FC 16 kernel update problem

[bgoodwin91006]

I did a 'yum update' and it installed a new kernel (version 3.4.2-x86_64) along with a bunch of other updates. During the update the running kernel had a catastrophic error and rebooted.

The problem is there is no initramfs file for the new kernel so it crashes on trying to boot up.

The older kernels still boot up but I can't get the NVidia drivers to install on any of them so I have no Xwindow capability. The driver install software is not providing any real info about why it won't install. I suspect an update of gcc has made it incompatible with the older kernels.

I tried 'yum reinstall kernel' and I am getting a message;

kernel-3.4.2-x86_64 is not available.

I had to resort to Windows 7 to post this message.

[sidebrnz]

You should be able to boot without an initramfs, as long as there's no line for it in grub.cfg. If there is, you can edit the menu item at boot to remove it. (Only for this boot, of course.)

If that doesn't work, or you'd rather not try it, here's something you can do from a CLI as root, assuming you have Internet access.

yum list installed kernel

This will give you a list of all kernels installed.

yum remove kernel.x.y.z

Where .x.y.z specifies the newest kernel; the one you're having trouble with. (You may not need to list the kernels first if you know exactly which one you want to remove, but it's always best to check anyway.)

yum update kernel

If all goes well, this will clear things up. If you want to get rid of all installed kernels except the one you're currently using,

yum remove kernel

will do it because yum won't even try to remove the running kernel. Once you've gotten that done, you may consider installing kmod-nvidia instead of using the binary blob, so that you won't have to remember to reinstall it every time there's a kernel update.

[bgoodwin91006]

Thanks for the feedback. I did a yum erase of the offending kernel which also erased the kmod-nvidia for that kernel. Then the kernel installed ok although this time it didn't automatically install the kmod-nvidia driver. Hopefully I'm back on track now.