This Saturday I've decided to try and upgrade one of my machines running Mandrake 8.2 to 9.0 beta1. I want to share my experiences since I've discovered a number of bugs (and failed to complete the upgrade because runinstall2 hung during the "Choose packages to install" phase):
I have a dual-boot machine running Windows 2000 and Mandrake Linux 8.2. It's a Pentium III 550 on Abit BH6 motherboard, Ati All-In-Wonder 128 video card, USB Wheelmouse. My disks/filesystems layout: # mount /dev/hda7 on / type reiserfs (rw,notail) none on /proc type proc (rw) none on /dev type devfs (rw) none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620) none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw) /dev/hda9 on /home type reiserfs (rw,notail) /dev/hda5 on /mnt/ntfs type ntfs (rw,noexec,iocharset=iso8859-2,umask=0222) /dev/hda1 on /mnt/win_c type ntfs (rw,noexec,iocharset=iso8859-2,umask=0222) /dev/hda6 on /mnt/win_e type vfat (rw,noexec,iocharset=iso8859-2,codepage=852,quiet,showexec) /dev/hdb5 on /mnt/win_f type vfat (rw,noexec,nosuid,iocharset=iso8859-2,codepage=852,umask=0,showexec) none on /tmp type tmpfs (rw) /dev/hdb2 on /usr type reiserfs (rw,notail) none on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw,devmode=0664,devgid=43) none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw) # df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda7 2096380 982956 1113424 47% / none 192432 0 192432 0% /dev/shm /dev/hda9 2248992 1316052 932940 59% /home /dev/hda5 1052224 824442 227782 79% /mnt/ntfs /dev/hda1 2096450 626806 1469644 30% /mnt/win_c /dev/hda6 21869792 19101648 2768144 88% /mnt/win_e /dev/hdb5 5234940 3095688 2139252 60% /mnt/win_f none 192432 12 192420 1% /tmp /dev/hdb2 4642636 2766848 1875788 60% /usr I'm attaching a bzipped list (rpm-qa.bz2) of all the packages installed on that system to this mail message (it's the output from "rpm -qa", created before the upgrade attempt). After making a backup of my MBR and bootsectors with dd, I've put Mandrake 9.0 beta1 CD1 into the drive and booted from it. 1. The first glitch I've encountered was the progess bar that is visible after pressing <enter> on the initial welcome screen - the progress bar has expanded too far to the right, beyond the the boundaries of the area it shound fill. Just a minor visual glitch. 2. [Known issue on this list] After the initial screen, the installer switched to text mode and presented a cryptic, unexpected ncurses-style dialog box that read: "You are starting the installation with an alternate booting method. Please change your disk, and insert the installation disk. [OK]" After pressing [OK], a new dialog showed up that read: "Please choose the installation method. FTP server HTTP server CDROM drive Hard disk [OK] [Cancel]" It was strange, since I was booting the installer from the CD, it shouldn't ask such questions in normal installation mode (those should be reserved for special installer modes that are chosen after pressing <F1>, not <Enter> on initial screen). Anyway, I've selected "CDROM drive" and continued. I've selected Polish language for installation, and Expert Upgrade installation class. I've made lots of screenshots with the F2 key during the installation in case they would prove useful in debugging. You can see my hardware info at<http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl/domowa/qa/mandrake/upgrade_8.2-9.0beta1/install_attempt3/DrakX-screenshots/4.png> and dmesg at <http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl/domowa/qa/mandrake/upgrade_8.2-9.0beta1/install_attempt3/dmesg> . 3. On the first virtual console (CTRL-ALT-F1), among other lines of logging output, there was an error message: GLIB-WARNING **: getpwuid_r(): failed due to: No such user 0. 4. When choosing security levels, the Paranoid security level is described as being based on the previous security level. However, the previous 3 levels are ordered decreasinngly, and the Standard level precedes Paranoid (the order is Higher, High, Standard, Paranoid). I don't suppose Paranoid is really one level above Standard? IMO, the order should be ascending from Standard, through High and Higher, up to Paranoid. 5. Finally, when installer proceeded to "Choose packages to install" stage, it hung. At the first attempt to upgrade (I've made 3 of them) I've waited for over half an hour, all that time the installer was showing the "Searching for packages to upgrade" messagebox, and when I ran top and ps in the BusyBox on the 2nd console, I've discovered that all CPU time is utilised by a runinstall2 process: "/usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/runinstall2 --method cdrom". See full ps an top output at <http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl/domowa/qa/mandrake/upgrade_8.2-9.0beta1/install_attempt1/ps> . In /tmp/ddebug.log, I've seen numerous messages about unknown packages (you can see all the logs I've kept at <http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl/domowa/qa/mandrake/upgrade_8.2-9.0beta1/install_attempt1/>). Here are the lines from the log that I consider most meaningful: * read 737 packages in hdlist3.cz * psUsingHdlists read 2105 headers on 3 hdlists * rebuilding rpm database * opened rpm database for examining existing packages * getFile Mandrake/base/rpmsrate: * unknown package `WMRack' * unknown package `blackbox' * unknown package `wmakerconf' * unknown package `xbanner' * package xlockmore appearing twice with different rates (4 != 3) . . . <snipped lots of lines> . . . * unknown package `speedtouch_mgmt' * unknown package `Device3Dfx' * unknown package `XFree86-Sun' * unknown package `XFree86-SunMono' * unknown package `XFree86-Sun24' * getFile Mandrake/base/compssUsers: * selecting packages to upgrade The last line shown above is the last entry in ddebug.log before the installer hung. During the consecutive attepts to upgrade to 9.0 beta1, I've tried choosing the standard English (instead of Polish) installation language, or Recommended (instead of Expert) installation class. Installer always hung on runinstall2. However, at such early installation phase the existing installation of Mandrake 8.2 isn't modified, so I still have a functional 8.2 installation on that machine. All of the debugging material I've collected during those sessions is available from my homepage at <http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl/domowa/qa/mandrake/upgrade_8.2-9.0beta1/> . Regards, -- Olo GG#: 274614 ICQ UIN: 19780575 http://olo.office.altkom.com.pl
rpm-qa.bz2
Description: Binary data
