Kernel update failure

[popie]

I issued the command:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
A new kernel appeared (v 2.6.27-9) and I tried to let it install, but I saw an error, and still have the old kernel (v2.6.27-7). Now, no upgrades or dist-upgrades appear when I use apt-get.

The following error message appeared during the upgrade attempt.

Your /usr is broken, please fix it before call this wrapper!

Can someone point me to the next step? I just installed this OS tonight, not what might be "broken."

[arrange]

If you type
cat /usr/sbin/update-grub into the Terminal, does it say that the file doesn't exist? It seems like the script in /sbin/update-grub checks if /usr/sbin/update-grub exists, and if it doesn't, it issues this error message. But I'm not sure if this is really your problem.

[taurus]

What's the output of this command from a terminal?

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

ls -la
Is Ubuntu the only OS on that machine or do you have it dualboot--windows & Ubuntu?


sudo fdisk
cat /etc/fstab
df -h

[popie]

If you type
cat /usr/sbin/update-grub into the Terminal, does it say that the file doesn't exist? It seems like the script in /sbin/update-grub checks if /usr/sbin/update-grub exists, and if it doesn't, it issues this error message. But I'm not sure if this is really your problem.

That file exists, and the cat command lists its contents, which fill several screens.

[popie]

What's the output of this command from a terminal?

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

ls -la
Is Ubuntu the only OS on that machine or do you have it dualboot--windows & Ubuntu?


sudo fdisk
cat /etc/fstab
df -h


Thanks, The machine is actually LinuxMint, which is mostly Ubuntu, and that is the only OS installed.
Here's the output you requested (ls -la)


leeb@gigabyte:~$ ls -la
total 10348
drwxr-xr-x 51 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 11:59 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-12-17 19:13 ..
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:56 .adobe
-rw------- 1 leeb leeb 2111 2008-12-18 11:56 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 220 2008-12-17 19:13 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 2925 2008-08-11 19:00 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 19:17 .cache
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:46 .compiz
drwxr-xr-x 9 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:49 .config
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 876686 2008-12-17 18:07 corruption.png
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 19:17 .dbus
drwxr-xr-x 118 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:28 Depot
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:53 Desktop
-rw------- 1 leeb leeb 28 2008-12-18 11:59 .dmrc
drwxr-xr-x 38 leeb leeb 12288 2008-12-17 20:27 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 6 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 20:27 dot-purple
drwxr-xr-x 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 20:27 dot-VirtualBox
drwxr-xr-x 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 20:39 Downloads
-rw------- 1 leeb leeb 16 2008-12-17 19:17 .esd_auth
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 3115966 2008-12-17 18:07 Firefox_wallpaper.png
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 11:50 .fontconfig
drwx------ 5 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 11:59 .gconf
drwx------ 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 14:04 .gconfd
-rw-r----- 1 leeb leeb 0 2008-12-18 11:43 .gksu.lock
drwx------ 10 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:46 .gnome2
drwx------ 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 19:17 .gnome2_private
drwx------ 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 19:17 .gnupg
drwxr-xr-x 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 09:46 .google
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:32 .gstreamer-0.10
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 104 2008-12-18 11:59 .gtk-bookmarks
dr-x------ 2 leeb leeb 0 2008-12-18 11:59 .gvfs
drwxr----- 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 22:34 .hplip
-rw------- 1 leeb leeb 1141 2008-12-18 11:59 .ICEauthority
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 22:08 .icons
drwxr-xr-x 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:31 .kde
drwxr-xr-x 5 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 22:06 .linuxmint
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 19:17 .local
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:56 .macromedia
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 55901 2008-12-17 18:42 Mint Sound Prefs-HeadsetMic.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 56467 2008-12-17 18:42 Mint Sound Prefs-WebcamMic.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 21114 2008-12-17 18:42 Mint-VolControl-HeadsetMic.png
drwx------ 4 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:11 .mozilla
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:11 .mozilla-thunderbird
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:24 .mplayer
drwxr-xr-x 37 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 20:51 Music
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 31189 2008-12-17 18:42 my-compiz-settings
drwxr-xr-x 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:46 .nautilus
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 1098 2008-12-17 21:37 .nvidia-settings-rc
drwxr-xr-x 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 11:56 .openoffice.org
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:13 .openoffice.org2
drwxr-xr-x 110 leeb leeb 12288 2008-12-18 10:20 Pictures
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 675 2008-12-17 19:13 .profile
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 19:17 Projects
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:32 .pulse
drwxr-xr-x 4 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 23:25 pulse-backup
-rw------- 1 leeb leeb 256 2008-12-17 19:17 .pulse-cookie
drwx------ 6 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 14:00 .purple
-rw------- 1 leeb leeb 7433 2008-12-18 10:46 .recently-used.xbel
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 14:03 .Skype
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 20:58 Sonant-db
drwxr-xr-x 4 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 20:58 ssvnc
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 6085605 2008-12-17 18:42 ssvnc_unix_only-1.0.21.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 0 2008-12-17 19:17 .sudo_as_admin_successful
drwxr-xr-x 7 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 20:59 Temp
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 22:08 .themes
drwx------ 3 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:03 .thumbnails
drwxr-xr-x 4 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 19:17 .tomboy
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 4817 2008-12-18 11:59 .tomboy.log
drwxr-xr-x 18 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 21:02 Tools
drwxr-xr-x 7 leeb leeb 12288 2008-12-17 21:03 Translations
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-17 19:17 Videos
drwxr-xr-x 2 leeb leeb 4096 2008-12-18 11:59 .wapi
-rw------- 1 leeb leeb 119 2008-12-18 11:59 .Xauthority
-rw-r--r-- 1 leeb leeb 17149 2008-12-18 13:51 .xsession-errors
leeb@gigabyte:~$



leeb@gigabyte:~$ sudo fdisk
[sudo] password for leeb:

Usage: fdisk [-l] [-b SSZ] [-u] device
E.g.: fdisk /dev/hda (for the first IDE disk)
or: fdisk /dev/sdc (for the third SCSI disk)
or: fdisk /dev/eda (for the first PS/2 ESDI drive)
or: fdisk /dev/rd/c0d0 or: fdisk /dev/ida/c0d0 (for RAID devices)
...
leeb@gigabyte:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for leeb:

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x23998be4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 38158 306504103+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 38159 38913 6064537+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 38159 38913 6064506 82 Linux swap / Solaris
leeb@gigabyte:~$



leeb@gigabyte:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=7a060213-478d-4625-b486-ae0f694c72bb / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=42876e69-9432-4e09-8777-06f4520eaa2b none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0



leeb@gigabyte:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 288G 39G 235G 15% /
tmpfs 1012M 0 1012M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 1012M 324K 1012M 1% /var/run
varlock 1012M 0 1012M 0% /var/lock
udev 1012M 2.8M 1009M 1% /dev
tmpfs 1012M 172K 1012M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1012M 2.0M 1010M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-7-generic/volatile
leeb@gigabyte:~$

[Jesamyn]

I ran into this error this evening with my new install of Mint. I did some digging around, and it turned out to be a permissions issue.

Do:

ls -l /usr/sbin/update-grub

It probably looks like:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38778 2008-12-19 23:19 update-grub

It's not executable, so it can't be run. So do:

sudo chmod 766 /usr/sbin/update-grub

This gives execute permissions to root. Now you can:

sudo update-grub

This fixed the issue for me, so hopefully it'll help you.

[popie]

It probably looks like:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38778 2008-12-19 23:19 update-grub

It's not executable, so it can't be run. So do:

sudo chmod 766 /usr/sbin/update-grub


Yes! Thanks so much! That worked, (with chmod 755).

I think you have a typo in the chmod command. It should be 755 to make the file executable.


sudo chmod 755 /usr/sbin/update-grub

That worked for me (and made perms match those of other files in that directory)

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 38778 2008-12-17 19:32 update-grub

[Jesamyn]

chmod 755 makes it executable by any user. chmod 766 makes it executable by root, read/write by any user. I used 766 with the idea that you're going to have either be using sudo to run it or one of the package managers is running it, in which case you'd have used sudo to invoke it. Either way, as long as it works...all good! Glad it helped. :)

Edited to add: And I totally understand matching the rest of the directory. At 3am this morning, I just wanted it to run and didn't check. ;)

[popie]

Of course, you're correct. I had my blinders on...so to speak. "7" is rwx, and we're running it as root. I knew that, but wasn't thinking clearly... Thanks again. :)

[dodgefan]

just wanted to confirm, i had this issue too and making update-grub executable worked for me as well. thanks!

[usinguuu]

just wanted to confirm, i had this issue too and making update-grub executable worked for me as well. thanks!

Seems to be a common issue in Mint. Just do a chmod on update-grub as shown above and everything is ok.

BTW: 755 is the correct file mode. ;)