Help - updated but it hasn't taken effect

[gargoyle60]

I have updated using the Update Manager but when prompted to modify menu.lst I answered "leave as is" (or the equivalent) and now when I boot I notice that the update hasn't taken effect, or at least grub isn't offering it to me. Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the update details. The update was quite large, circa 100MB+.

Currently running 9.04, Kernel Linux 2.6.28-16-generic.
Not sure what the latest update is, or how to find out?

Please advise?
Thanks

[tachuela]

Edit menu.lst and add the new kernel at the beginning of the list (you'll find it in /boot)

[slakkie]

Or run sudo update-grub or grub-update (it's one of the two, i always forget which one it is).

[gargoyle60]

Okay, I ran sudo update-grub and got the following...
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-17-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-16-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic
Found kernel: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

but note the line that says "Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ..."
Is that something I should be concerned about?
The procedure also did NOT update the menu.lst file with the latest details (although I have manually edited the file since then, and I hope I've got it right).

I had a look in /boot and found these...
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3491600 2009-12-01 21:04 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-17-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7547531 2010-01-06 16:59 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-17-generic

Note the timestamp for the file vmlinuz-2.6.28-17-generic, which is 2009.
Is that correct?

[oldos2er]

If you use grub legacy, which I assume you do since you're running 9.04, update-grub won't actually update your menu.lst. You'll need to run
gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst and manually add an entry for the new kernel, as you said.

[gargoyle60]

Yes, I've done that manually.

Now, when I boot I get the message
"Error 13: invalid or unsupported executable format"
or something along those lines.

All I did was copy the older entries and modify them with the new file names.

My new grub menu.lst entries are as follows:
--- start of code ---

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-17-generic
uuid 43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992
kernel /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-17-generic root=UUID=43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-17-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-16-generic
uuid 43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-16-generic root=UUID=43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-16-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-16-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-16-generic root=UUID=43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-16-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
uuid 43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid 43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

--- end of code ---

I have no idea about the other options, but the seem to be the same, I think?

[oldos2er]

Can you run sudo fdisk -l and post the output here? If you can't boot an older kernel, you can boot from a LiveCD if you have one, and run the command there.

[gargoyle60]

Thanks Ann

I have renistated the previous menu.lst and I can boot from an older kernel.

Output from sudo fdisk -l
--- output start ---
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x116a1169

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 4632 37206508+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 4633 9733 40973782+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 4633 7182 20482843+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 7183 9733 20490876 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x11a911a8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 594 4771273+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 595 9733 73409017+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 595 1116 4192933+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 1117 6338 41945683+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb7 6339 9733 27270306 83 Linux
--- output end ---

My other op sys is Win XP Home.

Gary

[llawwehttam]

Personally ( after a lot of experience) I now go by the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' approach.

[oldos2er]

I must have vision problems that I didn't see this sooner:

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-17-generic
uuid 43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992
kernel /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-17-generic root=UUID=43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-17-generic
quiet

should be

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-17-generic
uuid 43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-17-generic root=UUID=43c5762f-33b6-4369-86c4-3f5a122c2992 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-17-generic
quiet

Note the bolded part. Hope this helps.

[gargoyle60]

I hadn't spotted it either. Thanks Ann.
Gary