On 11/03/2010 06:50 PM, Norbert Zeh wrote:
Aah, it just hit me: the problem may in fact be fairly random in that it may depend on where the initramfs is stored. So, if the BIOS is broken, you may be lucky to be able to boot under one kernel, and the next upgrade places things in a place on disk where the BIOS bug kicks in, and you're screwed. So it has nothing to do with the kernel version, grub or dmraid in this case. Do I understand this correctly?
I think that is exactly the understanding I got from Thomas, and it makes an uncanny amount of sense. Though it doesn't have a 100% correlation, it does explain why just about ever-other kernel has exhibited this problem. I'll do a test. Right now I have 2.6.35-7 installed. I have upgraded to 2.6.35-8 (wouldn't boot), downgraded to 2.6.35-7 (worked), upgraded to 2.6.36-3 (wouldn't boot). So if this theory is correct, I should be able to start with 2.6.35-7 (working), upgrade to 2.6.35-8 (expect failure), then upgrade directly to 2.6.36-3 and (expect success) -- even though a direct update from 2.6.35-7 to 2.6.36-3 originally resulted in failure. If this works I'll.... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com