[SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

aIien · 2012-06-07 17:41:35

Hello

After regular upgrade my Archlinux got broken.
The reason was that my /usr/share symbolic link, which points to a folder on other partition (space problem) was deleted and replaced with a virgin /usr/share/ folder. After restoring original symlink and reinstalling some packages everything works again.

Is it posible the pacman or some bad package caused this symlink deletion and how can i prevent this in the future?

Last edited by aIien (2012-06-08 16:36:25)

bergersau · 2012-06-08 02:28:19

I'm no expert, but today there was a file system update that also required manual intervention. It may have been this that caused your issue.
Always check the Latest news on http://www.archlinux.org/ before updating.

Allan · 2012-06-08 02:45:44

Did you use --force?

aIien · 2012-06-08 16:22:20

Allan wrote:

Did you use --force?

no i didn't. And the problem occured on 2012-06-03.

Maybe i should create a package owning this symlink, so i get at least
a warning if some package try to override it? The best solution would be
to mount /usr/share to an extra partition.

This case is solved for me now, but maybe it could be usefull for someone
else in the future. Should i mark this thread [solved]?

Last edited by aIien (2012-06-08 16:24:00)

Inxsible · 2012-06-08 16:24:31

alien wrote:

Should i mark this thread [solved]?

please do.

Allan · 2012-06-08 23:41:54

aIien wrote:

Allan wrote:
Did you use --force?
no i didn't. And the problem occured on 2012-06-03.

Pacman will not overwrite a symlink with a directory unless --force is used...

aIien · 2012-06-09 15:33:58

Allan wrote:

aIien wrote:
Allan wrote:
Did you use --force?
no i didn't. And the problem occured on 2012-06-03.
Pacman will not overwrite a symlink with a directory unless --force is used...

I think i figured out what went wrong, it was just an accident, my own mistake:

After upgrade i was unable to boot because of missing 'usr'-hook in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf prior to mkinitcpio-invocation during upgrade (/usr/ is separate partition). So in order to correct this i had to chroot from live-CD, add usr-hook and rebuild initial ramdisk. At this point i forget to mount the drive where /usr/share-symlink should point to. So /usr/share was a broken link and some commands e.g. mkinitcpio didn't work. I tried to fix this and reinstalled some packages whose files were missing. I think the broken link got replaced by pacman during unpacking. Is this what should happen in case of broken link? Sounds logical for me. I'm pretty sure i didn't use --force flag.

Afterwards i restored symbolic link and reinstalled packages which i installed in chroot. Now i think my system is healthy again.

Last edited by aIien (2012-06-09 15:54:46)

kriz · 2012-06-10 10:36:41

not solved for me.
i'm using systemd. booted with sysvinit to upgrade but it didn't work.
my arch claims that /var/lock is busy, so i can't be removed, even at boot time this message pops up.
i tried removing directories and using the force option. neiher did work.
help plz

aIien · 2012-06-10 19:47:09

Your problem seems to be about this:
www.archlinux.org/news/filesystem-upgrade-manual-intervention-required-1/

Btw. You should start a new thread if you need help, because it's not related to this one. You would get more attention from forum users then.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-07 17:41:35

[SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

#2 2012-06-08 02:28:19

Re: [SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

#3 2012-06-08 02:45:44

Re: [SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

#4 2012-06-08 16:22:20

Re: [SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

#5 2012-06-08 16:24:31

Re: [SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

#6 2012-06-08 23:41:54

Re: [SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

#7 2012-06-09 15:33:58

Re: [SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

#8 2012-06-10 10:36:41

Re: [SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

#9 2012-06-10 19:47:09

Re: [SOLVED] upgrade overrides custom symbolic links?

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