grub.cnf - missing kernels

[gary20783]

Hello,

I stumbled on to this problem when trying to install VMware Workstation Pro. The installation was looking for the 3.10.0-1160.11.1 kernel header files.

The system was installed using the Centos 7 files downloaded from centos.org.

When I boot up, I only see one entry for a kernel, 3.10.0-1127.19.1.el7.x86_64. (See the attached boot menu screenshot.) I am expecting to see an entry for the 3.10.0-1160.21.1.el7.x86_64 kernel.

Here are the kernel packages that are installed.
kernel-headers-3.10.0-1160.21.1.el7.x86_64
kernel-3.10.0-1160.11.1.el7.x86_64
kernel-3.10.0-1160.21.1.el7.x86_64
kernel-3.10.0-1127.19.1.el7.x86_64
kernel-3.10.0-1127.el7.x86_64
kernel-tools-3.10.0-1160.21.1.el7.x86_64
kernel-devel-3.10.0-1160.21.1.el7.x86_64
kernel-tools-libs-3.10.0-1160.21.1.el7.x86_64

After looking around, I was not able to find any grub.cfg files. After much trouble-shooting I ended up creating 3 grub.cfg files because nothing was changing.
1. grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grub.cfg
2. grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
3. grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Even after creating these grub.cfg files and rebooting each time, I still only see what's in the attached boot menu screenshot. Even though I see the expected entries for the following images in the cfg files.
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 6.5M Sep 21 2020 vmlinuz-0-rescue-d1d3d38d84ca471e8cbba335d20b3bff
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 6.5M Aug 25 2020 vmlinuz-3.10.0-1127.19.1.el7.x86_64
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 6.5M Mar 31 2020 vmlinuz-3.10.0-1127.el7.x86_64
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6.5M Dec 18 11:38 vmlinuz-3.10.0-1160.11.1.el7.x86_64
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6.5M Mar 16 14:32 vmlinuz-3.10.0-1160.21.1.el7.x86_64

Where is the grub file that is being used?

Thanks!
Gary

[gary20783]

Reinstalling the grub2-efi and shim packages along with recreating /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grub.cfg did not resolve my issue.

[TrevorH]

Some questions:

Is the system using software RAID 1?


Is the symlink from /etc/grub2.cfg or /etc/grub2-efi.cfg correctly pointing to the relevant location under /boot? Only one of those symlinks should exist and it will depend on whether /sys/firmware/efi exists or not as to which of those it will be. If /sys/firmware/efi exists then your system is in UEFI mode so would use /etc/grub2-efi.cfg and if it does not then it's in Legacy BIOS mode and will use /etc/grub2.cfg and should point to ../boot/grub2/grub.cfg

[gary20783]

Hi Trevor,

I am not using software raid. I'm using a Dell Perc 6i for raid.

When I started out, I was not able to find the grub.cfg files in any of the directories. Nor, were the /etc/grub2.cfg or /etc/grub2-efi.cfg syminks valid which is what I expected given the lack of grub.cfg files. As noted in my original post the grub.cfg files now exist and the symlinks are valid as I created them. I have rebooted multiple times including after creating each one. Which is why I am still confused on where grub is looking as it is not looking where we expect.

The directory /sys/firmware/efi does exist.

Code: Select all

[root@centos ~]# ls -lh /sys/firmware/efi
total 0
-r--r--r--   1 root root 4.0K Mar 29 18:58 config_table
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    0 Mar 29 14:19 efivars
-r--r--r--   1 root root 4.0K Mar 29 18:58 fw_platform_size
-r--r--r--   1 root root 4.0K Mar 29 18:58 fw_vendor
-r--r--r--   1 root root 4.0K Mar 29 18:58 runtime
drwxr-xr-x  12 root root    0 Mar 29 18:58 runtime-map
-r--------   1 root root 4.0K Mar 29 18:58 systab
drwxr-xr-x 107 root root    0 Mar 29 18:58 vars

[TrevorH]

The kernel update scripts will update /etc/grub2-efi.cfg and if the symlink is broken then those updates will not be in the file that grub reads which is under /boot/efi.

[gary20783]

My issue is that even though I have recreated the grub.cfg files, I'm not seeing the updated menu list when I boot my system.

How do I fix this issue?

[TrevorH]

What does /etc/grub2-efi.cfg point to? Does that file have the expected contents?

[gary20783]

Yes it does.

My apologies if this was not clear in my original post.

[TrevorH]

Then it's either not using the filename that you think it is or you have something like a RAID problem. Check your RAID status and make sure that it's ok and that one disk doesn't contain an old copy of the file and the other a newer one.

[gary20783]

Raid status is good.

Here are the grub files and links.

Code: Select all

[root@centos ~]# ls -lh /etc/grub2.cfg
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  20 Mar 30 08:41 /etc/grub2.cfg -> /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

[root@centos ~]# ls -lh /etc/grub2-efi.cfg
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root  29 Mar 30 08:42 /etc/grub2-efi.cfg -> /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grub.cfg

[root@centos ~]# ls -lh /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
-rwx------ 1 root root 7.2K Mar 29 10:13 /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

[root@centos ~]# ls -lh /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grub.cfg
-rwx------ 1 root root 7.2K Mar 29 16:52 /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grub.cfg

Like I mentioned earlier, I regenerated the grub.cfg files. Today, I redid the symlinks just to be sure that nothing was hanging out.