TWIMC: The following is a summary of the problems I encountered when the kernel image vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64 was released.
1. A dist-upgrade loaded and tried to install linux-base and the 2.6.32-5 kernel image. The install failed with error messages from dosfslabel. 2. Running dosfslabel on each partition of the systems hard drives gave an error only for the partition /dev/hda1. In the distant past this partition had been a windoze partition but long ago had been reformated as an ext2 partition. To remove any trace of the old windoze installation all the files were backed up and every partition on /dev/hda was deleted, re-created and formated as ext3 partitions. After this dosfslabel no longer gave an error when run on the individual partitions but the installation of linux-base still failed with an error message from dosfslabel. 3. There remained the possibility of a remnant of windoze in the MBR so lilo was used to write a new MBR to boot kernel image 2.6.32-3 on /dev/hda. The MBR's on the other two hard drives, sda and sdb, were written by grub. The system booted normally from any of the three hard drives but the installation of linux-base still failed with an error message from dosfslabel. 4. It was suggested that the presence of usb devices was causing the problem so all were disconnected. The installation of linux-base still failed with an error message for dosfslabel. 5. The fstab contained entries cdrom drives and usb storage devices which accessed vfat files. The fstab was backed up and edited to include only the ext3 hard drive partitions. Finally linux-base and the 2.6.32-5 kernel image were successfully installed. 6. During the installation of the new kernel the fstab was modified to identify the hard drives by their UUID's. The system then could no longer be booted from MBR's installed by grub. The boot tried to load the new 2.6.32-5 kernel but failed when the root directory could not be found. 7. The system still booted normally to the 2.6.32-3 kernel from the MBR installed on /dev/hda by lilo. At this point the entries for the cdrom drives and usb drives were restored to fstab, lilo.conf was edited to include the new 2.6.32-5 kernel image, lilo was run and the system rebooted. Reboots from /dev/sda and from /dev/sdb still failed but boots from /dev/hda worked fine loading the 2.6.32-5 kernel image. 8. The astounding current difficulty is made clear by the following listing of fstab # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 # /dev/sdb1 / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1 UUID=bfcd3316-153a-4279-ab86-286906857b98 / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1 # /dev/sdb5 none swap sw 0 0 UUID=4b1523d0-bec9-4565-b085-0a151469b8db none swap sw 0 0 # formerly named /dev/sda1 is now: UUID=507caf8f-f9cd-4ed2-91cc-3e46ae942e9d /bkups ext3 rw,user,noauto 0 2 # /dev/sda5 /ubuntu ext3 defaults 0 2 UUID=28a4eb99-6213-4b82-96a2-42b45097e256 /ubuntu ext3 defaults 0 2 # /dev/sda6 /data ext3 defaults 0 2 UUID=36cb29b0-2694-4dee-9ae4-10351963b979 /data ext3 defaults 0 2 /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0 # /dev/hda1 /temp ext2 rw,user,auto 0 2 UUID=4a2915d8-60cf-498e-a15c-f0bc6ebdb25e /temp ext2 rw,user,auto 0 2 # /dev/hda5 /storage ext2 defaults 0 2 UUID=408287f4-8b15-42d1-b6d3-bfeaefde3002 /storage ext2 defaults 0 2 # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> /dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0 /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0 /dev/scd0 /media/cddata auto ro,user,noauto 0 0 /dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0 /dev/sdc1 /usbkey auto rw,user,noauto 0 0 /dev/sdc5 /media/bkup ext3 rw,user,noauto 0 0 /dev/sdc /media/fuze vfat rw,user,noauto 0 0 /dev/sr0 /media/cdrw iso9660 rw,user,noauto 0 0 /dev/sr1 /dvdrw iso9660 rw,user,noauto 0 0 /dev/sg0 /sony iso9660 rw,user,noauto 0 0 /dev/sg1 /usbdrive vfat rw,user,noauto 0 0 as compared to the output of df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sdc1 71G 39G 29G 58% / tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /lib/init/rw udev 2.0G 252K 2.0G 1% /dev tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /dev/shm /dev/sda5 44G 180M 42G 1% /ubuntu /dev/sda6 276G 43G 219G 17% /data /dev/sdb1 1.7G 35M 1.6G 3% /temp /dev/sdb5 27G 13G 13G 51% /storage Note that the root directory is shown on /dev/sdc1 which should be an empty cdrom drive! There are no entries for /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda5 but their contents are shown on /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb5! The root directory is really on sdb1 and lilo knows this. I have no idea how to straighten out this mess. Tom -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100731164235.ga4...@tomgeorge.info