Grub: menu.lst not updating

[James T]

On my "test-bed" machine, I have 3 different distros installed. Originally Chakra (Arch), Mandriva and Pardus.  I then replaced Mandriva with Sidux, and that replaced grub with grub2. At this stage no major problem, it detected Chakra & Pardus (though Sidux became the default boot).

However following the recent Pardus kernel update, things start to come unravelled:
Not unexpectedly, the grub2 loader from Sidux didn't spot the update. So I figured: "try to install grub from Pardus", but grub-install still only has the older Pardus kernel listed (and still lists the Mandriva boot options).

Is there a way to get menu.lst to update (other than entering all the details manually via the system settings) to include the latest Pardus kernel (even if I have to manually add the Sidux one).

[atolboo]

Use Rescue System > Reinstall GRUB from the installation CD/USB.
This option will try to detect all available OS and generate a new /boot/grub/menu.lst and install GRUB.

[James T]

Not good so far.
1) The 2009 CD left the boot list unchanged (and failed to exit properly -- python syntax error).
2) After renaming menu.lst & grub.conf 2009 left grub with nothing.
3) 2009.1 produced a new boot menu but the Pardus entry won't boot (I've not yet had a chance to investigate properly what it's done as the machine has now decided that it won't boot from CD [any CD so it's not just a marginal burn])

I'll probably have to wait for the weekend to see if it's just a loose IDE cable or a failed drive.

[atolboo]

1) The 2009 CD left the boot list unchanged (and failed to exit properly -- python syntax error).

This is a known Bug in P2009 and has been solved in P2009.1.

2) After renaming menu.lst & grub.conf 2009 left grub with nothing.

This isn't necessary.

And not every update (build number) of the kernel needs a new entry in GRUB.
You can compare the entry in System Settings > Boot Manager with "pisi info kernel" in a Konsole.

[James T]

3) 2009.1 produced a new boot menu but the Pardus entry won't boot (I've not yet had a chance to investigate properly what it's done as the machine has now decided that it won't boot from CD [any CD so it's not just a marginal burn])

I've managed to figure this one out. The good news is it's unlikely to affect anybody else to the extent of unbootability:
The rescue system creates a menu.lst entry not for the latest kernel it finds on the disk, but rather for the one matching the 2009.1 original release. However on my system  that was one of the test kernels generated to track down a major kernel bug

•   just before the 2009.1 release (for the release the developers reset the build numbers). Moral: don't leave defective development kernels lying around!
• Unable to boot AMD Athlon XP CPUs.

[atolboo]

•   just before the 2009.1 release

You mean Pardus 2009.1 RC

• Unable to boot AMD Athlon XP CPUs.

Where is this coming from (because this would be very strange.)
It's a regular every day CPU.

[James T]

•   just before the 2009.1 release

You mean Pardus 2009.1 RC

• Unable to boot AMD Athlon XP CPUs.

Where is this coming from (because this would be very strange.)
It's a regular every day CPU.

I forget the  exact timeline now, but I think that the RC came out with the problem kernel, and there was then a fairly frantic exchange as it became clear that the problem was on pretty mainstream hardware. If you really want to check it out look for bug 11939 http://bugs.pardus.org.tr/show_bug.cgi?id=11939. In essence the devs produced a number of test kernels to try to isolate the problem (these were only installed by a small number of users [2 or 3 as I recall]) and the version numbers of these were then reused in the actual release and the version that was released re-used the version number of one of the tests that didn't work (and I had left that lying around).