Live kernel updater : no effective kernel update

[Member Girafenaine]

Hello,

I have a frugal install on a laptop. It’s a 64 bits Antix 19. It uses the default 4.9 kernel.

I would like to upgrade the kernel to 4.19 or 5.5. I install them (with antix-package-installer), I made a new remaster, rebooted, and used live-USB-updater. The updater is able to see the new kernels, and seems to be able to upgrade without shown errors. Unfortunately after reboot the used kernel is still 4.9. uname -a gives “4.9”. live-USB-updater tells that used kernel is “4.9”, and however tells that default kernel is “4.19” (or “5.5”, I tried with both with same results).

I found this thread, where BitJam explained that lz4 compression makes some kernels unusable. So I tried to remaster with other compression modes, which did not change encountered issues.

Can someone help me with this issue ?

Edit : title modified

• This topic was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Girafenaine.

Girafenaine
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Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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You need to set the kernel via live-kernel-updater in the control centre under live.

I assume the kernels are Debian or antiX or liquorix ones.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by anticapitalista.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member Girafenaine]

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Hello anti,

Thanks for your message. I set the kernel this way with the explained issue. What I called “live USB updater” was actually live-kernel-updater.

Kernel are those in antiX-packge-installer.

Girafenaine
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Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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Are you running persistence?
If not, you need to run live-kernel-updater just after you have remastered and before you reboot.

Is the frugal install on an ext4 partition?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by anticapitalista.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member Girafenaine]

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I am running persistence for root and home.

This frugal install is on a windows laptop, on a ntfs partition.

Girafenaine
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Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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Girafenaine wrote:

I am running persistence for root and home.

… on a ntfs partition.

This may be the reason.

All my frugal installs work just fine upgrading kernels. (I have 8!).
But they are all on ext4.
I can try to reproduce your issue on a ntfs partiton, but it will be when I have some free time.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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btw is this also connected with your post here – https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/frugal-32-and-64b/#post-34356

If it is, please don’t double post.

Anyhow, how are you bootloading into that ntfs partition?
Via grub on an installed linux distro or via liveusb?
Give us ALL the details please.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member Girafenaine]

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Hello,

There is no tight connection with my other post (I wanted to follow the “keep separate questions in separate threads” rule).

I am bootloading this ntfs partition with a 64 bits live USB, using frugal boot option. There is no installed linux distro on this HDD, nor grub. I am using full persistence (home and root). I remastered with lz4 then other compression modes.

It is an updated 64 bits Antix 19 frugal install. The installed kernels (4.9, 4.19 and 5.5) are installed with Antix-package-installer.

Live-kernel-updaters gives no error messages when updating, and after that it tells that the default kernel is “4.19” (after having updated kernel to 4.19) or “5.5” (after having updated kernel to 5.5). But it still boots in 4.9 kernel.

I can provide the logs or infos you will request, I don’t know what could be useful.

Girafenaine
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Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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I can’t get it to work either when using any bootloader on live-usb to boot the frugal install on a hard drive.
However, I did find out that it is not due to it being frugal on a ntfs partition.

I can boot frugally with the kernel changes if I have grub installed to hard drive.

Here is my setup.

antiX installed on sda1 (ext4) running grub.
sda2 is ntfs with a frugal install of antiX (in a folder renamed to antiX-test) and, via live-kernel-updater, running a 5.5 antiX kernel.

This is the entry in my sda1 grub

menuentry "antiX-64-buster-runit frugal on ntfs" {
set root='hd0,gpt2'
linux /antiX-test/vmlinuz bdir=antiX-test bdev=sda2 persist quiet nocheckfs nostore disable=lx 
initrd /antiX-test/initrd.gz
}

However, adding the above to the live-usb stick’ grub does not work.

Using fdev=sda2 and fdir=antiX-test cheats, does boot the frugal install via the live-usb, but it uses the vmlinuz and initrd.gz of the live iso and not the one on the frugal install.

The might be a way to get grub, syslinux, isolinux to use the vmlinuz and initrd.gz from the frugal install with clever boot codes, but I couldn’t get it to work.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member Girafenaine]

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Hello Anti,

Thank you for your quick help.

Does your post mean that the kernel cannot be easily updated by live-kernel-updater on a frugal install ? We could advertised it on the live-kernel-updater doc.

OK for you work around with an installed antix with grub.

Could we suggest another way which I did not yet tried : we could copy the frugal install on a USB drive, update the kernel on the copied USB live with live-kernel-updater, then copy it back to the hard drive as a frugal install (instead of the first frugal install). May this process be successful ?

Girafenaine
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Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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This works, though it is not ideal.

1. On the live-usb, in the antiX folder, rename initrd.gz and vmlinuz files (and the md5files eg vmlinuz.md5 and initrd.gz.md5) or perhaps better, put them into a folder called default.
2. Copy initrd.gz and vmlinuz files (and the md5files eg vmlinuz.md5 and initrd.gz.md5) on the ntfs frugal device to the live-usb.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member Girafenaine]

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Hello,

I found that it did not work because of the live USB I used : it was a 64 bits – 4.9 kernel live USB. It was not able to boot on the 5.5 kernel on the frugal install, and so the default 4.9 kernel was used instead.

So anti, your solution in your last post seems perfect. I ended with the same result with following process :
– frugal 64 bits install with kernels 4.9 and 5.5 installed and enabled via live-kernel-updater
– 64 bits live USB with only 4.9 kernel. Too small a size to be able to udpate the kernel directly via install, remaster and then live-kernel-updater : I udpated it with “live-USB-creator” which has an “update only” option, and use the frugal install as a source. I guess it had the same effect as “anti process”, replacing initrd.gz and vmlinuz files.
– one more step : I had to change the frugal folder name. It was automatically named “antiX-Frugal-4.9.193-antix.1-amd64-smp” and I had to manually name it “antiX-Frugal-5.5.0-antix.1-amd64-smp”. Without this step, the boot process cannot find the frugal install.
– now the live USB is able to boot the frugal install with the 5.5 kernel.

Masinick : I don’t understand your point. Do you tell about a frugal install ?

I think my issue was about trying to boot a frugal install with a live USB which had a different kernel. Both need to have the same kernel in order the frugal install boots well. If true, this point should be described in doc, FAQ or wiki. What about it ? I could write something, but I am not sure whether I am right.

Girafenaine
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Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

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