[Fink-beginners] Re: fink package installation makes machine unbootable

[Adrian D. <da...@pm...>]

[cross-posted to fink-devel]
Luned=EC, ottobre 28, 2002, alle 11:10 , Martin Costabel ha scritto su=20=

[fink-beginners]:

> You should try to get some more information about what is happening.=20=

> Keep cmd-v pressed at boot time until the boot messages start =
appearing=20
> on the screen.
>
> You could also try to boot into single user mode (cmd-s on boot) and=20=

> check a couple of permissions with ls -la, for example
>
> % ls -lad / /etc /etc/ /var /var/
> drwxrwxr-t   39 root     admin        1326 Oct 23 19:19 /
> lrwxrwxr-t    1 root     admin          11 Oct 23 19:19 /etc ->=20
> private/etc
> drwxr-xr-x  103 root     wheel        3502 Oct 17 11:29 /etc/
> lrwxrwxr-t    1 root     admin          11 Oct 23 19:19 /var ->=20
> private/var
> drwxr-xr-x   22 root     wheel         748 Oct 23 19:19 /var/

Thanks, Martin, first of all for telling me how to coax a Mac into=20
booting more verbosely and in single-user mode, second for "hitting the=20=

nail on the head" with your suggestion.
More details are given below, but here the diagnosis in a nutshell: the=20=

filesystem was only slightly damaged, and no system file had been=20
modified. The cause was indeed wrong rights on the directory / and the=20=

links /etc and /var:

   $> ls -lad / /etc /etc/ /var /var/
   drwx------  44 2011  staff  1452 Oct 29 12:27 /
   lrwx------   1 2011  staff    11 Oct 29 12:27 /etc -> private/etc
   drwxr-xr-x  72 root  wheel  2404 Oct 29 11:04 /etc/
   lrwx------   1 2011  staff    11 Oct 29 12:27 /var -> private/var
   drwxr-xr-x  19 root  wheel   602 Oct 29 12:28 /var/

Changing owner and rights back to reasonable values solved the problem:

   $> ls -lad / /etc /etc/ /var /var/
   drwxr-xr-t  44 root  staff  1452 Oct 29 12:27 /
   lrwxr-xr-t   1 root  staff    11 Oct 29 12:27 /etc -> private/etc
   drwxr-xr-x  72 root  wheel  2404 Oct 29 11:04 /etc/
   lrwxr-xr-t   1 root  staff    11 Oct 29 12:27 /var -> private/var
   drwxr-xr-x  19 root  wheel   602 Oct 29 12:28 /var/

I'd be curious to know how you came to suspect problems with precisely=20=

these files...
I have strictly no clue where that user 2011 could come from (how do you=20=

ask NetInfo if it knows about it ?). The problem is however=20
reproducible: installing the binary installer package anew changes again=20=

the owner of /,/etc and /var to 2011 and the access rights to 700, even=20=

if I remove the /sw tree beforehand.
A second attempt at installing fink now fully succeeded. Of course I=20
didn't re-install the whole system, so it is hard to tell what exactly=20=

was different. So the two following advices for people installing fink=20=

are really only superstitious ideas until someone finds out where the=20
problem came from.
- don't install the bin-installer-package twice,
- at the first usage of dselect, don't select many packages yet.=20
Possibly add one or two base packages like anacron or daemonic, then do=20=

the installation: this is where install-scripts prompt you to authorize=20=

adding new users to the NetInfo base. Then you can go back and select=20
new packages. (when I selected many packages at once the first time, I=20=

got a number of error messages. I didn't get any the second time. As I=20=

said: only circumstantial evidence, not even a plausible explanation).

If any developer would like more information, I have a dump of modified=20=

files and can answer questions (and  even reproduce the problem now that=20=

I know how to get the system back on track...).

Merci encore Martin !
and thank's a lot to all you Fink developers for this fine system !
Adrian

some more details about what I could find out:
Booting was completed, but then the login window crashed and restarted=20=

periodically. Except for system.log, nothing interesting could be found=20=

among the recently modified files. According to system.log, the boot=20
sequence was normal (at least at a rough glance) until the login server=20=

started:

[...]
Oct 28 21:01:43 manray configd[125]: executing =
/usr/sbin/DirectoryService
Oct 28 21:01:43 manray automount[265]: automount version 23
Oct 28 21:01:43 manray lookupd[213]: _lookup_all(getfsent) failed
Oct 28 21:01:43 manray lookupd[213]: _lookup_all(getfsent) failed
Oct 28 21:01:51 manray slpd: STATE: *** slpd started ***
Oct 28 21:01:53 manray mach_init[2]: added notification for =
sub-bootstrap
Oct 28 21:01:56 manray /usr/libexec/CrashReporter: Failed writing crash=20=

report: /private/var/tmp/loginwindow.crash.log
Oct 28 21:01:56 manray mach_init[2]: notified that requestor of subset=20=

7427 died
Oct 28 21:01:56 manray WindowServer[74]: loginwindow connection closed;=20=

closing server.
Oct 28 21:01:56 manray mach_init[2]: Service WindowServer deleted -=20
bootstrap deleted
Oct 28 21:01:56 manray mach_init[2]: Service=20
NSApplication-MainThread-148496975# deleted - bootstrap deleted
Oct 28 21:01:56 manray mach_init[2]: Service DockClient-20001-0=20
deleted - bootstrap deleted
Oct 28 21:01:56 manray WindowServer[294]: Display 0x4248068: Unit 0;=20
Vendor 0x610 Model 0x9215 S/N 33555754; online (0,0)[1024 x 768], base=20=

addr 0xa000b000
Oct 28 21:01:56 manray mach_init[2]: added notification for =
sub-bootstrap
Oct 28 21:01:57 manray mach_init[2]: notified that requestor of subset=20=

3987 died
Oct 28 21:01:57 manray mach_init[2]: Service WindowServer deleted -=20
bootstrap deleted
Oct 28 21:01:57 manray mach_init[2]: Service=20
NSApplication-MainThread-1148242017# deleted - bootstrap deleted
Oct 28 21:01:57 manray mach_init[2]: Service DockClient-20001-0=20
deleted - bootstrap deleted

That's where the system would remain eternally, the last part (from the=20=

message "..loginwindow connection closed...") then repeating every 30=20
seconds. The loginwindow.crash.log mentioned above was unfortunately=20
empty.
A strange error message was output to a terminal window and to the file=20=

/private/var/log/mail.log:

Oct 28 19:21:56 manray sendmail[3201]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(root):=20
/etc/mail/submit.cf: line 416: readcf: option RunAsUser: unknown user=20
smmsp

No idea if this user "smmsp" has anything to do with fink, or if the=20
error was induced by an unreadable filesystem.
Apart from that the file system was slightly damaged, but not beyond=20
fsck's capabilities, and repairing it did not change the repeated=20
loginwindow crashes at boot time.