lilo won't add the new kernel 2.6.20

[elroger]

Hi,
My English is bad so don't blame me for this.
Today, i've tried to upgrade my ubuntu 6.10 edgy to ubuntu 7.04 feisty.
The update can't finish because lilo can't add the kernel 2.6.20 entry.
My root partition is on xfs filesystem, reason i need to use lilo instead of grub.

when i tried sudo lilo
i get :

Added Linux *
Fatal: Empty map section

My upgrade can't finish because of this.

[James Troup (elmo)]

I ran into the same problem on a (Intel) Macbook Pro. The problem is because something is leaving 0 byte initrd.img files around in /boot. A trivial work around is to rm or move them out of the way. However this effectively breaks upgrades from Edgy to Feisty on machines that use lilo. Either update-initramfs shouldn't be generating these 0 byte initrd.img files or lilo needs to be fixed to ignore them.

[Tollef Fog Heen (tfheen)]

Milestoning for beta.

[Kyle McMartin (kyle)]

Someone want to give this a test? I don't feel like blowing away my bootsector...

[Kyle McMartin (kyle)]

The real question here is why are these initramfs not being properly generated in the first place...

[James Troup (elmo)]

Sorry, patch doesn't work, warning doesn't trigger, same error. The initramfs's which are zero size are for 2.6.17 - I assume they're like that because of the udev compatability madness

[Tollef Fog Heen (tfheen)]

Bringing milestone forward.

[Dejan (dejan-rodiger)]

I just upgraded from 6.10 to 7.04 beta through internet. I had some error's with this packages: initramfs-tools, console-setup, ubuntu-minimal, usplash, kubuntu-artwork-usplash, kubuntu-desktop, linux-image-2.6.20-14-generic, linux-image-generic, linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20-14-generic, linux-restricted-modules-generic, linux-generic, linux-image-2.6.20-13-386
linux-image-2.6.20-14-386, linux-image-386, linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20-13-386, nvidia-glx, usplash-theme-ubuntu, ubuntu-desktop

After I upgraded I tried to reboot. With my 2.6.17 kernel I wasn't able to boot (kernel-panic root something problem).
Then I tried to boot my older kernel 2.6.15-23 and I was able to boot (but because of problems with nvidia, as you see in my packages list, I was not able to boot to into X until I have changed my xorg.conf).

Then I tried to apt-get upgrade rest of the packages, and I was getting errors with initramfs-tools:
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.85g) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-386
W: mdadm: unchecked configuration file: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
W: mdadm: please read /usr/share/doc/mdadm/README.upgrading-2.5.3.gz .
W: mdadm: no arrays defined in configuration file.
W: mdadm: falling back to emergency procedure in initramfs.
ERROR lilo fails for new /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-386:

Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not match '/dev' directory structure.
    Name change: '/dev/dm-0' -> '/dev/evms/hda1'
Added Linux *
Fatal: Empty map section

Finally, I think I have problem with both lilo and initramfs-tools.
lilo can't update because initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386 is zero size, but this is the only kernel I can boot.

As you see I tried all versions of initramfs-tools (from 0.69, 0.85e to 0.85g from Debian).

What should I do?

[Dejan (dejan-rodiger)]

OK. I commented initrd with zero size initrd.img
# initrd=/initrd.img.old
in lilo.conf and everything upgraded. I will have to check if I can boot now.

[Dejan (dejan-rodiger)]

Not OK.
After reboot, my system doesn't work.

If I boot my new kernel (2.6.20) I end in busybox (initramfs) prompt.
I see this messages:
mount: Mounting /root/dev on /dev/.static/dev failed:No such file or directory
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Done.
mount: Mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such file or directory
mount: Mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such file or directory
Traget filesystem doesnt have /sbin/init
Busy Box v1.1.3

and then messages for usb 1-2.

If I boot my old kernel, which was working before, now ends with kernel-panic: unable to mount root or something...

So, where is the problem? Lilo or initramfs-tools?
Maybe here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/31790

[Dejan (dejan-rodiger)]

I am able to boot only with instruction to lilo on boot screen: root=/dev/hda1

[Kyle McMartin (kyle)]

Please test with the following patch applied.

[jscc88 (jscc88-deactivatedaccount)]

you have to download the kernel of www.kernel.org

and you have to get the new stable version

[Julian Alarcon (julian-alarcon)]

The user Juan Sebastian Cobaleda Cano is a troll, or something. We, in the Ubuntu-Co Team are checking all his changes in Launchpad. Sorry for the problems.

[David Stansby (dstansby-deactivatedaccount)]

Please could you see if this is still a problem in a newer version of Ubuntu?

[Dejan (dejan-rodiger)]

I am on Ubuntu 10.04 and everything is fine. I am using grub2 now. Thanks

[David Stansby (dstansby-deactivatedaccount)]

I think this should be marked as won't fix, but since I can't I'll mark it as invalid for now.