Kernel Too Old

[cbcs01]

I have been running a TonidoPlug 2 on ArchLinux for a number of years. The last version of the Kernel using pacman -Syu was 3.1.10-35. Yesterday, I applied the pacman -Syu updates and the system responded with "Kernel too old" after one of the updates (I think it was glibc as I managed to update another TonidoPlug2 with all of the updates that didn't include glibc). At this point, the system is still running, but I cannot connect to it. It runs as a headless system so the connectivity options are limited. Any ideas on how to recover this system? It is running on a SATA drive.
Thanks.

[WarheadsSE]

In that time you missed, you need to move to linux-armv5 or linux-kirkwood

[cbcs01]

Why didn't pacman -Syu automatically update my kernel? I run it every day and apply any updates.
Second, can I switch to the kirkwood kernel on another TonidoPlug2 without bricking it?

[WarheadsSE]

Because you had linux* installed from way back when, it won't magically move you to a different kernel, since that was split into multiple different packages for different machines.

ARM isn't x86. You don't always have one grand unified kernel.

[cbcs01]

I have been running ArchLinux for over 4 years on a number of ARM versions, and have been quite impressed by the quality of the support, which is why I was surprised when the update make the Tonido unusable. Other ArchLinux versions, e.g. RaspberryPi and BeagleBone Black, upgraded kernels without any issues. A warning about the incompatibility would have been very much appreciated, rather than having the result unusable.

[WarheadsSE]

All of those other platforms never started on the package "linux", and this is why they never had this problem.

[polskifacet]

So how is the issue fixed? Do I have to do a fresh install?

[WarheadsSE]

You can manually extract the linux-kirkwood package and place /boot contents as necessary, but it should not require a fresh install.

[polskifacet]

WarheadsSE, that worked perfectly. If it's not too long of a response, could you explain what happened.

[WarheadsSE]

High-speed summmary:
- once, ALARM was armv5te, kirkwood only (PogoPlug E02)
- back then, "linux" was the only package
- Add many architectures, and many other armv5te boards
- kernel packages split
- Assuming that "linux" should be replaced by "linux-kirkwood" is erroneous for everything not kirkwood
- "linux" languishes at 3.x
- linux-armv5, linux-kirkwood, etc continue to roll with updates
- unmaintained systems eventually get tripped up.