Another approach to consider: the failed system is SL 7.2 and does boot
but does not bring up the GUI (e.g., ctrl-alt-F3 brings up a login
prompt on a scrolling terminal screen and all users, including root, may
log into the system). I have other working SL 7.2 systems (I have had
no time to update and have no GSRAs or Staff right now to help). If I
cp -pr /usr , /bin , whatever (but not /home and the like) from a
working system to the failed system, will the failed system then be able
to use other mechanisms for an update rather than a full new install of
SL 7.5 followed by a restore of /home and the like?
Why was this system being upgraded? It appears that the Palo Alto
security systems on the end-users 802.3 network segment was
"complaining", hopefully "fixed" by SL 7 current. (Different security
is used on the 802.11 networks.)
As the campus network where I work i not designed for reliable systems
work but rather end-user files (if the network glitches, simply repeat
the download, etc.), is there a mechanism to update from media, say
using the iso install image from a USB thumb drive?
Thanks for any assistance.
Yasha Karant
On 08/21/2018 03:47 PM, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 5:53 PM Yasha Karant <ykar...@csusb.edu> wrote:
During the upgrade of a SL 7 non-current system to SL 7 (via yum update
as root from the Internet), the campus network "glitched" and the system
hung. The 7.5 partially installed system panics; it has not recovered.
The 7 non-current will boot but no X (no GUI), only a scrolling text
terminal, presumably from which yum can be executed.
If you want to keep this beastie alive, I urge you to:
* Boot from a live USB or DVD image with networking enabled
* Mount the old partitions at /mnt/sysimage, with subpartitions
appropriately under that
* chroot to /mnt/sysimage
* Run "rpm --rebuilddb", because it is probably corrupt
* Get the list of installed packages with "rpm -qa --qf '%{name}.%{arch}\n'"
* For every package, use "yum upgrade $name" and "yum reinstall $name"
* * yum reinstall may require enabling the obsolete repositories
* One or more are likely to balk due to two distinct versions of the
same package. Resolve that balking package manually, downloading the
current version and using "rpm -U --replacepkgs $name"
I have downloaded Scientific-7.5-Install-Dual-Layer-DVD-x86_64.iso and
then put this onto an USB flash "thumb" drive that I have confirmed is
bootable and will start the installation steps. I do not want to do a
new install but rather an upgrade, not touching /home , /opt and the like.
I have found old upstream vendor instructions for a previous upstream
vendor major release of the enterprise (not enthusiast) system; please
see below. How are these to
be modified for SL 7.5? If I boot the Install ISO image (from the USB
drive), is there a way to get to the old GUI upgrade option that seems
no longer available?
It's nearly impossible to tell which components got messed up in a
mass upgrade. Start from a cleaned up upgrade process, as described
above.
Please reply to ykar...@gmail.com. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Yasha Karant
