude update
aptitude keep-all
aptitude install dpkg aptitude apt
aptitude full-upgrade

keep-all will fix dependency problems with the switch from apt-get to aptitude as aptitude is the recommended tool now because of superior dependency handling problems. Then you upgrade the core tools of the apt/dpkg system. Then do a full upgrade.

Thanks plgv,

I spent the best part of a week reviewing literature on apt-get versus aptitude, including Aaron Toponce's article:
http://pthree.org/2007/08/12/aptitude-vs-apt-get/. I'm too much of a newbie to presume to have an opinion worth bruiting.
But for my purposes I made the decision to stick with apt-get based on conclusions and observations of others.
To whit:
1. If what your using works for you, don't change.
2. The evidence that aptitude handles (removing?)dependencies better than apt-get is presumptive and argumentative.
3. Improvements to apt-get are forthcoming.

I do appreciate your advice.

I might have uncovered the problem. Although I don't know how to recall the actual command I gave for the
upgrade, I suspect it might not have been: apt-get dist-upgrade, but "apt-get full upgrade". Whether this would make a
difference or not, I dunno.

AlucardZero · 08-05-2010, 10:03 PM

dist-upgrade was renamed to full-upgrade.

Does /etc/apt/preferences exist? What does it contain ?

pljvaldez · 08-06-2010, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r00ster

Thanks plgv,

I spent the best part of a week reviewing literature on apt-get versus aptitude, including Aaron Toponce's article:
http://pthree.org/2007/08/12/aptitude-vs-apt-get/. I'm too much of a newbie to presume to have an opinion worth bruiting.
But for my purposes I made the decision to stick with apt-get based on conclusions and observations of others.
To whit:
1. If what your using works for you, don't change.
2. The evidence that aptitude handles (removing?)dependencies better than apt-get is presumptive and argumentative.
3. Improvements to apt-get are forthcoming.

I do appreciate your advice.

I might have uncovered the problem. Although I don't know how to recall the actual command I gave for the
upgrade, I suspect it might not have been: apt-get dist-upgrade, but "apt-get full upgrade". Whether this would make a
difference or not, I dunno.

I'm just a sheep.

When I did the dist-upgrade from Sarge to Etch years ago, that note about aptitude being preferred was in the release notes. Since then I've just used aptitude since it works the same from the command line. It also has a curses interface, but I can't say I've ever used it.