Re: aptitude and /etc/lilo.conf

[J F <j1234f@excite.com>]

J F wrote:
> Rob Weir wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Jul 28, 2003 at 06:42:47PM -0700, J F wrote:
> >
> > > Based on the output from aptitude and my current
> > > lilo.conf, do you think I need to do anything to lilo.conf?
> >
> >
> > aptitude is just a frontend.  dpkg is doing the actual work of unpacking
> > and installing the package.
> >
> >
> > > Is aptitude going to put the new kernel
> > > in /boot?
> >
> >
> > dpkg will, yes.
> >
> >
> > > Will aptitude fix the link /vmlinuz ?
> >
> >
> > dpkg will. yes.
> >
> >
> > > I ran aptitude and it did a lot of things and then said:
> > > aptitude wrote:
> > >
> > > > Unpacking kernel-image-2.4.20-3-386 (from 
> > > > .../kernel-image-2.4.20-3-386_2.4.20-9_i386.deb) ...
> > > >
> > > > You are attempting to install an initrd kernel image (version 
> > > > 2.4.20-3-386)
> > > > This will not work unless you have configured your boot loader to use
> > > > initrd. (An initrd image is a kernel image that expects to use an 
> > > > INITial
> > > > Ram Disk to mount a minimal root file system into RAM and use that for
> > > > booting).
> > > > As a reminder, in order to configure lilo, you need to
> > > > add an 'initrd=/initrd.img' to the image=/vmlinuz
> > > > stanza of your /etc/lilo.conf
> > > > I repeat, You need to configure your boot loader. If you have 
> > > > already done
> > > > so, and you wish to get rid of this message, please put
> > > > `do_initrd = Yes'
> > > > in /etc/kernel-img.conf. Note that this is optional, but if you do not,
> > > > you'll continue to see this message whenever you install a kernel
> > > > image using initrd.
> > > > Do you want to stop now? [Y/n]
> > >
> > > default=Linux
> > > image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-xfs
> > >        label=Linux
> > >        initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
> > >        read-only
> > > #       restricted
> > > #       alias=1
> >
> >
> >
> > The kernel image will be unpacked into /boot as
> > vmlinuz-<kernel-version>, and a symlink called /vmlinuz will be created
> > pointing to it.  This was in the default lilo.conf, but you deleted it.
> > You'll need to recreate a stanza along the lines of:
> >
> > image=/vmlinuz
> >         label=debian-kernel
> >         initrd=/initrd.img
> >         read-only
> >
> > For kernels from kernel-image packages to work.  You won't need to
> > modify it again, though.  You might want to make it the default.
> >
> >
> > > # ls -ld /v*
> > > drwxr-xr-x   16 root     root         4096 Jan 18  2003 /var
> > > lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           23 May 21 12:23 /vmlinuz -> 
> > > boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-xfs
> >
> >
> >
> > Oh, you have that link?  Why did you modify your lilo.conf, then?
>
>
> Thanks for answering.  I was beginning to think I would not
> get an answer to that question.
> I didn't modify lilo.conf or the /vmlinuz links.
> I can only assume that either this is the default from the knoppix
> hard disk install or it got downloaded when I did an apt-get upgrade.
>
> Thanks again,
> I'll try to add that stanza and then lilo to get past this upgrade issue.
> J F

Your suggestion worked:

root@a1700xp:/etc# diff lilo.conf.orig  lilo.conf
1c1
< vga=791
---
> #vga=791
107c107
< image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-xfs
---
> image=/vmlinuz
109c109
<       initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
---
>       initrd=/initrd.img
113a114,120
> image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-xfs
>       label=L2.4.20x
>       initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
>       read-only
> #     restricted
> #     alias=2
>
119c126
< #     alias=2
---
> #     alias=3
128c135
< #     alias=3
---
> #     alias=4

The diff doesn't show it clearly but
maybe this is clearer:
default=Linux

image=/vmlinuz
        label=Linux
        initrd=/initrd.img
        read-only
#       restricted
#       alias=1

And make sure these links are here:
# ls -l /v*
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           25 Aug  3 12:32 /vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-3-386
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           23 May 21 12:23 /vmlinuz.old -> boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-xfs
...

Thanks to Rob Weir.