kernel upgrade does not update grub boot menu

[Edmund Laugasson]

When upgrading kernel, it does not update /boot/grub/menu.lst with new installed kernel. It gives the following output:
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
The following packages will be upgraded:
  linux-image-2.6.15-26-386
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 21,6MB of archives.
After unpacking 12,3kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get: 1 http://security.ubuntu.com dapper-security/main linux-image-2.6.15-26-386 2.6.15-26.45 [21,6MB]
Fetched 21,6MB in 6m2s (59,7kB/s)
DESTROY created new reference to dead object ' Qt::SpacerItem', <> line 1 during global destruction.
(Reading database ... 88595 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace linux-image-2.6.15-26-386 2.6.15-26.44 (using .../linux-image-2.6.15-26-386_2.6.15-26.45_i386.deb) ...
The directory /lib/modules/2.6.15-26-386 still exists. Continuing as directed.
Unpacking replacement linux-image-2.6.15-26-386 ...
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.list file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
sed: -e avaldis #1, sümbol 186: Invalid range end
sed: -e avaldis #1, sümbol 45: Invalid range end
sed: -e avaldis #1, sümbol 186: Invalid range end
User hook script /sbin/update-grub failed at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.15-26-386.postrm line 269.
Setting up linux-image-2.6.15-26-386 (2.6.15-26.45) ...
Not touching initrd symlinks since we are being reinstalled (2.6.15-26.44)
Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated (2.6.15-26.44)
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.list file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
sed: -e avaldis #1, sümbol 186: Invalid range end
sed: -e avaldis #1, sümbol 45: Invalid range end
sed: -e avaldis #1, sümbol 186: Invalid range end
User hook script /sbin/update-grub failed at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.15-26-386.postinst line 991.

I use Kubuntu 6.06 LTS in Estonian language.

[Edmund Laugasson (ed-lau)]

This is the file
/var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.15-26-386.postinst

[Edmund Laugasson (ed-lau)]

This is the file:
/var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.15-26-386.postrm

[Lionel Porcheron (lionel.porcheron)]

Can you also provide your /boot/grub/menu.lst please ?

[Edmund Laugasson (ed-lau)]

This is original /boot/grub/menu.lst from Kubuntu 6.06 LTS.

[Edmund Laugasson (ed-lau)]

I installed on 24th of July 2006 again Kubuntu 6.06 LTS and the following error messages were appeared onto terminal window:

Setting up linux-image-2.6.15-26-386 (2.6.15-26.45) ...
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.list file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
sed: -e expression #1, symbol 186: Invalid range end
sed: -e expression #1, symbol 45: Invalid range end
sed: -e expression #1, symbol 186: Invalid range end
User hook script /sbin/update-grub failed at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.15-26-386.postinst line 991.

###
Just in case I add again the file /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-2.6.15-26-386.postinst for debugging purposes - perhaps there are some changes with earlier version.

I translated some words into english due to fact, that I use KDE in Estonian language.

[Edmund Laugasson (ed-lau)]

And here is my /etc/apt/sources.list which is modified by me to fit Kubuntu 6.06 needs. I've been imported all necessary GPG keys, what kubuntu.org provided.

Here is also listing from my /boot folder:
# ls -l /boot
all together 18270
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 266619 2006-05-23 19:56 abi-2.6.15-23-386
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 266619 2006-07-18 00:48 abi-2.6.15-26-386
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 69878 2006-05-23 16:47 config-2.6.15-23-386
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 69876 2006-07-17 22:50 config-2.6.15-26-386
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 2006-07-24 22:12 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6775662 2006-07-24 22:11 initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6781849 2006-07-24 22:12 initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 12288 2006-07-24 19:14 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 94760 2005-10-25 13:32 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 725460 2006-05-23 19:56 System.map-2.6.15-23-386
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 726025 2006-07-18 00:48 System.map-2.6.15-26-386
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1414477 2006-05-23 19:56 vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1414704 2006-07-18 00:48 vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386

You may see, that new kernel is installed properly but not added to /boot/grub/menu.lst
Yes, I have also MS Windows XP in this machine but when I first reported this bug, I had only Kubuntu 6.06 LTS on the board.
I checked log files at /var/log/ and files messages, syslog, debug, aptitude, kern.log did not provide any information about this failure.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Thanks for your report. This is also bug 55440; although that one was filed later, it's already linked to the appropriate Debian bug, so I'll mark this one as a duplicate.