[TriLUG] Mandrake 9.2 kernel install clobbers grub config!?

[Jason Tower]

i worked on a suse enterprise linux installation a few months back.  we 
installed a second scsi card for a tape drive, rebooted the box, it 
asked if we wanted to add this device to the initrd (we said no since 
it wasn't a boot device).  suse then proceeds to modify initrd anyway, 
actually trashes it completely, along with a bunch of other system 
files (modules.conf, etc), rewrites stuff in /boot, just hoses the 
system completely, totally unbootable.  we ended up having to reimage 
the system from backups.  and this was the ENTERPRISE version, not the 
free-as-in-beer-no-warranty-expresses-or-implied consumer version.

so don't feel bad, you're not alone :-)

jason

On Friday 18 June 2004 00:15, Brian Weaver wrote:
> Thanks, but I read the GRUB documentation and rebuilt my menu.lst
> file by hand. That and I used another 9.2 system at home as a
> reference. I really wish I knew what happened. This kind of data loss
> just isn't acceptable from an installation of an RPM (some losses are
> worse than others). It makes we wonder if I really wish to continue
> to use Mandrake after this experience. If I hadn't checked and just
> rebooted my internet connection would be toast and I'd be spending
> far more time trying to figure out what happened that I desire.
>
> I'm still running the old kernel right now. I'm kind of afraid to
> reboot at this point..... Kind of makes me feel like I'm using
> Windows again.
>
> -Weave
>
> Jason Tower [jason at cerient.net] wrote on Thu, Jun 17, 2004 at 
01:26:56AM -0400:
> > i just checked one of my mdk92 servers, unfortunately it is using
> > lilo not grub.  but i'll be happy to send to the lilo config file
> > if you want, at least you could install lilo and keep your system
> > bootable.
> >
> > jason
> >
> > On Thursday 17 June 2004 01:06, Brian Weaver wrote:
> > > Hi All,
> > >
> > > I've had a box running Mandrake 9.2 that has been stable for a
> > > very long time. I went though the effort today to make sure that
> > > it's update mirror was current and then did a 'urpmi
> > > --auto-select' to upgrade the system.
> > >
> > > While I was at it I decided to install a more current kernel. I
> > > used the command 'urpmi kernel-2.4.22.32mdk-1-1mdk'. Everything
> > > appeared to go fine. Luckly for me I decided to see which kernel
> > > it would boot into the next time the system was restarted (93
> > > days so far). That's when I noticed that ALL of my grub
> > > configuration files were missing!
> > >
> > > Does anyone know of any issues with installing a new kernel in
> > > Mandrake 9.2, or how to easily regenerate the missing grub files?
> > > I think I may have a tarball of the old files, but I'm not sure.
> > > This is the first time I've tried to upgrade a kernel on a
> > > Mandrake box. I've never had a problem on a RedHat system when
> > > I've performed a kernel upgrade.
> > >
> > > Any thoughts..... BTW I'm praying for no serious power failures
> > > until I can resolve this issue. Since this is my gateway box I
> > > would be cut off from the internet if goes down.
> > >
> > > -Weave
> >
> > --
> > TriLUG mailing list        :
> > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational
> > FAQ  : http://trilug.org/faq/
> > TriLUG Member Services FAQ :
> > http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring        
> > : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc