Arch Linux

jeff story

Member

Registered: 2009-05-31

Posts: 237

Website

/var/empty....missing....WTF!!!....Wasted All Afternoon Solving This

I installed the latest Ubuntu on my Arch vbox to check it out, set up a bridged network, etc...

Couldn't ssh into Arch from Ubuntu though. Could go the other direction just fine.

So after 2 football games while being distracted by my computer "problem",
and in the process consuming a few too many beers, and a lot of head scratching...

I finally stumbled upon the solution. An Arch update deleted my /var/empty directory,
restoring it solved my no ssh into Arch problem.

All is good now so I go to the /var/empty directory to check out the file/s ....none there!!!

What's going on with this directory. Why/how could it solve above problem, and remain empty of any files???

---

Check out my website for info on the Arch Linux Installer

toxygen

Member

Registered: 2008-08-22

Posts: 713

Re: /var/empty....missing....WTF!!!....Wasted All Afternoon Solving This

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=83425

still being investigated on the bug page, but yeah, this was a big hassle for a lot of us

[edit]/var/empty, as the name implies, should be empty of files

Last edited by toxygen (2009-11-02 00:47:40)

---

"I know what you're thinking, 'cause right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here:
Why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill?"

japetto

Member

From: Chicago, IL US

Registered: 2006-07-02

Posts: 183

Re: /var/empty....missing....WTF!!!....Wasted All Afternoon Solving This

Do you run openntpd (or have it installed)?

This is why I am asking: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/16886

*** URL fixed by skottish ***

llcawthorne

Member

From: Columbia, SC

Registered: 2009-10-16

Posts: 142

Re: /var/empty....missing....WTF!!!....Wasted All Afternoon Solving This

Hmm..  I wondered why that happened.  I do use openntpd and think I recently updated it. 

I know that Friday during the day I was shelled into my home pc from school.  Then I went out of town this weekend and before leaving ran some updates that I believe included my ntp server and rebooted my machine.  I got to where I was going and was unable to shell in.  First thing I did when I got home was try to restart sshd by hand.  It complained /var/empty was missing, so I created it, started sshd, and all was fine.  I was definitely curious as to how that happend though.

---

To understand recursion, you must understand recursion.

jeff story

Member

Registered: 2009-05-31

Posts: 237

Website

Re: /var/empty....missing....WTF!!!....Wasted All Afternoon Solving This

Well. I just removed it a few days ago to fix my clock issues.
See my pacman log below.

[2009-10-30 13:44] starting full system upgrade
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded kernel-headers (2.6.30.5-1 -> 2.6.31.4-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] Generating locales...
[2009-10-30 13:56]   en_US.UTF-8... done
[2009-10-30 13:56]   en_US.ISO-8859-1... done
[2009-10-30 13:56] Generation complete.
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded glibc (2.10.1-4 -> 2.10.1-5)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded attr (2.4.43-1 -> 2.4.44-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded acl (2.2.47-2 -> 2.2.48-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded binutils (2.19.1-5 -> 2.20-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded enca (1.11-1 -> 1.12-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded gcc-libs (4.4.1-1 -> 4.4.2-2)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded xulrunner (1.9.1.3-2 -> 1.9.1.4-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded firefox (3.5.3-1 -> 3.5.4-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded gcc (4.4.1-1 -> 4.4.2-2)
[2009-10-30 13:56] warning: /etc/gdm/custom.conf installed as /etc/gdm/custom.conf.pacnew
[2009-10-30 13:56] warning: directory permissions differ on var/log/gdm/
filesystem: 1770  package: 755
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded gdm (2.20.10-2 -> 2.28.1-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded k3b (1.66.0alpha2-3 -> 1.68.0alpha3-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded lib32-glibc (2.10.1-4 -> 2.10.1-5)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded lib32-gcc-libs (4.4.1-1 -> 4.4.2-2)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded libatasmart (0.16-1 -> 0.17-1)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded live-media (2009.09.28-1 -> 2009.09.28-2)
[2009-10-30 13:56] warning: /etc/ntpd.conf installed as /etc/ntpd.conf.pacnew
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded openntpd (3.9p1-7 -> 3.9p1-9)
[2009-10-30 13:56] upgraded python (2.6.3-2 -> 2.6.4-1)
[2009-10-30 13:57] Updating font cache... done.
[2009-10-30 13:57] installed ttf-freefont (20090104-2)
[2009-10-30 13:57] upgraded vlc (1.0.2-3 -> 1.0.2-5)
[2009-10-30 13:57] warning: /etc/gdm/custom.conf installed as /etc/gdm/custom.conf.pacnew
[2009-10-30 13:57] warning: directory permissions differ on var/log/gdm/
filesystem: 1770  package: 755
[2009-10-30 13:57] upgraded gdm (2.28.1-1 -> 2.20.10-2)
[2009-10-31 14:12] synchronizing package lists
[2009-10-31 14:13] starting full system upgrade
[2009-10-31 17:38] warning: /etc/ntpd.conf saved as /etc/ntpd.conf.pacsave
[2009-10-31 17:38] removed openntpd (3.9p1-9)
[2009-10-31 17:40] installed ntp (4.2.4p7-3)

Last edited by jeff story (2009-11-02 02:04:59)

---

Check out my website for info on the Arch Linux Installer