up vote 2 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I'm having a xen box which runs squeeze.

the linux-image-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem never upgrades properly and I want to stop it from upgrading any more. It's annoying that it tries and fails every time I run apt-get.

I issued 

echo "linux-image-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem hold" | dpkg --set-selections
echo "linux-image-686-bigmem hold" | dpkg --set-selections

and I get

root@y:/etc# dpkg --get-selections | grep hold
linux-image-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem                 hold
linux-image-686-bigmem                          hold

But it still tries to upgrade

root@y:/etc# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Setting up linux-image-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem (2.6.32-31) ...

and fails.

I got below reply with dpkg -l linux-image-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
hF  linux-image-2. 2.6.32-31      Linux 2.6.32 for PCs with 4GB+ RAM

It's hF, not hi.

link|improve this question
did you try apt-get update after you issued the hold command? – Journeyman Geek May 14 '11 at 6:34
@Journeyman yes, I did apt-get update – Gene May 14 '11 at 6:37
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I hold kernels on my servers all the time, so I know it works in general. The "1 not fully installed or removed" worries me. My dpkg -l linux-image-2.6.26-2-686-bigmem (on lenny) shows:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
hi  linux-image-2. 2.6.26-25lenny Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/

with an hi at the beginning. I'm guessing yours shows something else?

link|improve this answer
Please see the modified question. It's hF, not hi. So, what can I do then and what does it means? – Gene May 16 '11 at 7:36
"F" is "failed configuration" -- I assume there's something else on screen when it tries to install and fails? If not, you can try apt-get install --reinstall linux-image-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem and see if that either makes the errors more clear, or finally configures itself properly. – Mike Renfro May 16 '11 at 12:16
I know I can't get it successfully installed and there are errors when installing. But all I want is stop it from installing any more. Can that be done? – Gene May 18 '11 at 9:02
My guess is you'll have to try installing a different kernel version, then removing the problematic one. I doubt 'hold' was intended to prevent a failing package from attempting a reinstall, but only to prevent version upgrades on a completely installed package. The only other option you have is to find out why it's failing to install, and fix that problem. – Mike Renfro May 18 '11 at 13:28
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

You can go to Synaptic>Package>Lock version.

The other option is one I can across called apt-pinning. Here's a tutorial on it.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.