Restore latest kernel

[Derek Broughton]

Mark Haney wrote:

> Derek Broughton wrote:
>> Mark Haney wrote:
>> 
>>> Re-installing the kernel is the lazy way of fixing this problem, to
>>> understand what you are trying to do, maybe you should dig into it a
>>> little more.  Especially kernel modules.
>> 
>> Well, I think it was actually pretty necessary, since Mike seems to have
>> blown away the modules that are _supposed_ to support that device.
> 
> See, I'm still not convinced of that.  I do agree, that had I been given
> the chance to help him diagnose the problem in detail, a re-install
> might have been necessary.  But we don't KNOW that based on the
> information we had.  Which is why I asked for the information I did.  I
> didn't see the kernel being completely FUBAR at that time.  It might
> have needed just a couple of commented out module lines to at least be
> bootable and then we could determine the problem from there.

True, and I'm sure the kernel wasn't a complete loss either - my suggestion
had been to just remove the driver he compiled, but I'm suspecting that he
doesn't actually know which driver that was...  But the specific errors he
showed imply he _did_ recompile the cx88 driver, and it wasn't done
correctly.  So since he needs that driver, it still seems probable that he
needed to reinstall the kernel.
> 
> 
> I say the re-install is the lazy way because no chance was given to
> really find the answer.  Re-installing the kernel at this stage is like
> telling a user to reboot Windows to fix it.  It might fix the problem,
> but that doesn't mean you've FIXED the problem, you know?

Or as Karl puts it, "all his problems are solved" :-)  I really think that
once somebody b0rks his system by compiling drivers, replacing all the
drivers is practically mandatory.  No it doesn't fix the root problem, but
until the reinstall, we have no idea whether ongoing problems are due to
the compilation or something else.
> 
> I thought I'd offer my help with at least finding out if the modules
> were buggy before going that route,

I don't know what kind of evidence you need - the errors from dmesg show a
module with a pretty screwed up symbol table.

> since it looks as if he'll need to 
> build his own and maybe he might learn how to properly manage the
> modules by digging into it deeper.

> Really, having 'pros' like that around rather makes my experience kinda
> useless.  I mean, if the standard Ubuntu answer to a problem is
> 'reinstall!', then I can leave that to them and find a forum where
> that's a last resort option.

Reinstall should be a last resort, but I still think it's mandatory in a
case like this.
-- 
derek