[Bio-Linux] Bio-Linux Security Update

Sujai Kumar sujai.kumar at ed.ac.uk
Fri Feb 15 06:08:26 EST 2008


Dear Stewart

Thanks for these instructions, but the problem happened on both a Dell
Precision 650 and a Dell Poweredge 600SC (both with IDE drives).

I haven't tried your fix yet (though as I said, I was able to get it
to boot up by picking the earlier kernel on the Grub screen at startup
time) because /dev/hda1 does seem to be the right option for these
systems.

- Sujai

On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 10:59 AM, Stewart Houten <shou at ceh.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hi Sarah and all on Bio-Linux,
>
>  It appears the grub menu file has an error in and you seem to be the
>  second person this has happened to so I am forwarding this reply to
>  the list.
>
>  When you install the new kernel the grub boot stanzas are regenerated
>  using the default parameters at the head of the grub menu file.  It
>  seems the default is root device is declared as /dev/hda1, which is
>  correct if you have a machine with IDE drives (ie. Dell 650) but not
>  for SATA (Dell 670/490).
>
>  If you have a Dell 670/490 then your machine has SATA drives (sda, not
>  hda) and this will affect you.  If you are unsure whether your machine
>  has SATA disks run the command 'df' and look for /dev/sdaX.
>
>  To fix this issue edit the file (as root/sudo) /boot/grub/menu.lst and
>  modify the line that begins
>
>  # kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ...
>
>  to read "sda1" instead of "hda1".  Then save the file and run
>
>  update-grub
>
>  Then reboot.
>
>  I would recommend doing this before upgrading the kernel if possible
>  but this case (Sarah) you need to boot the machine before doing any of
>  the above.  To do this, reboot the machine and at the blue Grub screen
>  press 'e' to edit the highlighted line, then arrow-down to the line
>  beginning "kernel /boot/vmlinuz..." and press 'e' again to edit.
>  Scroll back along the line and edit the "root=/dev/hda1" part to read
>  "root=/dev/sda1".  Then press Enter to exit and then 'b' to boot the
>  kernel with new line.
>
>  One the machine boots you will still need to edit the grub menu file
>  as described in the first half of this email.
>
>  Apologies to all those that this has affected.
>
>  If you have any further queries about this please reply to
>
> helpdesk at nebc.nox.ac.uk.
>
>  Regards,
>  Stewart
>  --
>  Dr Stewart Houten, Bio-Linux Developer
>  NEBC, CEH, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SR
>  http://nebc.nox.ac.uk/
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>  Bio-Linux mailing list
>  Bio-Linux at envgen.nox.ac.uk
>  http://envgen.nox.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/bio-linux
>
>



-- 
Sujai Kumar
Bioinformatics
The Ashworth Laboratories
King's Buildings Campus
University of Edinburgh
EH9 3JT, UK
+44 131 650 7403 (O)




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