Anyone tried to upgrade their lenny vps to squeeze?

[Stephen]

Since I was provisioning a new vps I took the opportunity to experiment with doing a dist-upgrade to squeeze.

Everything went okay except when apt-get tried to upgrade the kernel at which point it gave up. Is it even possible to install and boot another kernel on a vps?

What about boot loaders such as grub in the context of a vps? I also got some errors about grub being incorrect.

Any hints would be appreciated.

[ross]

Hi Stephen,

Yes it is possible to update / change the Kernel with our Linux Xen VPS plans. You possibly may need to select a different kernel to update to or clarify what error the system is getting when it attempts the kernel upgrade.

I am not sure about the GRUB issue, however I had a quick check through How to setup a Xen VPS Server using LVM, RAID1 and dtc-xen [Archive] - Web Hosting Talk and saw some brief notes about editing the GRUB loader.

[kernelpanic]

Havn't tried to upgrade to squeeze but I did try and upgrade my kernel (linux-image-2.6-amd64), which hasn't worked.

The error I get is:

(Reading database ... 18686 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing linux-image-2.6-amd64 ...
Removing linux-image-2.6.26-1-amd64 ...
Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
warning: grub-probe can't find drive for /dev/sda1.
grub-probe: error: Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sda1. Check your device.map.

User postrm hook script [/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
The link /vmlinuz.old is a damaged link
Removing symbolic link vmlinuz.old
you may need to re-run your boot loader
The link /initrd.img.old is a damaged link
Removing symbolic link initrd.img.old
you may need to re-run your boot loader
Purging configuration files for linux-image-2.6.26-1-amd64 ...
Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
warning: grub-probe can't find drive for /dev/sda1.
grub-probe: error: Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sda1. Check your device.map.

User postrm hook script [/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
Removing linux-image-2.6.26-2-amd64 ...
Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
warning: grub-probe can't find drive for /dev/sda1.
grub-probe: error: Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sda1. Check your device.map.

User postrm hook script [/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
The link /vmlinuz is a damaged link
Removing symbolic link vmlinuz
you may need to re-run your boot loader
The link /initrd.img is a damaged link
Removing symbolic link initrd.img
you may need to re-run your boot loader
Purging configuration files for linux-image-2.6.26-2-amd64 ...
Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub.
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
warning: grub-probe can't find drive for /dev/sda1.
grub-probe: error: Cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sda1. Check your device.map.

User postrm hook script [/sbin/update-grub] exited with value 1
Press return to continue.

The xen wiki says the following:

The standard Xen configuration has the guest domain kernels being supplied by dom0, typically from its own /boot/ directory. Once a guest starts up and loads modules, these will come from its own root filesystem. Note that this configuration does not use any kernel image which may exist within the guest's root filesystem.

The errors for /dev/sda1 look to be correct. fdisk -l gives the following:

# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda1: 10.4 GB, 10485760000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1274 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sda1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sda2: 134 MB, 134217728 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 16 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sda2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Although I have a good knowledge of Linux expereince and have used vmware a fair bit I have not used xen before. So I am a bit lost. I am not sure why there is no valid partition table.

[kernelpanic]

Hmm this is odd. /proc/cpuinfo is reporting "Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz" yet by default the guest came with an AMD kernel (linux-image-2.6-amd64).

When I tried to upgrade the kernel, that was all I did so it would not have changed from an Intel built kernel to an AMD one. Although depending on the exact virtualisation in xen it is possible that the cpuinfo from proc is just what xen sends it but in this case I think not

/var/log/aptitude gives the following about my attempted upgrade:

Aptitude 0.4.11.11: log report
Fri, Jan 8 2010 03:38:37 -0600

IMPORTANT: this log only lists intended actions; actions which fail due to
dpkg problems may not be completed.

Will install 26 packages, and remove 0 packages.
79.8MB of disk space will be used
================================================== =============================
[INSTALL, DEPENDENCIES] libsasl2-modules
[INSTALL, DEPENDENCIES] linux-image-2.6.26-2-amd64
[UPGRADE] acpid 1.0.8-1 -> 1.0.8-1lenny2
[UPGRADE] apt 0.7.20.2 -> 0.7.20.2+lenny1
[UPGRADE] apt-utils 0.7.20.2 -> 0.7.20.2+lenny1
[UPGRADE] base-files 5 -> 5lenny4
[UPGRADE] dhcp3-client 3.1.1-6 -> 3.1.1-6+lenny3
[UPGRADE] dhcp3-common 3.1.1-6 -> 3.1.1-6+lenny3
[UPGRADE] gnupg 1.4.9-3 -> 1.4.9-3+lenny1
[UPGRADE] gpgv 1.4.9-3 -> 1.4.9-3+lenny1
[UPGRADE] libkrb53 1.6.dfsg.4~beta1-5 -> 1.6.dfsg.4~beta1-5lenny1
[UPGRADE] libnewt0.52 0.52.2-11.3 -> 0.52.2-11.3+lenny1
[UPGRADE] libpam-modules 1.0.1-5 -> 1.0.1-5+lenny1
[UPGRADE] libpam-runtime 1.0.1-5 -> 1.0.1-5+lenny1
[UPGRADE] libpam0g 1.0.1-5 -> 1.0.1-5+lenny1
[UPGRADE] libsasl2-2 2.1.22.dfsg1-23 -> 2.1.22.dfsg1-23+lenny1
[UPGRADE] libssl0.9.8 0.9.8g-15 -> 0.9.8g-15+lenny5
[UPGRADE] libvolume-id0 0.125-7 -> 0.125-7+lenny3
[UPGRADE] libxcb-xlib0 1.1-1.1 -> 1.1-1.2
[UPGRADE] libxcb1 1.1-1.1 -> 1.1-1.2
[UPGRADE] linux-image-2.6-amd64 2.6.26+17 -> 2.6.26+17+lenny1
[UPGRADE] linux-image-2.6.26-1-amd64 2.6.26-13 -> 2.6.26-13lenny2
[UPGRADE] tzdata 2008h-2 -> 2009l-0lenny1.1
[UPGRADE] udev 0.125-7 -> 0.125-7+lenny3
[UPGRADE] whiptail 0.52.2-11.3 -> 0.52.2-11.3+lenny1
[UPGRADE] x11-common 1:7.3+18 -> 1:7.3+20
================================================== =============================

Log complete.

[sanil]

Hello Stephen ,

You will not be able to upgrade the kernel in the VPS. The VPS will be using the kernel of the main server(dom 0). It is meantioned in the main Xen configuration file of the main server. If you would like to use any partuclular kernel module, please open a support ticket. We shall copy that particular kernle module for you from the dom 0.