Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

Coume · 2009-07-18 11:09:15

Hello,

Last time, I did a pacman -Syu; the laptop would not boot anymore and I never understood what went wrong...
Since this day, I did not dare upgrading the kernel(base system) again..

I now have a very outdated firefox (other packages too) that require a kernel (and several other system packages) upgrade before being able to upgrade firefox...
Rather than agreeing to the update of 50+ packages without being sure of what is happening, I would like to upgrade kernel and all the basic system packages and then if it works well, move on to the next steps (firefox, etc.)...
So what is the proper way to upgrade kernel and all the modules(system packages - i.e. wifi, alsa, etc.) to avoid breaking anything???

Thanks in advance for your help!
Ludo

.:B:. · 2009-07-18 11:22:19

The best way is a regular upgrade, and not a once-in-a-year upgrade. Being scared only makes things worse.

Frequent small incremental upgrades are the way to go. Pacman -Syu as often as you want .

I don't really get why you think Firefox depends on a certain kernel version...

I only once had an irrecoverable problem - an Xfce upgrade way back which would cause xfce to break mysteriously, de facto hosing your install (at least your Xfce installation, but if you wanted to stick with Xfce you were forced to do a clean install). Apart from that I have never needed a reinstall, and if any problems popped up, I was able to fix them - with our without the help of the community.

Make sure you read the frontpage news and dive in. There's no other way. If you lack the skills and people around here can't help you with it, then you might need to rethink your distro choice . Arch is about frequent upgrades.

Coume · 2009-07-18 12:07:24

Thanks

I will go with pacman -Syu (Edit:427 packages to upgrade... lol) and see what happens... eheh

But regarding firefox, here is the output:

[13:06:37][root@phusis]
[~]Arch64# pacman -S firefox
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Targets (24): kernel-headers-2.6.30.1-1  glibc-2.10.1-3  gcc-libs-4.4.0-5  pcre-7.9-1  glib2-2.20.4-1  xcb-util-0.3.4-2  libpng-1.2.37-1  cairo-1.8.8-1  
              libthai-0.1.12-1  pango-1.24.4-1  libtasn1-2.2-1  readline-6.0.00-1  gnutls-2.8.1-1  libjpeg-7-1  libtiff-3.8.2-5  heimdal-1.2.1-5  
              libcups-1.3.11-1  gtk2-2.16.4-1  nspr-4.8-1  nss-3.12.3-1  startup-notification-0.10-1  mime-types-1.0-2  xulrunner-1.9.1-2  firefox-3.5-1  

Total Download Size:    57.64 MB
Total Installed Size:   205.67 MB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n]

Last edited by Coume (2009-07-18 12:09:03)

.:B:. · 2009-07-18 12:44:36

Some package firefox depends on might pull in the kernel stuff, but it's not a direct dependency of firefox. I am running firefox 3.5 here and I was never asked to pull in 2.6.30 (I run my own kernel).

Edit: Judging from your prompt you seem to be running 64 bit, maybe the 64 bit packages have some other requirements (although that would surprise me).

Coume · 2009-07-18 12:49:50

OMG! Can't believe it. Just had a power cut during the pacman -Syu ... I'm posting from my phone as the laptop won't boot anymore. It can't create the root device /dev/sda3... It looks like udev is messed up. I tried the fallback kernel but I get the same error.

what is the solution to continue/restart the upgrade remotely? I've a arch install cd with me and a trinity rescue kit 3.3 cd which does boot properly and give me Internet access to wget something but that's it....

I have a working knoppmyth based on arch working too...

To summarize, i'm in deep sh*t! Lol

.:B:. · 2009-07-18 13:18:19

Without SSH there's no way to get in remotely. I assume you don't have it enabled, and even if you had, then the system would still have to boot in order for the daemon to start and you to get access.

Boot from the installation CD, chroot into your setup, and fix the stuff. You will have to unpack some package manually probably before you can continue the upgrade (but you can always try an -Syu and see what breaks).

There's also a root option for pacman, you can use that to just mount your system within the live cd environment and use the cd's pacman to run the upgrade on your installation. That's probably the easiest option since it doesn't depend on anything on your (possibly broken) system.

Coume · 2009-07-18 13:57:25

ok, so i started the livecd and copied my old pacman.conf to use the x86_64 source instead of the i686.

I am now doing pacman -r /mnt/sda2 -Syu and it seems to be downloading all the packages fine... Let's wait and see

.:B:. · 2009-07-18 14:28:50

I'd use the x86_64 installer, after all you run 64 bit on your setup and you might run into problems with a 32 bit environment trying to run 64 bit apps... You also might need to chroot in the end to fix some final stuff, and you'll *need* 64 bit by then.

Edit: your second topic already shows you bumped your head onto the wall .

Coume · 2009-07-18 14:32:20

ok, so when checking the package intergtiy i get this error:
Sh: /mnt/sda2/sbin/ldconfig: cannot execute binary file
Then it checks the files for conflcts
And i get this error:
Error: could not prepare transaction
Error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
Xorg-server: /mnt/sda2/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdri.so exists in filesystem
Xorg-server: /mnt/sda2/usr/lib/xorg/modules/libwfb.so exists in filesystem

Any idea on how to overcome the above error?

Thanks again for helping
Ludo

.:B:. · 2009-07-18 14:35:52

Get the 64 bit ISO/image.

As for the file conflict:

http://www.archlinux.org/news/436/

As I said: read the news .

Coume · 2009-07-18 15:08:44

i post everytthing from my mobile so it is not ideal to read and google news so i am also unable to download a 64bit livecd, but i do have a 64bit install cd.

As i was safe to do based on the link' i did a force upgrade but still cannot boot.

Here are all the error message that i can read on my screen:
/serio0/input/input1
Done.
::running hook [filesystems]
::loading root filesystem module...
Attempting to create root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/(...)'
ERROR: failed to parse block device name for '/dev/disk/by-uuid/(...)'
Unknown
ERROR: root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter.
Waiting for devices to settle... Done.

Root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/(...)' doesn't ecist, attempting to create it.
ERROR: failed to parse block device name for '/dev/disk/by-uuid/(...)'
ERROR: unable to create/detect root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/(...)'
Dropping to a recovery shell... Type 'exit' to reboot
Note: klibc contains no 'ls' binary use 'echo *' instaed

If the device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/(...)' gets created while you are here, try adding 'rootdelay=8' or higher to the kernel command-line
Ramfs$

lilsirecho · 2009-07-18 17:35:19

My solution to a similar problem showing the same error messages was to use the Live USB flash device in x86-64 to make the repairs.

In your case, the Live CD should be utilized.

I re-installed the kernel per the wiki which causes the mkinitcpio to be run as well.

The wiki begins with instructions at the prompt in Live CD:

root

Then:

arch

These permit the remainder of the wiki entries enabling ...chroot...

Therein you can re-install the kernel with:

pacman -U (kernel26-2.6.30-5-i86-64.pkg.tar.gz...the kernel is in /var/cache/pacman/pkg)

This assumes that you have the kernel in the cache. Mkinitcpio will be automatically exercised.

See the wiki for all details......EDIT: wiki is ...Kernel Panics....method 2........

Last edited by lilsirecho (2009-07-18 17:48:46)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-07-18 11:09:15

Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#2 2009-07-18 11:22:19

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#3 2009-07-18 12:07:24

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#4 2009-07-18 12:44:36

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#5 2009-07-18 12:49:50

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#6 2009-07-18 13:18:19

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#7 2009-07-18 13:57:25

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#8 2009-07-18 14:28:50

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#9 2009-07-18 14:32:20

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#10 2009-07-18 14:35:52

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#11 2009-07-18 15:08:44

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

#12 2009-07-18 17:35:19

Re: Kernel upgrade with all the other needed modules,how to do it properly

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