[2985] in Release_7.7_team
Linux update problem
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Garry Zacheiss)
Tue Oct 2 04:08:16 2001
Message-Id: <200110020807.EAA11479@hodge-podge.mit.edu>
To: release-announce@MIT.EDU, hardserv@MIT.EDU
cc: release-team@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 04:07:54 -0400
From: Garry Zacheiss <zacheiss@MIT.EDU>
This evening when Athena version 9.0.17 was released for Linux,
we became aware of a problem that may occur when a Dell GX150 attempts
to update. Under some circumstances, the update process will never
complete. Machines in this state will be stuck at a text console
displaying many lines of:
reactivate: This workstation is in the middle of an update.
If you encounter a machine in this state, the following instructions
should be followed; this will correct the problem:
From the text console, type Control-C; this will make xlogin reappear.
From xlogin, type Control-P to get a text login. Do *NOT* try to log in
via xlogin. This will not work.
At the text login prompt, log in as root, and run the following
commands:
attach release
/mit/release/bin/fixversion
reboot
The machine will reboot and come back up; it may automatically fsck when
coming up, but this should not require intervention. When it comes back
up, it will still claim to be running 9.0.15. At this time, we've
prevented any further Linux machines from updating to 9.0.17, so the
machine will not try to update again. However, when the next Athena
patch release is made available, machines which have been recovered
using the above procedure should not have any difficulty updating.
If the machine has been rebooted without following the above procedure,
the correct approach to recovery is to log in as root and run the final
3 commands from the above procedure:
attach release
/mit/release/bin/fixversion
reboot
We apologize for any inconvenience. Please direct any questions or
comments to release-team@mit.edu.
Garry
