Upgrade Ruins Filesystem

daedalus · 2009-09-14 04:05:09

Hey all -

Okay, so I have a virtual server running Arch over at Slicehost. It is currently running with:

kernel: 2.6.18-xen
filesystem: 2009.01-2

If I try to upgrade the server (# pacman -Syu), it trashes the filesystem *every time*. I know this, because after it happened once, I restored from a backup and tried to upgrade again. Each time, the behavior is the same.

Essentially, after the upgrade, the next time I reboot the system it crashes on startup, tells me there is a superblock error, and dumps me into a root prompt (after a password entry, of course). The problem with this is that I can't even use fsck to fix the superblock - it says there isn't even a readable filesystem present!

Interestingly, if I tell it *not* to upgrade the filesystem, but upgrade everything else, the same thing happens.

Here is the full list of things being upgraded:

:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Targets (58): kernel-headers-2.6.30.5-1  tzdata-2009l-1  glibc-2.10.1-4  readline-6.0.004-1  bash-4.0.028-1  
              util-linux-ng-2.16-1  apr-1.3.8-2  apr-util-1.3.9-1  apache-2.2.13-1  gawk-3.1.7-1  autoconf-2.64-1  
              bigreqsproto-1.1.0-1  cloog-ppl-0.15.7-1  shadow-4.1.4.2-1  coreutils-7.5-2  cpio-2.10-1  
              e2fsprogs-1.41.8-2  cryptsetup-1.0.7-1  curl-7.19.6-1  db4.5-4.5.20-2  dhcpcd-5.0.7-1  
              dnsutils-9.6.1-2  filesystem-2009.07-1  git-1.6.4.2-1  udev-146-2  initscripts-2009.08-1  
              inputproto-1.5.1-2  ipython-0.10-2  xz-utils-4.999.9beta-1  libarchive-2.7.1-1  libice-1.0.6-1  
              libpng-1.2.39-1  libsm-1.1.1-1  libtiff-3.9.1-1  xcb-proto-1.5-1  libxau-1.0.5-1  libxcb-1.4-1  
              libx11-1.2.2-1  libxml2-2.7.3-3  licenses-2.5-1  links-g-2.2-3  man-db-2.5.6-1  mkinitcpio-0.5.26-1  
              mlocate-0.22-2  module-init-tools-3.10-1  neon-0.28.6-1  pciutils-3.1.4-1  psmisc-22.8-1  
              python-paramiko-1.7.5-1  python-psycopg2-2.0.11-1  reiserfsprogs-3.6.21-2  sqlite3-3.6.17-1  
              subversion-1.6.5-2  sudo-1.7.2p1-1  syslog-ng-3.0.4-1  usbutils-0.86-2  wget-1.11.4-2  
              xfsprogs-3.0.1-2  

Total Download Size:    63.76 MB
Total Installed Size:   206.27 MB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n]

Does anyone know what might be happening? What is breaking the system?

I have since tried to upgrade again, and sure enough, the exact same thing happens

Allan · 2009-09-14 04:12:49

Not sure if it is related, but that kernel is a bit old: http://www.archlinux.org/news/457/

daedalus · 2009-09-14 04:32:28

Yeah, the entire system is a bit dated, really. Unfortunately, I was traveling for a bit and lost access to it for a number of months.

Thanks for the tip! it seems weird that udev might cause the filesystem to be unreadable? I'll give it a shot if nothing else works though.

.:B:. · 2009-09-14 14:31:42

I am running my Linode on a 2.6.18 kernel too (somehow Xen doesn't support anything higher?) and haven't had any problems up till now (done an update just a few days ago).

foutrelis · 2009-09-14 14:47:01

B wrote:

I am running my Linode on a 2.6.18 kernel too (somehow Xen doesn't support anything higher?) and haven't had any problems up till now (done an update just a few days ago).

Linode does provide newer kernels on its Xen VPS offerings. I've been running 2.6.30.5 on a Linode for a little less than a month now with no issues.

Last edited by foutrelis (2009-09-14 14:48:13)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-14 04:05:09

Upgrade Ruins Filesystem

#2 2009-09-14 04:12:49

Re: Upgrade Ruins Filesystem

#3 2009-09-14 04:32:28

Re: Upgrade Ruins Filesystem

#4 2009-09-14 14:31:42

Re: Upgrade Ruins Filesystem

#5 2009-09-14 14:47:01

Re: Upgrade Ruins Filesystem

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