Bug 189

The three .rpm packages are dev, linuxconf, MAKEDEV.

We were unable to replicate this problem on two machines what we
attempted ftp installs to. Could possible be older versions of those
packages than the current shipping packages. We had similar troubles
with earlier versions of 5.2 beta copies and have hopefully eliminated
the problesm with the latest versions.

I too have had this problem with one machine or two machines.  Its odd
I can make the dev MAKEDEV linuxconf failure happen every time on one
notebook I have no reason for it.  I thought it was originaly due to a
bad mirror or I re-mirrored and that didn't help either  tried the
cdrom and had the same results on this one machine.

*** Bug 189 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I have had a problem with my new Chembook 7400 laptop
(which is actually an Asus Grandio F7400.) During an ftp
install with redhat linux 5.2 I get three files that get
the "execution of script failed". Dev, makedev and
linuxconf rpms are the only ones that fail but they
consistently do. Since the dev rpm deals with devices, it
prevents me from doing a floppy install disk, as well as
installing lilo so the whole installation stays stuck.
Components of the 7400 can be found at
http://www.chembook.chemusa.com/chembook/7400/7400comp.html
further info about this laptop can be found at
http://www.asus.com/Products/Specs/Notebook/f7400-Spec.asp

I have also done a search of newsgroups and found a couple
of other instances of this problem (although I don't know
if the same files were the issue). Both machines were
different than mine though.




------- Additional Comments From sczjd  01/16/99 03:51 -------
First file to get the above error during installation. It is possible
that the other two errors are in response to this one.

------- Additional Comments From sczjd  01/16/99 03:53 -------
The dev rpm is the rpm that is the first to get the error message
during the installation.

------- Additional Comments From ayn2  01/16/99 06:32 -------
This is a duplicate of #189 (which was closed as "WORKSFORME" and
should probably be reopened).

We have observed this to mostly happen if ftp is given ample enough
time to time out and the connection is closed. For instance if between
the time you open the ftp connection in the beginning of the install
to the time the first package is tranferred exceeds say arount 10-15
minutes then the ftp server disconnects and the install code does not
try to reconnect properly. We are working to have this problem fix for
the next release.

FTP installs have been overhauled for the next release.

FIXED, seems to mean fixed for RedHat 5.3 ... ?
As there are no suggestions for RedHat 5.2 yet, I'll try one.
At my failed installation(s), the dev-rpm can't be installed, because
rpm can't open /etc/group.
It can't, because the setup-rpm (containing passwd, group,etc.) isn't
installed.
So it seems to me, that as the connection timed out after formatting
the harddisks, the setup-rpm wasn't downloaded / installed.

So what propably could "rescue" the installation is:
(assuming you already have a working redhat-linux, you can steal all
the files from :)
1.preparing a disk with the setup-rpm, the rpm-binary, the contents of
/var/lib/rpm (as the rpm-database will be locked, and i know no way of
overriding that lock,nor do copies of the locked files work), and the
shell of your choice
(I had another harddisk with a complete installation, i could mount
during the install)
2. Do the normal installation. When the timeout after the formatting
of the harddisks occures, switch to the shell (Alt-F2)
3. mkdir /mymount ;mount the floppy or harddisk (I hope you can mount
floppys at this stage ...)
4. mv /mnt/var/lib/rpm /mnt/var/lib/rpm.ori
5. cp -R /mymount/rpm/ /mnt/var/lib/rpm/
6. rpm --root /mnt -i /mymount/setup*rpm --force #write the full name
7. mv /mnt/var/lib/rpm /mnt/var/lib/rpm.tmp#rm -rf doesnt work with
the rm on the install disk - delete it later
8. mv /mnt/var/lib/rpm.ori /mnt/var/lib/rpm
9. switch back to tty1 (Alt-F1) and finish the installation
10. Boot the system and fix the messed up rpm-database, with something
like rpm -U --force setup*rpm or rpm -i --force setup*rpm

I haven't tried an installation exactly like this, I installed the
setup and dev-rpms, as the installation of the dev-rpm failed
(Well, I had to find out why it failed first and only then fixed the
not-installed rpms)
by mounting a working linux partition and getting all needed files
from there or by ftping to a redhat mirror site during install.

Now, after the installation the system booted and everything seems
quite normal up to now (ca. 2 h after  installation)