OpenSuSE System Update From 10.2 to 10.3

ThisGuyIKnow · 11-16-2007, 03:03 PM

I tried doing an update on an HP Proliant DL380 from 10.2 to 10.3, but was unsuccessful. During the "Install boot manager" part of the installation, I get the following error:

Code:

An error occurred during initrd creation.

Kernel image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default
Initrd image: /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default
Root device: /dev/cciss/c0d0p10 (mounted on / as ext3)
Device cciss!c0d0p not found in sysfs
Script /lib/mkinitrd/setup/72-block.sh failed!

Then it lets me continue with an Okay button and then it won't boot because it gives me some sort of "error 15 file not found" error that I didn't have time to write down. Is there any chance of recovering from this? Help please!

- Gavin

Micro420 · 11-18-2007, 11:38 AM

How about just doing a base system reinstallation rather than an upgrade?

Lola Kews · 11-18-2007, 12:16 PM

ThisGuyIKnow, I am a newbie but I did exactly what you did. When I went to SUSE Open 10.3 from 10.2 I just used the "update function. I had so many problems I think I drove half the guys here nuts with questions. Finally I had enough of things not working so I downloaded the "whole/long" version from SUSE using KTorrent. Don't try downloading with out a torrent type program!
After I installed the complete new version 98% of the problems all went away. You might want to seriously consider doing this also. Good luck.

ThisGuyIKnow · 11-19-2007, 01:58 PM

Quote:

How about just doing a base system reinstallation rather than an upgrade?

This is "option B" for me. I was testing the "update only" feature of the 10.3 install on a test server because eventually I have to update my production servers (which all have 10.1 or 10.2) and it would be ideal if the update worked. I have a lot of data and other things that take a lot of time to do this via "option B". It'd be nice if I didn't have to bother our campus network engineer to play "musical servers" to make "option B" work with minimal downtime.

Quote:

ThisGuyIKnow, I am a newbie but I did exactly what you did. When I went to SUSE Open 10.3 from 10.2 I just used the "update function. I had so many problems I think I drove half the guys here nuts with questions. Finally I had enough of things not working so I downloaded the "whole/long" version from SUSE using KTorrent. Don't try downloading with out a torrent type program!
After I installed the complete new version 98% of the problems all went away. You might want to seriously consider doing this also. Good luck.

Yeah, from extensive Googling and the replies from you and Micro420 (THANK YOU BOTH!) it seems that it just doesn't work and I'll have to do a clean install. Argh. What a P.I.T.A.

ThisGuyIKnow · 11-19-2007, 03:37 PM

Just tried a clean install and got a similar error message.

Strange, I've successfully installed 2 instances of 10.3 on my MacBook (via Parallels), one Gnome and one no GUI at all, and no problems there. The HP Proliant DL380 is kind of an industry standard. Dang, am I going to have to finally switch distros?

Micro420 · 11-19-2007, 06:59 PM

Personally if I were you, I would not even bother updating your production servers if everything works fine. Why take the risk? I don't know the support cycle for OpenSuSE, but I would not be using OpenSuSE for production machines. I would look into Ubuntu 6.06, Debian, CentOS, RedHat, or the commercial SuSE Enterprise

Did you check your media to make sure it really is in tact and clean? Not corrupted? How about your memory? Hard drive space? Do you have an IDE or SATA connection?

ThisGuyIKnow · 11-20-2007, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Personally if I were you, I would not even bother updating your production servers if everything works fine. Why take the risk?

Because I don't want to be surprised one day when I find out 10.1 is no longer being supported/updated. To be honest, I don't know when 10.1 will stop being supported.

Quote:

I don't know the support cycle for OpenSuSE, but I would not be using OpenSuSE for production machines. I would look into Ubuntu 6.06, Debian, CentOS, RedHat, or the commercial SuSE Enterprise

Why? Is OpenSuSE not generally used on servers? What makes those other distros more suited to production servers? (I'm genuinely curious) Coincidentally, I downloaded Ubuntu 6.06LTS Server yesterday. Would this be better than using OpenSuSE? Why?

Thanks for you input!

ThisGuyIKnow · 11-20-2007, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Did you check your media to make sure it really is in tact and clean? Not corrupted? How about your memory? Hard drive space? Do you have an IDE or SATA connection?

These are all fine. Proliant DL380's have a RAID array.

Lola Kews · 11-20-2007, 01:13 PM

[QUOTE=ThisGuyIKnow;2964550]Just tried a clean install and got a similar error message.

When you say clean install do you mean you downloaded it again and installed or you used the same disk again?

Micro420 · 11-20-2007, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThisGuyIKnow

Because I don't want to be surprised one day when I find out 10.1 is no longer being supported/updated. To be honest, I don't know when 10.1 will stop being supported.

Why? Is OpenSuSE not generally used on servers? What makes those other distros more suited to production servers? (I'm genuinely curious) Coincidentally, I downloaded Ubuntu 6.06LTS Server yesterday. Would this be better than using OpenSuSE? Why?

Thanks for you input!

I also have no idea what the life cycle of OpenSuSE 10.x's are, either, but I am guess it's only 1-2 years since they release versions fast.

OpenSuSE shouldn't be used in production servers. Now it depends on what you are using it for, but if I managed 500+ users, I would definitely not be putting OpenSuSE on my servers because of the short support cycle (I'm guessing).

The reason why you should use the other distros for a real production environment is because they have clear long term support and life cycles. For example. Ubuntu 6.06 Server is supported until 2010 or 2011. That's a pretty lengthy amount of time. It's the same with Debian, CentOS, SuSE Enterprise, and RedHat. Those are very stable and go through extensive testing. That's the only reason why I mention it. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but I would definitely rely on those distros for a real work environment. If there's something really "bleeding" edge that you need, you could try rolling your own kernel and testing it out rather than doing a complete overhaul with the point of no return.

Just advice. You can take it with a grain of salt.