Strange etc/sysconfig/kernel issue after updating

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Install-Boot
1

Just did a full upgrade up to current date of a SLES10SP4 (and OES2SP3)
32-bit virtual machine. After reboot, the machine did not come up.
Lateron I discovered that initrd did not contain any filesystem drivers
and this was because the etc/sysconfig/kernel file did not contain any
INITRD_MODULES variables. (In fact the first lines of the file
including the line with the INITRD_MODULES variable definition were
missing.) I am quite sure, that nobody including me did manually touch
that file - only installation routines have worked with that file.

As it seems to be quite common that upgrades break the boot sequence -
why is the boot sequence so prone to errors in Linux? You hardly ever
see those types of problems with Windows, Mac Os*, or Vmware ESX, ESXi.

And this one was quite annoying as I had to download the SLES10 SP4
media, and wait for the download to succeed to get access to the system
and repair the initrd content.

W. Prindl

2

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3

This is a know issue, I think it’s a bug in VMware tools.

For more info read:
http://www.novell.com/support/viewContent.do?externalId=7005233&sliceId=1
http://screamingadmin.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/problem-with-sles-10-sp3-and-vmware-tools/

[QUOTE=W_ Prindl;2399]Just did a full upgrade up to current date of a SLES10SP4 (and OES2SP3)
32-bit virtual machine. After reboot, the machine did not come up.
Lateron I discovered that initrd did not contain any filesystem drivers
and this was because the etc/sysconfig/kernel file did not contain any
INITRD_MODULES variables. (In fact the first lines of the file
including the line with the INITRD_MODULES variable definition were
missing.) I am quite sure, that nobody including me did manually touch
that file - only installation routines have worked with that file.

As it seems to be quite common that upgrades break the boot sequence -
why is the boot sequence so prone to errors in Linux? You hardly ever
see those types of problems with Windows, Mac Os*, or Vmware ESX, ESXi.

And this one was quite annoying as I had to download the SLES10 SP4
media, and wait for the download to succeed to get access to the system
and repair the initrd content.

W. Prindl[/QUOTE]

4

Thanks for the info, now I have one file more to check after each
install before the reboot.

W. Prindl

heinkonijn wrote:
[color=blue]

This is a know issue, I think it’s a bug in VMware tools.

For more info read:
http://www.novell.com/support/viewContent.do?externalId=7005233&sliceId=1
http://screamingadmin.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/problem-with-sles-10-sp3-and-vmware-tools/

W_ Prindl;2399 Wrote:[color=green]

Just did a full upgrade up to current date of a SLES10SP4 (and
OES2SP3) 32-bit virtual machine. After reboot, the machine did not
come up. Lateron I discovered that initrd did not contain any
filesystem drivers
and this was because the etc/sysconfig/kernel file did not contain
any INITRD_MODULES variables. (In fact the first lines of the file
including the line with the INITRD_MODULES variable definition were
missing.) I am quite sure, that nobody including me did manually
touch that file - only installation routines have worked with that
file.
As it seems to be quite common that upgrades break the boot
sequence - why is the boot sequence so prone to errors in Linux?
You hardly ever see those types of problems with Windows, Mac Os*,
or Vmware ESX, ESXi.

And this one was quite annoying as I had to download the SLES10 SP4
media, and wait for the download to succeed to get access to the
system
and repair the initrd content.

W. Prindl[/color][/color]