extracting base.tgz hangs

[Emil Skoeldberg <esg%SDF.LONESTAR.ORG@localhost>]

In the process of trying to upgrading from 5.0 to 5.1 (i386) I ran
into a problem when extracting base.tgz The first attempt
tar zpxvf base.tgz
ran for a while, but then hanged. I could get a response
when pinging the machine, and switch between virtual consoles, but
nothing more - no response from any shell. A second attempt
more or less immediately hanged.

All this is a bit annoying, but a more pressing problem arose during
the second rebooting after powering off the machine:

panic: init died (signal 6, exit 5)

and then I'm in the debugger. I suppose the file system didn't really
like the power cut. This leaves me with a few questions:

1) What is the reason for the tar/pax failure? [I don't know how
related it is, but I've previously noticed that disk i/o does not
complete without a bit of nudging - e.g. pressing return a few times
during fsck etc.]

2) What should I have done instead of cutting the power when the
system became unresponsive?

3) Is there anything I can do now? (except for trying to find a
floppy/cdrom drive from which I can boot and do an upgrade)

Emil

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