Missing kernel vmlinuz

[Ross28]

Hello,

This is probablly a common problem but I have been looking on the net for a day now and can't find the solution to my problem so here goes:

I'm very new to debian and decided to install debian on a spare computer for some web hosting and other stuff.

I installed debian no problems and was using it fine for a couple of days until I installed an unstable application. During this installation I was notified that the update would make significant changes to the o/s and did I want to continue? (with a warning telling me to continue only if I knew what I was doing) Well as it would have it I decided to go for yes, probablly not the best idea but I thought.. "what could possible go wrong?"

debian continued to work fine until I rebooted... then I discovered that the files vmlinuz-2.4.27-2-386 and initrd.img-2.4.27-2-386 were missing, furthermore my menu.lst file for grub had been backed up and those menu entries had been removed.

I've later learned that these files are the o/s-s kernel, not a good thing to misplace them after only using a new o/s for a couple of days.

My question is how do I get them back short of a fresh install (which I have no problem doing, but I'd like to learn what has happened here).

I understand that the reason they were removed is something to do with package dependencies but why this would happen eludes me.

I have tried a couple of things and managed to get a kernel back on line by loading up the computer with knoppix and copying the knoppix kernel into the boot folder and then editing the menu.lst file.

The system boots into debian but has a suite of errors as it boots and I've lost the majority of my device support.

Anyones help, advice, redirection to an appropriate thread would be fantastic.

Cheers!

[Vergil83]

If you install a new kernel, it should recreate those files. What did you install that was unstable? What are you running (sarge (stable), etch (testing))?

[Ross28]

I installed Sarge, then a program called Gallery2. Which i was able to install by changing an entry in my sources.list. But it was from an unstable source.

It wasn't Gallery 2 itself that caused the problem but a modulethat was reuqired for it.

[Vergil83]

yea, don't install things from testing or unstable unless you know what you are doing....

try doing

apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.27-2-386

[Ross28]

Hehe, now you tell me!

With the apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.27-2-386, unfortunately this doesn't work because I am accessing the file system though knoppix. (I think)

Is there a way of using apt-get and specifying the install lcoation of a package?

And if I decide just to do a clean install - if I backup all the files in /var/cache , will that mean apt-get will just install them directly from the cache in the new install, or will it d/l them all again?

P.S. thanx for your help so far.

[Vergil83]

I think a clean install would be the easiest.

if you save the cache it will install all the programs still saved there (which in your case I would guess would be al).

[Ross28]

Thanks all!

I'm going ahead with the fresh install.

Cheers!