First post, so shoutout to the team! Thank you for providing us with an alternative to the other guys.
Running update, it installed the latest(?) kernel updates, but we’re not booting to it. Unsure how to proceed.
[root@uisp ~]# dnf check-update --security
Last metadata expiration check: 2:20:46 ago on Tue 03 Aug 2021 06:32:27 AM EDT.
Security: kernel-core-4.18.0-305.10.2.el8_4.x86_64 is an installed security update
Security: kernel-core-4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64 is the currently running version
So, /boot/loader/entries is getting updated, but apparently not being used.
Sorry if I’m not asking the right questions, I chose RHEL-based distros because I was tired of constantly fixing things myself. As such, I’ve not touched grub in over a decade.
They tend to work out of the box. Personally, I dislike some of the default choices but they are relatively easy to change.
I presume that you have GRUB_ENABLE_BLSCFG=true in /etc/default/grub.
Check: grep GRUB_ENABLE_BLSCFG /etc/default/grub
The next check is that the grub.cfg is set to use blscfg: sudo grep -B1 -A1 blscfg /boot/efi/EFI/almalinux/grub.cfg /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Only one of those files exists.
If your system boots in EFI mode, then the grub.cfg is /boot/efi/EFI/almalinux/grub.cfg
If your system boots in legacy mode, then grub.cfg is /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
If you don’t get
insmod blscfg
blscfg
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
then the question is, what is in the grub.cfg (10_linux section)?
So no blscfg. The last reply in that bug report says it’s the default, but I’m not seeing that on this VM, so not 100% sure how to proceed.
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'AlmaLinux (4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64) 8.4 (Electric Cheetah)' --class almalinux --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --unrestricted $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64-advanced-2a9eeb55-f741-4e92-b966-867c66023984' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod xfs
set root='hd0,msdos1'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint='hd0,msdos1' 2a3f60df-1ceb-4e85-80b6-3dbdbea0e93b
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 2a3f60df-1ceb-4e85-80b6-3dbdbea0e93b
fi
linux /vmlinuz-4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64 root=UUID=2a9eeb55-f741-4e92-b966-867c66023984 ro crashkernel=auto resume=UUID=ee5a8e36-f83e-4884-90bd-c000aa522e79
initrd /initramfs-4.18.0-305.el8.x86_64.img
}
menuentry 'AlmaLinux (0-rescue-2fbdc3af2cda47c09273015e210dede9) 8.4 (Electric Cheetah)' --class almalinux --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os --unrestricted $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-0-rescue-2fbdc3af2cda47c09273015e210dede9-advanced-2a9eeb55-f741-4e92-b966-867c66023984' {
load_video
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod xfs
set root='hd0,msdos1'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint='hd0,msdos1' 2a3f60df-1ceb-4e85-80b6-3dbdbea0e93b
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 2a3f60df-1ceb-4e85-80b6-3dbdbea0e93b
fi
linux /vmlinuz-0-rescue-2fbdc3af2cda47c09273015e210dede9 root=UUID=2a9eeb55-f741-4e92-b966-867c66023984 ro crashkernel=auto resume=UUID=ee5a8e36-f83e-4884-90bd-c000aa522e79
initrd /initramfs-0-rescue-2fbdc3af2cda47c09273015e210dede9.img
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
Again, I see that the kernel packages are being installed, but grub.cfg is not being updated as expected. Manually running grub2-mkconfig fixes this, I just wanted to figure out why it didn’t happen automatically during the update process.
While it’s something we need to be aware of, this is the first time in over 10 years I’ve seen this behavior in an RHEL system.
Logic says that if installation of kernel adds a new file into /boot/loader/entries(as it does) and grub.cfg calls blscfg, then the grub.cfg does not need to change at all, when we add/remove kernels.
There is obviously an incoherent configuration, if the grub.cfg does not call blscfg, yet the kernel install acts like it does.
Disclaimer: I have not installed AlmaLinux, just migrated an existing CentOS Linux that uses BLS properly.
It just upgraded grub to the new kernel. Apparently, the default in alma is not to use the blscfg.
I need to check out my CentOS 8 VMs to see what their behavior is. Will also be installing a few actual RHEL 8 VMs soon (vendor requirements), so will have a variety of builds to compare.
