New kernel won't boot SOLVED! Thanx again!

[dougmack]

Was running 2.6.38/8-pclos3.bfs on a Foxconn G41MXE mobo with an Intel Celeron E3400 CPU, which is has PAE capability, according to LSPCI and dmidecode.
I have 8GB of ram installed. Loaded new kernel 3.2.18-pclos1.pae.bfs and rebooted, or tried to. Black screen appears, with "lightning flashes" once every 10
seconds or so, but that's all. Only way out was to pull the switch. Fortunately, the boot screen has an option to boot what I think is the old kernel, and that's
what I'm working from now. (I had looked all day on the forum "news" section for instructions, but there weren't any.)   I'd like to have the 8GB capability.
What do you suggest?

Thanx, guys--doug

[Archie]

First time booting to a newly installed kernel takes time to rebuild all the modules. The flickering screen could be the videocard module getting tested for resolutions, etc. And you should have booted using verbose to see what's going on behind the bootsplash. It's hard to say if there's really anything wrong without evidently errors that something is wrong.

Just consider yourself lucky that when you "pulled the switch" as your only way out, you didn't boot to a kernel panic or kernel oops.

[dougmack]

Thanx, Archie for the quick reply.

Please excuse my ignorance, but when you say "boot using verbose" do you mean safe mode, or what?  I just tried safe mode on another computer, and it puts up a batch of information, but then the screen clears, so I couldn't read what it said.  And I will try the boot again, if you suggest, and leave it go overnite to see if it will eventually boot, but
if it doesn't, how then to get out without pulling the switch?

--doug

[pinoc]

Hi doug,

I had the same issue with FullMonty, on the same hardware the new kernel 3.2.18-2 would seem to hang at "starting HAL". Sometimes this can happen when a new kernel is booted up for the first time, apart from the kernel modules being build. Just give it some time and it should eventually continue the boot process. In my case it took an extra 4 minutes because it needed to test for all the extra things FullMonty has preinstalled. This delay in boot time will only happen at the very first time the new kernel boots. After that it is back to normal boot times, in fact 3.2.18 boots faster than 2.6.38. To see the boot messages simply press the Escape-key in order to switch between the plymouth-theme and the boot messages.
good luck,
-p.

[dougmack]

Thank you, pinoc.  I'm going to try that now.  I hope I don't have to pull the switch if it fails. I do have another Linux computer--my laptop--so I can call here again if it fails
before I pull the switch.  As I said before, I'll let it sit and cogitate while I go to bed, unless it boots firly quickly this time.

Does anybody reading this know if there will be instructions somewhere, before I louse up the laptop too?

Great help, here!

--doug

[pinoc]

Thank you, pinoc.  I'm going to try that now.  I hope I don't have to pull the switch if it fails. I do have another Linux computer--my laptop--so I can call here again if it fails
before I pull the switch.  As I said before, I'll let it sit and cogitate while I go to bed, unless it boots firly quickly this time.

Does anybody reading this know if there will be instructions somewhere, before I louse up the laptop too?

Great help, here!

--doug

why should you loose your laptop? When you install a new kernel it will always be added to the existing ones, so if any issues are encountered you can simply boot with the kernel that was working fine. 

[T6]

you mention you installed 2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs, why not pclos3.pae.bfs?  also try just pae

you can have multiple kernels installed without problems, just don't remove the original one you know that works

what video card do you have?  a nvidia or a ati/amd?  did you installed the driver for it from synaptic?

[dougmack]

Thank you, T6.  Your input is quite informative.  ( I don't remember why I had installed the original kernel--probably before I updated the mobo and cpu.)
I have a GeForce 550 Ti video card, and I was using an NVidia driver with "170" in the name.  When I installed the new kernel, it said something about
removing Nvidia 170, and that's the problem.  The kernel will boot to a CLI ("safe mode") but it comes up with all kinds of errors regarding NVIDIA. 
(I have done some digging since last nite.)

I am presently using the old kernel, which provides some kind of video, but it's defective: colors do not come out right.

There may be an NVIDIA driver--I goggled for one, and found this:
________
RPM Mandrake Other kernel-rt-source 3.2.18 i586 rpm
 
rpm.pbone.net/.../kernel-rt-source-3.2.18-1.rt29.1-mdv2012.0.i586.r...
May 30, 2012 – If you only want the files needed to build 3rdparty (nVidia, Ati, dkms-*,...) drivers against, install the *-devel-* rpm that is matching your kernel.
________
I don't know where to go with this, if I should go anywhere. but whatever the system is using now is not satisfactory, and I need to get an Nvidia driver back and installed,
or maybe take your suggestion and install a 2.38.8PAE and then try to get the 170 Nvidia driver back from somewhere.

Thanx again for your assistance.  --doug

[Just17]

The 550Ti uses the Nvidia-current driver ......  select GeForce 6100 to 360 driver in PCC - Hardware - Config Graphics card

[T6]

normally you can update kernel and the driver and the configuration remains untouched

you can reinstall the nvidia driver from synaptic, in fact i don't know why it removed it

you could verify what driver is using right now and reconfigure it

also if you have only cli on the new kernel you can write XFdrake to configure the video card on the new kernel to at least force it to load vesa or nv or maybe the correct driver if it is still there but incorrectly selected or configured

normally this step is not required, in fact i never used it unless i did something wrong when configuring the video driver but all you did was update kernel  

[monsee]

I have a little problem (on two my PC: a desktopPC and a netbook, with PCLinuxOS 2012 LXDE-mini Edition 32-bit).
New Kernel start and work good, but...
After the Kernel update, the one and the other are both mute. No sound at all.
Maybe, it is my problem only, I don't know.
Have you encontered a similar problem? 

[cyrwyn]

I have a similar problem with 3.2.18-pclos1.a64, installed yesterday. Everything in verbose mode looked OK as it booted up, modules built, etc. But when it loaded the login manager it appeared for a few seconds, then a blank screen, then it went through this process several times, then displayed a full screen of text mode and nothing more happened, not even a text login, just a blinking cursor. Ctl + Alt + delete rebooted, so I went back to kernel 2.6.38. This may be a problem with the fgrlx ATI video driver.

[dougmack]

Ok, everyone, thank you for all the assistance.  Here is what I found out, and what I need to know now.
1. The x11-driver-video-nvidia173, which was apparently removed, is now back, upgraded to 173.14.31-1pclos2012, with today's upgrade of the repos in Synaptic.  I did a reload and upgrade all, and it came up and I selected it.  I also selected pclos3.pae.bfs, the 2.6.38 kernel with pae, that I didn't have before. The machine boots nicely into that kernel and the video now has the right colors--people look like people, not like some aliens out of Startrek.

2. The other thing I found is that the 3.18 kernel that wouldn't boot into the gui could be started with startx after I put in the original video fix that was posted here (but before
I got the new Nvidia driver).  When it came up, my desktop was gone, and a peculiar desktop showed up instead.  I could put the old background up--it's a .png file that
OldPolack was nice enough to get for me a year or more ago.  But none of my program icons, and some other stuff showed up that I didn't care for.  So that's when I
went back to 2.6.38, this time with pae.

I think I'll just remain with the 2.6 kernel, unless I can get the same gui as I have now with the new kernel.  Call me a stick-in-the-mud, if you want!
Now what I need to know is how to modify menu.lst to put this 2.6.38 pae kernel on top.  What happens if I deselect (in Synaptic) the kernels I'm not using?  Or just tell me
how to edit the file so as to put 2.6.38-8pae on top, with a safe mode that also boots to that kernel.  It occurs to me that I might go to "Update MBR" from this
screen that I'm on now.  Would that work?

Thanx again, folks--doug

[Bald Brick]

Ok, everyone, thank you for all the assistance.  Here is what I found out, and what I need to know now.
1. The x11-driver-video-nvidia173, which was apparently removed, is now back, upgraded to 173.14.31-1pclos2012, with today's upgrade of the repos in Synaptic.  I did a reload and upgrade all, and it came up and I selected it.  I also selected pclos3.pae.bfs, the 2.6.38 kernel with pae, that I didn't have before. The machine boots nicely into that kernel and the video now has the right colors--people look like people, not like some aliens out of Startrek.

2. The other thing I found is that the 3.18 kernel that wouldn't boot into the gui could be started with startx after I put in the original video fix that was posted here (but before
I got the new Nvidia driver).  When it came up, my desktop was gone, and a peculiar desktop showed up instead.  I could put the old background up--it's a .png file that
OldPolack was nice enough to get for me a year or more ago.  But none of my program icons, and some other stuff showed up that I didn't care for.  So that's when I
went back to 2.6.38, this time with pae.

I think I'll just remain with the 2.6 kernel, unless I can get the same gui as I have now with the new kernel.  Call me a stick-in-the-mud, if you want!

You're a stick in the mud!  

Now what I need to know is how to modify menu.lst to put this 2.6.38 pae kernel on top.

You can do it in four different ways:

1) You can move the 2.6.38 boot stanza to the top so that it follows immediately after what on my box looks like  

Code: [Select]

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,10)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

2) You can change the "default" line in the above stanza so that it points to whatever you want as default. Note that in this case the first boot stanza is 0, the second one is 1, and so on.

3) You can manually replace all the symlinks created when you installed you new kernel with their old versions.

4) Or you can set it up in 'Configure Your Computer'. PCC -> 'Boot' -> 'Set up boot system' -> [Next] -> mark the kernel you want as your default kernel -> hit 'Modify' - tick 'Default'.

What happens if I deselect (in Synaptic)

Normally your previous kernel would become the default if you uninstall the last one you installed.

the kernels I'm not using?  Or just tell me
how to edit the file so as to put 2.6.38-8pae on top, with a safe mode that also boots to that kernel.

Depending on how you changed your default kernel you may have to check that the 'failsafe' stanza also points to the same kernel kernel.

It occurs to me that I might go to "Update MBR" from this
screen that I'm on now.  Would that work?

Thanx again, folks--doug

[dougmack]

Well, I'm no better off. I _thought_ that I had booted into 2.6.38..pae before, but maybe I was mistaken.  Now the only thing I can boot into and get a GUI is the original 2.6.38 non-pae. I tried to move the pae to the top--I don't know if it worked or not, it doesn't matter, since it won't work even with startx.  I need some way to get out of this mess.
I am booted into 2.6.38...pae now, with CLI only. I copied the /var//log/Xorg.0.log to a file, and I can attach the error messages and surrounding lines and send that, but not from here--I'm using my laptop now.  The other error message I get is advice to look in the kernel log.  I don't know what that's called or where it's located.  If someone will tell me, I'll copy that to a file also, and then abstract the salient parts and send both to you from the only os that I can use the gui on.
(If I could mount a thumb drive from the CLI, I'd copy stuff to that and send it from here, but I don't think I can.)

I just tried something else: I found that xorg.conf was dated 14 June.  I have several backups of that, so I moved and renamed things to get a version from May active, and tried to boot the 2.6...pae. No gui.  No startx--same error messages.

In /boot, there are exist: vmlinuz     vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs       vmlinuz-3.2.18-pclos1.pae.bfs

I'm using the laptop so I can leave the main machine in its goofed up state until somebody asks me to read off some file and
send it on, since every time I boot into a different kernel, things change.

I know I'm a pain, but please help me anyway!
Thanx--doug