2.6.24-21 upgrade fails

**Mark224** · December 2nd, 2008

I've haven't seen a white screen since I stopped trying to use the ATI restricted driver. I don't need 3D acceleration at the moment.

**jdeal** · December 19th, 2008

Originally Posted by jdeal

I have read this entire thread because I have ran into a similar but not exactly the same issues list. I have been running 2.6.24-21 for a few weeks without any problems. Today (11.21.08) I logged in for the first time in about a week and got the recommended security update + a few recommended. I have been doing the recommended updates since 6.06 LTS without a problem (on various machines). Installed the updates, rebooted, and no reboot. Just sat at Ubuntu boot screen. I did a <cntl><alt>F1 to get messages and read a series of ata errors. Tried rebooting again a few times with the same results. Tried the -19 kernel and got the same ata messages! I then attempted to boot off the CD that I initially installed 8.04.01 in live CD mode and got the same ata errors. To verify the hardware, I booted Vista (this is a dual-boot Dell Vostro 200) and it went fine. I started reading this thread and looked at the grub file. The root line was fine and the same on both -21 and -19.

After reading this entire thread and noticing a couple of posters stating after a cold boot it worked, I walked to my system and booted it and -21 booted successfully!

Now I don't know if I can trust this system. Any ideas?

Thanks to the posters for all the information in this thread.

It looks like this is a issue with lack of support for IDE mode on the Dell Vostro 200. Fixed by going into the BIOS and changing the disk access mode (forgot the menu name) and change the mode from "IDE" to "RAID". My Vostro 200 now boots every time without error. This is suppose to break the Vista side (dual-boot system) but the Ubuntu side is much more important. Reinstalling Vista is reported to fix the Vista side.

I got this from one of the Dell forums. I thought I would post it here for future soles suffering from the same problem.

**malleus74** · December 21st, 2008

That's a fix I'd never have thought of... keep the fixes coming! I'm sorry you've had to join our illustrious crew here...

**alexcckll** · January 15th, 2009

I haven't accepted updates since that issue - is it now resolved?

Would I be safe accepting updates onto my Thinkpad now?

**gerben1** · January 16th, 2009

Originally Posted by alexcckll

I haven't accepted updates since that issue - is it now resolved?

Would I be safe accepting updates onto my Thinkpad now?

You can always just go with the upgrade and see if it works. In case it does not work, you can just switch back to using the previous kernel.

It may be annoying if your system does not boot correctly after a kernel upgrade, but by default you can always boot an earlier kernel.

The previously installed kernels are kept as backups by default. If you press <esc> during boot you will get into the grub boot menu, in that menu you can select an earlier kernel to boot. You could try this out, before upgrading, to check out the procedure (though you won't have much choice if you haven't any previous kernels installed).

Anyways, worst case scenario is that you cannot log into your system properly after updating the kernel, but if so you can simply press <esc> during boot-up to get into the grub-menu and select a previous kernel from the grub-boot-menu to boot. After doing so you can then ask around in these forums or elsewhere, to either fix your problem with the new kernel or to find out how to just boot the previous kernel by default in case the new kernel just does not seem to be working for your system.

**alexcckll** · January 16th, 2009

Still scared to, as this is my sole machine. Has anyone else out there had a problem or complete success with a Thinkpad R61i type 7650-EBG with updates to 8.04.2?

**jimmy-james** · February 10th, 2009

Just fell for the update last night. With 19, everythig was working great. I am a complete new user to Linux and am picking up the terminal commands through the forum and what not and basically got a clean install to pick up my wireless card eventually and then got the NVIDIA driver to work.
Got the notification that I had 263 updates ready and I scrolled through and when finding the kernel update, I foolishly thought that any official kernel update would be good to go and since I already have my wireless adapter and video drivers successfully installed, I could go with it. I can always uninstall it right?

Now, post install, I have more options in the GRUB menu to go with 19 or 21 and with 21, I have no video drivers and no internet access. 19 still worked until I installed the video drivers for 21. Then the video drivers for 19 didn't work.
Now, hours later, 21 has the video drivers and 19 does not, 21 starts 50% of the time but without wireless devices and both 19 and 21 give me an error when starting: "Failed to initialize HAL" which makes the distro freeze after a minute.

Seeing as how it took me days to get the wireless device to work after figuring out NDISwrapper wasn't installing for some reason and then another day to get x-server to stop and give me terminal instead of just locking up so I could install NVIDIA drivers, and then another day or two to figure out why I could not get an MP3 codec to install, it all seems like too much of a headache.

I want to like this, I really really do. I am just tired of trying a million things to get something to work and then wondering afterwards if one of the million items i did has affected 20 other things that lie in wait to screw up a future issue. I've typed in my password 12 billion times and wonder if it is all worth it. I suppose I will try reinstalling it all over again sometime in the future assuming my GF forgives me for all the "i'll be right there"s I have told her over the last 2 weeks so that I can spend another day redoing all the things I just did to get it to work.

Forgive the cynicism, for all its benefits, I laugh when I think about the fact I never thought I would ever say I wanted something to act like W*ndows in terms of its ease of use.
In retrospect now, I hope one day to not find this funny: "NOTE The kernel is frequently updated, and each update brings
better and better hardware support. This is one reason why you
should keep your system updated." (Ubuntu Pocket Reference Guide, Thomas)

In case it matters:
32bit 8.04LTS
dual boot XP/Ubuntu
2.5G 2core AMD
4GB ram
ASUS MB, onboard video (NVIDIA 7 series) on board sound
Trendnet TEW-423PI PCI

I did a search on the kernel release of "2.6.24-23" in synaptics (I realize I had newer kernel)
After re-installing NVIDIA driver, everything seems to be semi-working again. WOrst case: I reinstall ubuntu.

**Night Surfer** · April 5th, 2009

Hi,

Please help: I have had to reinstall Ubuntu twice because of this update error.
My system freezes while updating and then when I pull the plug and restart I get the boot error.
I would like to run update (there are 283 of them) but if I end up having to reinstall again I am done (had alls I can stands and I can't stands no more).
So my question is this:
What are the exact names of the updates that I must un-check to insure this does not happen again?
Note: I don't see 2.6.24-21 on the list at all.

Thanks.

**malleus74** · April 6th, 2009

@alexcckll HELLO!!!

Please bear with me, and I'll try to answer a few posts in one

I'm currently battling Intrepid, but this problem is still a sore subject with me

"You can always just go with the upgrade and see if it works. In case it does not work, you can just switch back to using the previous kernel. "

@gerben1 Well, this doesn't really work in some cases, as seen above. It killed my install, ie, why I'm on Intrepid now.

Please back up your system before you attempt ANY kernel updates. I'd burn this to a live cd thru remastersys if you're system fits the size requirements so nothing's lost. Squashfs will compress your system a LOT, but it has it's limits. I reached it a few months ago. If you're to the same spot I am, then please backup any means necessary. At least clone your home directory with all permissions.

If you want to take a shot at it, just allow all updates. If not

then I'd do one update at a time, and NOT allow any kernel updates... I'd do it this way since some updates might require the newer kernels, and they should flag.

"Forgive the cynicism, for all its benefits, I laugh when I think about the fact I never thought I would ever say I wanted something to act like W*ndows in terms of its ease of use."

@jimmy-james I've managed to blow up quite a few W*ndows installs over the years, too. My mother's computer has to be reinstalled if she uses Vist@ SP1... but that doesn't excuse this. I really expect better.

It's my humble opinion that the primary focus is on Intrepid and Jaunty. You can ask alexcckll... talking to the developers did not work the way we were hoping.

**alexcckll** · April 9th, 2009

Hi Malleus - I let it update after waiting a few weeks... I generally do that if kernel updates come down.. allows for all the nasties to be picked up...

Running 8.04.2 now..