[mythtv-users] OT: upgrading kernel problems / atrpms fedora mirror repo problems?

[Noel Murphy]

I have gotten myself into a weird situation. I had a working FC4 /  
myth 18.1 box, but for some reason it somehow got messed up and would  
not boot.

I have since just formatted the drives (after slapping the drives  
into a different machine and backing up some stuff) and did a fresh  
install.

However, now I have the following situation.

I'm following Jarod's guide. I did the install from the dvd. After  
the "initial boot", I end up in the following problem.

Kernel 2.6.11-1.1369 boots my machine no problem. Unfortunately, that  
kernel is too old to get the ivtv modules.
When I upgraded my kernel (to 2.6.13-1.1526) my machine gets to the  
ui screen where all the services start up, but then goes completely  
black instead of bring up the login screen. The LED on the monitor  
goes orange (indicating there is no video signal) and i can't seem to  
do anything. I can ssh into the machine, but can't find anything  
obvious as to what went wrong.

Now, I was pretty sure that I had a 2.6.12 kernel installed on this  
box before the "big format", so I tried to install one of the two  
2.6.12 kernels available, but for some reason, I can't seem to get  
yum to install it. Doing a "yum list available" does not list any  
2.6.12 kernels, but I can see them if I point my browser to the  
correct url.

Now, even weirder is I just carried on with the guide (knowing full  
well there was going to be stuff I couldn't install), I installed the  
"ivtv" package. This in turn installed the "ivtv- 
kmdl-2.6.12-1.1456_FC4" module and thus in turn installed the  
corresponding kernel. Why it found it this way, but not when I  
specifically asked it to I'm still confused on.

However, this kernel has the same problem as the 2.6.13 kernel (Blank  
screen instead of login screen)

So, all this being said.

1. Anyone know what is going on with my machine and the "latest"  
kernels? What should i check / look at?
2. Anyone know why i can't install the older kernels? I'm assuming  
"yum install kernel-2.6.12-1.1447_FC4" should work? I get a "nothing  
to do" message.
3. Anyone got any other ideas as to what i can do???? I'm probably  
not comfortable with compiling my own kernel / modules.

Noel Murphy