Nasty catch-22 with failed kernel patch
philkime
applied kernel patch 127128-11 which was released a few days ago and
it hangs the system on boot. So, I booted failsafe and mounted the
root disk and did
patchrm -R /a 127128-11
but unfortunately, there are packages in the patch which have
SUNW_PKG_ALLZONES set to "true" so it tried to start the one non-
global zone which exists on the machine. OF course, this can't start
as everything's under /a and anyway, it's also got the broken
127128-11 so wouldn't boot anyway. So, I tried the -G flag to patchrm
and this fails too because of the packages with the ALLZONES set to
"true"; these packages won't uninstall with "-G" and patchrm.
Catch-22.
Any ideas?
I don't even need the zone but I can't delete it without zoneadm
seeing the zone under a failsafe boot, which of course it doesn't. I
can't work out where patchrm is seeing the zone anyway since "zoneadm
list" doesn't see it. Perhaps I could take any reference in the patch
files to this zone out but I can't find where this is mentioned?
I did split the SVM root mirror before I applied the patch but I can't
figure out under grub how to get the machine (an old Dell 500SC) to
boot the split mirror ...
Dave
> I have a nasty little problem with a 32-bit x86 Sol10 install. I
I note you posted this to at least two newsgroups - perhaps others. If
you cross-post, any replies will appear in all. So you will not have to
check them all for a response. Likewise, in future, if anyone else finds
your question, they will not mis any answer that might be in a different
group to which they are looking.
It is very rare there is a need to post to two newsgroups the way you
did. I sometimes do it when one is moderated, as the message will not
appear on any other newsgroups until/if the moderator approves it. But
this is not an issue on comp.unix.solaris or alt.solaris.x86
John D Groenveld
philkime <Phi...@kime.org.uk> wrote:
>I did split the SVM root mirror before I applied the patch but I can't
>figure out under grub how to get the machine (an old Dell 500SC) to
>boot the split mirror ...
I think you'll need to boot single-user from your installation media
and adjust /etc/vfstab and /boot/solaris/bootenv.rc on your mirror
disk or slice.
Then you can GRUB boot from your mirror hd or slice.
John
groe...@acm.org
philkime
> In article <0957f3b4-bce5-4a00-ba46-269e6c45f...@n1g2000prb.googlegroups.com>,
>
> philkime <Phi...@kime.org.uk> wrote:
> >I did split the SVM root mirror before I applied the patch but I can't
> >figure out under grub how to get the machine (an old Dell 500SC) to
> >boot the split mirror ...
>
> I think you'll need to boot single-user from your installation media
> and adjust /etc/vfstab and /boot/solaris/bootenv.rc on your mirror
> disk or slice.
>
> Then you can GRUB boot from your mirror hd or slice.
I did all the vfstab/bootenv.rc alterations but I think it boils down
to the fact that the server, a very old Dell 500SC has such a
primitive BIOS that it can't boot from any disk other than the first
IDE primary. There is no setting in the BIOS to change this, the only
HD boot option is "Hard Disk C:".
philkime
> philkime wrote:
> > I have a nasty little problem with a 32-bit x86 Sol10 install. I
>
> I note you posted this to at least two newsgroups - perhaps others.
I know, it's embarrassing as I'm a Usenet veteran of 10+ years but I
was a little desperate at the time and realised I'd forgotten to x-
post when I sent the first message ...
John D Groenveld
philkime <Phi...@kime.org.uk> wrote:
>> Then you can GRUB boot from your mirror hd or slice.
>
>I did all the vfstab/bootenv.rc alterations but I think it boils down
>to the fact that the server, a very old Dell 500SC has such a
>primitive BIOS that it can't boot from any disk other than the first
>IDE primary. There is no setting in the BIOS to change this, the only
>HD boot option is "Hard Disk C:".
I was thinking you would continue to boot the GRUB on your
primary disk, then change the hd option in the root parameter.
In the case of a real disk failure, instead you would have
to replace your primary disk with your mirror.
John
groe...@acm.org
philkime
> In article <aae0b519-39b5-4471-be4b-f0e63278e...@k1g2000prb.googlegroups.com>,
Well, that's the interesting thing, I did try to change the GRUB hd
option after booting grub on the primary disk but I couldn't get it to
do anything with the "root (hd0,1,a)" type syntax and it just crashed
with a mess all over the grub screen instantly.
I also tried replacing the primary with the mirror but the kernel just
panicked instantly and rebooted again. This may have been because at
this point, the alternate mirror wasn't attached to the metadevices
sine I'd split the mirror to apply the patch ...
John D Groenveld
philkime <Phi...@kime.org.uk> wrote:
>Well, that's the interesting thing, I did try to change the GRUB hd
>option after booting grub on the primary disk but I couldn't get it to
>do anything with the "root (hd0,1,a)" type syntax and it just crashed
>with a mess all over the grub screen instantly.
I suspect your mirror disk would be hd1.
>I also tried replacing the primary with the mirror but the kernel just
>panicked instantly and rebooted again. This may have been because at
>this point, the alternate mirror wasn't attached to the metadevices
>sine I'd split the mirror to apply the patch ...
You need to edit your /etc/vfstab and /boot/solaris/bootenv.rc to
reflect that you've broken the mirror.
John
groe...@acm.org