[SOLVED] CentOS 8 upgrade error kernel-core

salmanahmed · 07-18-2020, 10:57 AM

Hi
I have installed CentOS 8. After recent release of updates, I am trying to upgrade my CentOS by (yum upgrade), but it is giving following error:

Code:

Error: 
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core
(try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)

So, when I give the command (yum upgrade --skip-broken), it gives following message:

Code:

Error: 
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core
(try to add '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)

and the command (yum upgrade --skip-broken --nobest) gives following error:

Code:

Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core

Upon looking on forums, I can find some old posts, terming it as a bug, but nothing about CentOS 8. Kindly help me to solve this problem.

shruggy · 07-19-2020, 09:55 AM

See the bug BZ#1741381, especially the comment 3 there. As suggested in that comment, try

Code:

dnf mark install $(rpm -qa kernel\*)

salmanahmed · 07-19-2020, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

See the bug BZ#1741381, especially the comment 3 there. As suggested in that comment, try

Code:

dnf mark install $(rpm -qa kernel\*)

I ran following command, as mentioned in comment 3:

Code:

[root@alpha ~]# dnf mark install $(dnf repoquery --installed 'kernel*')
Modular dependency problems:

 Problem 1: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides module(perl:5.26) needed by module perl-DBD-SQLite:1.58:8010020191114033549:073fa5fe-0.x86_64
 Problem 2: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides module(perl:5.26) needed by module perl-DBI:1.641:8010020191113222731:16b3ab4d-0.x86_64
Modular dependency problems:

 Problem 1: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides module(perl:5.26) needed by module perl-DBD-SQLite:1.58:8010020191114033549:073fa5fe-0.x86_64
 Problem 2: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides module(perl:5.26) needed by module perl-DBI:1.641:8010020191113222731:16b3ab4d-0.x86_64
kernel-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 marked as user installed.
kernel-core-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 marked as user installed.
kernel-devel-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 marked as user installed.
kernel-headers-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 marked as user installed.
kernel-modules-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 marked as user installed.
kernel-tools-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 marked as user installed.
kernel-tools-libs-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 marked as user installed.

And confirmed by following command:

Code:

[root@alpha ~]# dnf repoquery --userinstalled | grep kernel
Modular dependency problems:

 Problem 1: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides module(perl:5.26) needed by module perl-DBD-SQLite:1.58:8010020191114033549:073fa5fe-0.x86_64
 Problem 2: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides module(perl:5.26) needed by module perl-DBI:1.641:8010020191113222731:16b3ab4d-0.x86_64
kernel-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64
kernel-core-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64
kernel-devel-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64
kernel-headers-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64
kernel-modules-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64
kernel-tools-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64
kernel-tools-libs-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64

However, the problem persists:

Code:

[root@alpha ~]# yum upgrade
Last metadata expiration check: 0:33:46 ago on Sun 19 Jul 2020 07:38:01 PM PKT.
Error: 
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core
(try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)
[root@alpha ~]# 
[root@alpha ~]# yum upgrade --skip-broken
Last metadata expiration check: 0:34:33 ago on Sun 19 Jul 2020 07:38:01 PM PKT.
Error: 
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core
(try to add '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)
[root@alpha ~]# 
[root@alpha ~]# yum upgrade --skip-broken --nobest
Last metadata expiration check: 0:34:39 ago on Sun 19 Jul 2020 07:38:01 PM PKT.
Error: 
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core

PS: I think that perl module error can be ignored and would not be causing that problem.

shruggy · 07-19-2020, 10:25 AM

Where did the kernel you're currently running come from? Is it the kernel shown above? Please show the output of uname -r.

Are there any kernels installed besides kernel-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 shown in the output above? Please show the output of ls /boot.

Also, check the contents of /etc/dnf/protected.d/*.conf. Beside the packages specified there, dnf implicitly protects the currently running kernel, so kernel-core shouldn't be explicitly mentioned there.

salmanahmed · 07-19-2020, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

Where does the kernel you're currently running come from? Is it the kernel shown above? Please show the output of uname -r.

Are there any kernels installed besides kernel-0:4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 shown in the output above? Please show the output of ls /boot.

Also, check the contents of /etc/dnf/protected.d/*.conf. Beside the packages specified there, dnf implicitly protects the currently running kernel, so kernel-core shouldn't be explicitly mentioned there.

1. The kernel came from distro, as a result of previous upgrades:

Code:

[root@alpha ~]# uname -r
4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64

2. There aren't other kernels installed. Please check the contents of /boot:

Code:

[root@alpha ~]# cd /boot
[root@alpha boot]# ls
config-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64
efi
grub2
initramfs-0-rescue-8a9c79d95b28479a833f3442576c711f.img
initramfs-4.18.0-147.5.1.el8_1.x86_64kdump.img
initramfs-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64.img
initramfs-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64kdump.img
initramfs-4.18.0-147.el8.x86_64kdump.img
loader
System.map-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64
vmlinuz-0-rescue-8a9c79d95b28479a833f3442576c711f
vmlinuz-4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64

3. kernel-core is not mentioned in /etc/dnd/protected.d/*.conf:

Code:

[root@alpha protected.d]# ls
dnf.conf  sudo.conf  systemd.conf  yum.conf
[root@alpha protected.d]# cat dnf.conf 
dnf
[root@alpha protected.d]# cat sudo.conf 
sudo
[root@alpha protected.d]# cat systemd.conf 
systemd
systemd-udev
[root@alpha protected.d]# cat yum.conf 
yum

shruggy · 07-19-2020, 12:01 PM

Hmm, then I would suggest the following. Download the packages in question (dnf --downloadonly upgrade), then reboot into the rescue kernel and install them with rpm -i:

Code:

rpm -i /var/cache/dnf/BaseOS-*/packages/kernel*.rpm

salmanahmed · 07-19-2020, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

Hmm, then I would suggest the following. Download the packages in question (dnf --downloadonly upgrade), then reboot into the rescue kernel and install them with rpm -i:

Code:

rpm -i /var/cache/dnf/BaseOS-*/packages/kernel*.rpm

Nope... the result is same:

Code:

[root@alpha ~]# dnf --downloadonly upgrade
Last metadata expiration check: 1:49:21 ago on Sun 19 Jul 2020 10:39:36 PM PKT.
Error: 
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core
(try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)
[root@alpha ~]# 
[root@alpha ~]# dnf --downloadonly upgrade --skip-broken --nobest
Last metadata expiration check: 1:49:35 ago on Sun 19 Jul 2020 10:39:36 PM PKT.
Error: 
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core

shruggy · 07-19-2020, 03:05 PM

Ok. The you'll need to download manually at least kernel, kernel-core and kernel-modules, and install them all at once with rpm -i.

salmanahmed · 07-20-2020, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

Ok. The you'll need to download manually at least kernel, kernel-core and kernel-modules, and install them all at once with rpm -i.

The problem is fixed. Following were the step which I followed:
1. Download kernel, kernel-core and kernel-modules, linux-firmware.
2. Boot in rescue mode.
3. Remove existing linux-firmware package and install downloaded package.
4. Then Install kernel packages by (rpm -iv kernel*)
5. Reboot
Thanks shruggy, you are a life savor :-)

olevlad · 12-18-2023, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy

Hmm, then I would suggest the following. Download the packages in question (dnf --downloadonly upgrade), then reboot into the rescue kernel and install them with rpm -i:

Code:

rpm -i /var/cache/dnf/BaseOS-*/packages/kernel*.rpm

I got this from this from the rescue...

error: Failed dependencies:
kernel-headers < 4.18.0-348.7.1.el8_5 is obsoleted by kernel-headers-4.18.0-348.7.1.el8_5.x86_64

uname -r
3.10.0-1160.102.1.el7.x86_64