Kernel image missing after reinstallation preserving /home

João,

I cannot reproduce this with a standard install (/ ext3 and swap). Can you reply with the output of `parted /dev/sda print all` and your /etc/fstab?

Thanks

Model: ATA WDC WD5000AAKS-6 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
 1 1049kB 262GB 262GB primary ntfs boot
 2 262GB 292GB 30.0GB primary ext3
 3 292GB 466GB 174GB extended
 5 292GB 296GB 4096MB logical linux-swap
 6 296GB 466GB 170GB logical ext3

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda2
UUID=0babdae6-3141-4e62-a30e-373c9d11bc69 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda6
UUID=96491ac2-3115-48a7-98f2-43e741cd573d /home ext3 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sda1
UUID=C0DCE401DCE3EF98 /windows ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=a694d88f-5199-4b8e-bcc6-bda54d953b86 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

I have repeated this procedure in my laptop.
The result is the same, a mixed old kernel with new modules.

I have booted from the livecd and chrooted into the broken system, the kernel package is listed as installed but grub is unable to find it:
root@ubuntu:/# sudo update-grub
sudo: unable to resolve host ubuntu
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
findfs: Unable to resolve 'UUID=4f99a04d-379f-43fd-86c6-a1ba3b9cb8e2'
Cannot determine root device. Assuming /dev/hda1
This error is probably caused by an invalid /etc/fstab
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic
Found kernel: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

root@ubuntu:/# dpkg -l | grep -i linux-image
ii linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic 2.6.27-7.14 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.27 on x86
ii linux-image-generic 2.6.27.7.11 Generic Linux kernel image

Reinstalling linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic will get the proper entry added into the grub menu.

Confirmed problem here on upgrade from early 8.10 beta to a) latest daily build and b) the RC.

/lib/modules contains only newer modules (2.6.27-7). /boot contains new 2.6.27-7 abi, config, initrd and System.map's but missing matching vmlinuz. menu.lst also still pointing at old kernels etc but like João's comments above - text updated to read 8.10.

Initial symptoms were lack of keyboard/mouse support in X. Managed to temporarily fix this but then noticed lack of network support - at which point I checked out /lib/modules and noticed the mismatch with the running kernel (older 2.6.24-21)

Please post output from:

ls -l /boot

Can you attach the installation syslog, partman, and debug files to this bug report. You can find them in /var/log/installer.

Logs attached.

ls -ltr /boot/
total 50224
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1921464 2008-08-21 05:46 vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 905170 2008-08-21 05:46 System.map-2.6.24-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 80049 2008-08-21 05:46 config-2.6.24-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 422667 2008-08-21 05:46 abi-2.6.24-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 124152 2008-09-11 21:11 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8104424 2008-10-02 17:02 initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8114287 2008-10-15 10:29 initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8104535 2008-10-20 11:05 initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1920760 2008-10-22 04:12 vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 905617 2008-10-22 04:12 System.map-2.6.24-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 80062 2008-10-22 04:12 config-2.6.24-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 422838 2008-10-22 04:12 abi-2.6.24-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2244272 2008-10-24 09:29 vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1029585 2008-10-24 09:29 System.map-2.6.27-7-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 91364 2008-10-24 09:29 config-2.6.27-7-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 507665 2008-10-24 09:29 abi-2.6.27-7-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1073 2008-10-24 09:31 vmcoreinfo-2.6.27-7-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8114393 2008-10-28 08:21 initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2008-10-29 13:01 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8174829 2008-10-29 13:41 initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

This is due to:

        # If no kernel was copied, try some possible locations for the
        # kernel we used to boot. This saves a couple of megabytes of CD
        # space.
        bootdir = os.path.join(self.target, 'boot')
        re_image = re.compile('vmlinu[xz]-')
        for entry in os.listdir(bootdir):
            match = re_image.match(entry)
            if match is not None:
                break
        else:
            kernel = self.find_cd_kernel()
            if kernel:
                prefix = os.path.basename(kernel).split('-', 1)[0]
                release = os.uname()[2]
                target_kernel = os.path.join(bootdir,
                                             '%s-%s' % (prefix, release))
                self.copy_file(kernel, target_kernel, md5_check)

In this case /target/boot contains a kernel and so we think that it was copied from the livefs and don't copy another one!

This bug was fixed in the package ubiquity - 1.10.9

---------------
ubiquity (1.10.9) intrepid; urgency=high

  * Always copy the kernel from /cdrom/casper/ if it's there regardless of
    whether any kernels are already present in /target/boot/, since those
    could just be due to a preserve-home install (LP: #287747).

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:26:24 +0000