Followup: Re: [CentOS] Hosed by 4.2

Wed Oct 19 20:57:44 UTC 2005

Robert wrote:

> Karanbir Singh wrote:
>
>> Hi Robert,
>>
>> Robert wrote:
>>
>>>> why did you manually need to install the kernel ? 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Because a "yum update kernel" offered to install the -SMP kernel.  
>>> This is, no doubt, an artifact of anaconda & associates deciding at 
>>> the time CentOS4 was first installed that an SMP kernel was 
>>> appropriate for an Athlon XP in an ASUS A7NX8 ver.2 deluxe m/b, 
>>> compounded by my packrat reluctance to throw it away at the outset.
>>
>>
>>
>> if you remove the kernel-smp ( which, based on your statement - you 
>> dont seem to be using) yum should not update it :) technically, only 
>> packages already installed are updated ( or pkgs that satisfy depends 
>> for other pkgs ).
>>
>> Anyway, if anaconda left behind a smp kenel on UP machine, sounds 
>> like a bugreport to me.....
>
>
> Not only leaves it behind but configures GRUB to make SMP the default. 
> Drives NTP nuts!  I should be shot for not removing it when I first 
> installed CentOS4.  It'll be gone when the smoke clears from my 
> upcoming exercise.
>
>>
>>> I'm reasonably sure everything is gonna be O.K. Yum is one of the 
>>> packages that gets reported twice:
>>
>>
>>
>> sounds like you are going to have a fun filled Monday morning. I 
>> forsee rpm and coffee in your immediate future. Be a good idea to 
>> backup the rpmdb somewhere. Just in case.
>>
>> remove everything apart from the Packages file from /var/lib/rpm - 
>> then rebuild the db ( rpm -v --rebuilddb ). then try work with the -V 
>> option to verify what you have what rpm thinks you have.
>>
>> - K
>
>
>
>
> Thanks for the advice. My Monday and Tuesday have already been 
> scheduled for other joyous tasks, so I'll attack this fiasco 
> Wednesday.  (Now that I'm retired, I wonder almost daily how the hell 
> I ever had time to work!)
> At any rate, I've already burned /var/lib/rpm to a CD and I'll have a 
> brand new full backup by about 3:00 AM Wednesday.

I rebuilt the rpm database but when I verified the packages, the number 
of output lines approached the vaalue of 1/0 as a limit. But that's 
neither here nor there.  I'll get over the fresh install of CentOS4.2.  
What I was really interested in commenting on is anaconda's penchant for 
installing the SMP kernel *and making it the default* when the UP is 
clearly (to humans, anyhow) indicated.  Here is my 
untouched-at-this-point grub.conf:
[root at mavis ~]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hdb
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS-4 i386 (2.6.9-22.ELsmp)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-22.ELsmp ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 
rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-22.ELsmp.img
title CentOS-4 i386-up (2.6.9-22.EL)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-22.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 
rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-22.EL.img
[root at mavis ~]#   

[root at mavis ~]# grep ' kernel' install.log
Installing kernel-2.6.9-22.EL.i686.
Installing kernel-smp-2.6.9-22.EL.i686.
Installing kernel-utils-2.4-13.1.69.i386.
Installing kernel-devel-2.6.9-22.EL.i686.
Installing kernel-hugemem-devel-2.6.9-22.EL.i686.
Installing kernel-smp-devel-2.6.9-22.EL.i686.
Installing kernel-doc-2.6.9-22.EL.noarch.
[root at mavis ~]#                                   
=========================

This excerpt from /var/log/dmesg  shows that anaconda correctly 
identifies both the m/b                       
and, a few lines from the end of this snippet, the CPU. 
===========================================
  HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.2 present.
Asus A7N8X v2 detected: BIOS IRQ0 pin2 override will be ignored
ACPI: RSDP (v000 Nvidia                                ) @ 0x000f75e0
ACPI: RSDT (v001 Nvidia AWRDACPI 0x42302e31 AWRD 0x00000000) @ 0x1fff3000
ACPI: FADT (v001 Nvidia AWRDACPI 0x42302e31 AWRD 0x00000000) @ 0x1fff3040
ACPI: MADT (v001 Nvidia AWRDACPI 0x42302e31 AWRD 0x00000000) @ 0x1fff74c0
ACPI: DSDT (v001 NVIDIA AWRDACPI 0x00001000 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x4008
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
Initializing CPU#0
CPU 0 irqstacks, hard=c03e5000 soft=c03e4000
PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 11, 32768 bytes)
Detected 1913.094 MHz processor.
Using tsc for high-res timesource
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Memory: 514240k/524224k available (2111k kernel code, 9412k reserved, 
667k data,
 144k init, 0k highmem)
Calibrating delay loop... 3776.51 BogoMIPS (lpj=1888256)
Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized
SELinux:  Initializing.
SELinux:  Starting in permissive mode
There is already a security framework initialized, register_security failed.
selinux_register_security:  Registering secondary module capability
Capability LSM initialized as secondary
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps:  0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 512K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: After all inits, caps:        0383f3ff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000020
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+ stepping 00
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
ACPI: IRQ9 SCI: Edge set to Level Trigger.
checking if image is initramfs... it is
=================================

I'm NOT trying to blame anaconda or anyone else for the exercise I've 
been through today, merely pointing out the reason that I manually 
installed the kernel before doing the upgrade.

Best regards to all who have made CentOS happen!
Robert