when multiple kernel flavors installed, grub sorts them alphabetically

[Ted Parvu]

Binary package hint: update-manager

Hello, I tried to upgrade from 8.04 to 9.10 and it didn't go well. I was using the update-manage and after it downloaded all the packages there was some dependency issues and it failed. I dropped to a command line and did a series of

apt-get -f install

and

apt-get dist-upgrade

and eventually had to remove the openoffice.org-core package and then I was able to get the upgrade to finish.

However when I rebooted the system couldn't boot.

I was getting a;

mountall:/proc/self/mountinfo

File not found among other errors.

After scouring the web for an hour I saw other people who had had problems with menu.lst pointing to the wrong kernel. Sure, enough that was my problem as well.

After using the 'e' option from the grub boot to point to the latest kernel image I have been able to boot.

I have a customized menu.lst and I can't recall if I was asked to replace it and if I did or did not allow update-manager to replace it.

I have attached my dist-upgrade logs and my menu.lst, sorry I didn't have more details but I upgraded last night and it is all a little hazy this morning. :)

thanks for all the good work!

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Oct 30 08:43:58 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: update-manager (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: update-manager
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686

[Ted Parvu (ted-parvu)]

Hmm, this might be a problem with update-grub?

I just ran "sudo update-grub" from a shell and it isn't modifying my menu.lst. Which is to say it is still generating a broken menu.lst pointing to an old kernel image.

I am attaching the output of running update-grub the menu.lst is the same as the one I attached earlier

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

Thanks for your bugreport.

This looks like the upgrade was completted ok and had no errors. I reassign to grub.

[Ted Parvu (ted-parvu)]

On Friday 30 October 2009 10:04:44 am Michael Vogt wrote:
> Thanks for your bugreport.
>
> This looks like the upgrade was completted ok and had no errors. I
> reassign to grub.
>
> ** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> ** Package changed: update-manager (Ubuntu) => grub (Ubuntu)
>
> ** Changed in: grub (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => New
>

well now that I think about it there are probably two bugs here. One had
something to do with a dependency issue with openoffice.org-core it needed to be
removed before the upgrade could complete.

The second is a problem with update-grub not creating a good menu.lst.

--
I know now as men accept the time clock of the wilderness, their lives become
entirely different. It is one of the great compensations of primitive
experience, and when one finally reaches the point where days are governed by
daylight and dark, rather than by schedules, where one eats if hungry and
sleeps when tired, and becomes completely immersed in the ancient rhythms,
then one begins to live. -- Sigurd Olson

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

The problem here is that you have kernels of two different flavors installed, and update-grub sorts them alphabetically in the boot menu because it doesn't know how else to sort them.

Definitely a bug, though I don't know how we would fix it.

[Ted Parvu (ted-parvu)]

Well, I went ahead and uninstalled the Xen packages and now update-grub is able to generate a valid menu.lst

[dino99 (9d9)]

This is no more a supported version; and grub legacy upstream is also stopped, only receiving possible random fixes locally