From owner-freebsd-fs Sun Apr 1 15:22:28 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Received: from kanga.honeypot.net (kanga.honeypot.net [216.224.193.50]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D49137B719 for ; Sun, 1 Apr 2001 15:22:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kirk@honeypot.net) Received: from pooh.honeypot (mail@pooh.honeypot [10.0.1.2]) by kanga.honeypot.net (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id f31MMNw08487 for ; Sun, 1 Apr 2001 17:22:24 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from kirk@honeypot.net) Received: from kirk by pooh.honeypot with local (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 14jqEm-0000Du-00 for ; Sun, 01 Apr 2001 17:22:20 -0500 To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: My Vinum heart attack From: Kirk Strauser Date: 01 Apr 2001 17:22:20 -0500 Message-ID: <87vgooi7kz.fsf@pooh.honeypot> Lines: 44 X-Mailer: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Read on to find out how the world almost lost a loyal FreeBSD user to heart-attack and/or stroke: I use cvsup to track 4.x-STABLE, and use the following procedure (from /usr/src/UPDATING) to make world from time to time. ################ To update from 4.0-RELEASE or later to the most current 4.x-STABLE ---------- make buildworld make buildkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE make installkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE reboot (in single user) [1] make installworld mergemaster reboot ################ I had last done this on February 11, 2001. Yesterday (2001-03-31), I decided to make world again. During the reboot-into-single-user process, I watched in abject horror as vinum started, tried to read its configuration, didn't like what it found, and TOTALLY WIPED everything in /dev/vinum (including subdirectories). After regaining consciousness, I realized that I had a live tape backup online, so I restored /dev/vinum, restarted vinum, and nearly wept as it repeated the config-nuking process. Eventually, I discovered that renaming /modules.old to /modules and rebooting with kernel.old, coupled with that handy-dandy /dev/vinum backup, was sufficient to bring my system back to life. My assumption was that some low-level change to vinum was made sometime between 2001-02-11 and 2001-03-31, and that rebooting before 'make installworld' left my kernel and userland utilities out-of-sync. On a personal note, the next time someone makes a change that will break the recommended upgrade method, PLEASE document it in /usr/src/UPDATING. Some people still may get bit, but at least those of us who try to RTFM and Do The Right Thing may avoid a little emergency cardiac care. Thanks, -- Kirk Strauser To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-fs" in the body of the message