Hi, > 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.] I don't have an direct answer, but rather a question: Did you replace and reboot the new kernel before doing this? I had similar issues, though pax not hanging, but breaking and then with errors on any application as I updated my machine without updating the kernel first und thus having inconsistent userland/kernel. I don't know if there were that many changes from 5.0 to 5.1 to make such things happen, but it's worth the question. > 2) What should I have done instead of cutting the power when the > system became unresponsive? You could have tried to log in via ssh if you had an sshd running or just run the debugger. > 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) That's the way I would do if my computer couldn't boot anymore. Perhaps netboot would also be an alternative, but that's only the same in another fashion. Regards, Julian
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