[Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

Pomalo · 2013-10-16 19:53:01

Hello,

First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for all the stupid things I'm going to say. I'm still learning linux. I didn't switch from Ubuntu yesterday, but I'm far away from having a global understanding of how the system works, and I need help. I tried to find a similar thread that would solve my problem, but I was unable to.

I'll write down my main problem here and then a historic of how I ended up in this situation :
When I update the kernel from 3.10.10 to 3.11.5 with yaourt (a wrapper for pacman), it does the update, runs mkinitpcio -p linux successfully (with some warning messages though). But after rebooting, uname -r doesn't give the right updated version (3.10.10) and modules don't load. yaourt -Q linux gives the updated version though (3.11.5).

How did that happen?
I updated my system which was working fine (on 3.11.2 I believe), and at some point X stopped working (update to 3.11.4), so I downgraded the kernel and it worked. Then 3.11.5 came out, and I tried it, and it still didn't work, but this time, downgrade to 3.11.2 didn't work either, and after upgrading/downgrading around, I found that the last working version was 3.10.10.

Right now, I'm running 3.10.10, and everything seems to work fine, but it's a temporary solution.

Some output that might be usefull :
uname

~ uname -a                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ⏎
Linux Macaron 3.10.10-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Aug 30 11:30:06 CEST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

yaourt -Q linux

~ yaourt -Q linux                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ⏎
core/linux 3.10.10-1 (base)

lspci

~ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family KT Controller (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev a4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Q77 Express Chipset LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:02.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): LSI Corporation FW322/323 [TrueFire] 1394a Controller (rev 70)

/usr/lib/modules

~ ls /usr/lib/modules
3.10.10-1-ARCH  3.11.5-1-ARCH  extramodules-3.10-ARCH

journalctl (the first boot is with 3.5.2, then I downgraded to 3.10.10)

oct. 16 15:18:54 Macaron systemd[262]: Failed to open private bus connection: Failed to connect to socket /run/user/1000/dbus/user_bus_socket: No such file or directory
oct. 16 15:18:54 Macaron systemd[262]: Mounted /sys/kernel/config.
oct. 16 15:18:54 Macaron systemd[262]: Startup finished in 59ms.
oct. 16 15:18:54 Macaron systemd[262]: Starting Default.
oct. 16 15:18:54 Macaron systemd[262]: Reached target Default.
oct. 16 15:19:55 Macaron systemd[262]: Stopping Default.
-- Reboot --
oct. 16 15:20:26 Macaron systemd[402]: Failed to open private bus connection: Failed to connect to socket /run/user/1000/dbus/user_bus_socket: No such file or directory
oct. 16 15:20:26 Macaron systemd[402]: Mounted /sys/kernel/config.
oct. 16 15:20:26 Macaron systemd[402]: Stopped target Sound Card.
oct. 16 15:20:26 Macaron systemd[402]: Starting Default.
oct. 16 15:20:26 Macaron systemd[402]: Reached target Default.
oct. 16 15:20:26 Macaron systemd[402]: Startup finished in 234ms.
oct. 16 15:23:45 Macaron systemd[402]: Time has been changed

I hope this help...

Last edited by Pomalo (2013-10-16 22:54:06)

SolarBoyMatt · 2013-10-16 19:59:42

What were the warning messages from the initial 3.10.10 -> 3.11.5 update?

Pomalo · 2013-10-16 20:06:01

This is the pacman log from 3.11.2 to 3.11.5

[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Generating initial ramdisk, using mkinitcpio.  Please wait...
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 3.11.5-1-ARCH
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 3.11.5-1-ARCH
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: bfa
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: smsmdtv
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
[2013-10-16 12:29] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2013-10-16 12:29] [PACMAN] upgraded linux (3.11.2-1 -> 3.11.5-1)

But those warnings are also present when I downgrade to 3.10.10, so I'm not sure it's the main problem :

[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Generating initial ramdisk, using mkinitcpio.  Please wait...
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 3.10.10-1-ARCH
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 3.10.10-1-ARCH
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: bfa
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: smsmdtv
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
[2013-10-16 15:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2013-10-16 15:19] [PACMAN] downgraded linux (3.11.5-1 -> 3.10.10-1)

Last edited by Pomalo (2013-10-16 20:07:03)

WorMzy · 2013-10-16 20:06:56

Also, do you have a separate boot partition, or are you booting using a EFI boot manager?

Pomalo · 2013-10-16 20:11:03

I do have a separate boot partition, I use GRUB2

~ cat /etc/fstab 
# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# UUID=1e1ef087-2561-4900-8410-372353abf732
/dev/sda7               /               ext4            rw,relatime,data=ordered        0 1
/dev/sda6               /boot           ext4            defaults                        0 2
/dev/sda8               none            swap            defaults                        0 0
/dev/sda9               /home           ext4            defaults,noatime                0 2
tmpfs                   /tmp            tmpfs           nodev,nosuid,size=2G   0 0

WorMzy · 2013-10-16 20:26:14

This might seem like a silly question, but are you sure that it was mounted when you upgraded to 3.11.5?

If you unmount it now, and look in the root partition's /boot folder, is there a kernel + initrrds in there? If so, can you run

file /boot/vmlinuz-linux

to see what version of kernel is there.

Pomalo · 2013-10-16 20:46:30

You might have nailed the problem...

So, it's working now, and what I did was :

* I unmounted the boot partition :

 ~sudo umount /boot/

* I updated the kernel

yaourt -Syu

*I remounted the /boot partition

sudo mount /dev/sda6

*I reinstalled the kernel

yaourt -S linux

* I rebboted my system. Tada! It's working

uname

~ uname -a
Linux Macaron 3.11.5-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Oct 14 08:31:43 CEST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

BUT! I still don't understand why... I didn't get any error message when I unmounted /boot, so it must have meant /boot was mounted, which might means that it's not when GRUB boots? Is there something I should check to make sure it doesn't happen again?

WorMzy · 2013-10-16 21:11:53

I'm glad it's working now, but I think you've turned over too many pages at once there. You've got to a solution without fully working out where the problem is, meaning it may crop up again the next time you update your kernel.

The root of the problem could be one of two things:

1) Your boot partition wasn't mounted when you updated last time, meaning the kernel image got installed to your root partition instead.

2) Grub is actually installed to the root partition, and loads kernels from there. When you updated the kernel, the boot partition was mounted, so the new kernel got installed there.

In either case, when GRUB loaded the next time, it loaded the old kernel image (since that was on the same partition as GRUB), but the old kernel modules were removed when the new kernel was installed, so it couldn't find the modules it needed after it got past the initrd.

Since I assume the boot partition isn't a new addition, and you've been updating your kernel regularly prior to this problem, I suspect 1) is the case. An easy way to check this is to downgrade your kernel again, while /boot is mounted, then reboot. If everything loads back up correctly, you now know that /boot must not have been mounted last time (for whatever reason). If the boot fails you know that grub is installed to the wrong partition, in that case, boot a liveCD and reinstall it to the boot partition (check the wiki for details on how to do that).

Pomalo · 2013-10-16 22:53:31

I'm glad it's working now, but I think you've turned over too many pages at once there.

Yes, I figured

I'll try what you suggested and report back, thanks for the explanations, I'll mark the problem as solved because your explanations make sense!

Pomalo · 2013-10-18 21:00:20

So I tried the following :
I unmounted /boot, and downgraded, and booted, and everything went fine, and the uname -a gave the correct kernel version.

So I guess my GRUB is installed on my root partition and not on my boot partition.

I'll try to fix that.

Thank you so much for your help!

Arch Linux

#1 2013-10-16 19:53:01

[Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#2 2013-10-16 19:59:42

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#3 2013-10-16 20:06:01

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#4 2013-10-16 20:06:56

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#5 2013-10-16 20:11:03

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#6 2013-10-16 20:26:14

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#7 2013-10-16 20:46:30

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#8 2013-10-16 21:11:53

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#9 2013-10-16 22:53:31

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

#10 2013-10-18 21:00:20

Re: [Solved]Kernel update doesn't change the running kernel

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