[CUWiN-Dev] upgrade/partition table problems

[Matthew Isaacs]

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Bill Comisky wrote:
> I'm passing along a question from the Lawndale network.. they have a few
> nodes that have "resisted" upgrades in the past and as a consequence are
> running older versions.  I'm not sure if an interrupted upgrade or
> incorrect disk geometry or something else is to blame.  These nodes are
> not trivial to access to just re-flash (net4526 boards).
> 
> For example, on one node running CUWiN rev 3664:
> 
> # mount
> /dev/wd0a on / type ffs (read-only, noatime, local)
> tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (local)
> tmpfs on /mfs type tmpfs (local)
> /etc on /permanent/etc type null (local)
> /home on /permanent/home type null (local)
> /tmp on /permanent/tmp type null (local)
> /var on /permanent/var type null (local)
> /mfs/etc on /etc type null (local)
> /mfs/home on /home type null (local)
> /mfs/tmp on /tmp type null (local)
> /mfs/var on /var type null (local)
> 
> # upgrade -C ...
> upgrade: upgrading the boot partition is dangerous; use -f
> 
> I was told '-f' had already been tried and failed so I threw caution to
> the wind and:
> 
> # upgrade -f -C ...
> 
> Disk: /dev/rwd0d
> NetBSD disklabel disk geometry:
> cylinders: 977, heads: 4, sectors/track: 32 (128 sectors/cylinder)
> total sectors: 125056
> 
> BIOS disk geometry:
> cylinders: 977, heads: 4, sectors/track: 32 (128 sectors/cylinder)
> total sectors: 727412841289204
> 
> Partition 0:
> <UNUSED>
> Making partition 0 active.
> Preparing for upgrade on /dev/wd0e.
> newfs: /dev/rwd0e: open for read: Device not configured
> Upgrade failed on newfs /dev/rwd0e [1]
> /sbin/upgrade: tmpdir: parameter not set
> 
> And this can't be good:
> 
> # fdisk -vv
> Disk: /dev/rwd0d
> NetBSD disklabel disk geometry:
> cylinders: 977, heads: 4, sectors/track: 32 (128 sectors/cylinder)
> total sectors: 125056
> 
> BIOS disk geometry:
> cylinders: 977, heads: 4, sectors/track: 32 (128 sectors/cylinder)
> total sectors: 727412841289204
> 
> Partition table:
> 0: <UNUSED> (sysid 0)
>     start 0, size 0, Active
>         beg: cylinder    0, head   0, sector  0
>         end: cylinder    0, head   0, sector  0
> 1: <UNUSED> (sysid 0)
>     start 0, size 0
>         beg: cylinder    0, head   0, sector  0
>         end: cylinder    0, head   0, sector  0
> 2: <UNUSED> (sysid 0)
>     start 0, size 0
>         beg: cylinder    0, head   0, sector  0
>         end: cylinder    0, head   0, sector  0
> 3: <UNUSED> (sysid 0)
>     start 0, size 0
>         beg: cylinder    0, head   0, sector  0
>         end: cylinder    0, head   0, sector  0
> 
> 
> So the partition table looks hosed.  Is there a recipe to follow that
> could repair this node without having to haul out the big ladder?
> 
> Bill
> 
> -- 
> Bill Comisky
> bcomisky at pobox.com
> _______________________________________________
> CU-Wireless-Dev mailing list
> CU-Wireless-Dev at lists.cuwireless.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/cu-wireless-dev

Someone emailed the support list the other day with this problem.  I
thought it might be a bug with the memory disk image used to PXE boot
the person's node.  I'll have the run fdisk -vv to confirm that it is
the same problem.

Regarding the corrupt partition table, I believe fixlabel was designed
to be used in the instances.  Alternatively, one could PXE boot the node
with and memory-disk image and run the upgrade from that.  The current
md image is at 0.7.0, so it *shouldn't* pose any problem.

Hope that helps.
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