"Paul (NCC/CS)." <pts@bom.gov.au> wrote:

> - other big builds like xscreensaver will die and just leave
> a shell prompt (as in "sh") sitting there in the middle of a
> build.  (I have tcsh as default shell) .
> This is bizarre as i can see half a dozen make process's
> still active on 'top' but they are all sleeping. You have to type
> exit at the sh prompt just sitting there to get the whole thing
> to unravel. Why it died ? No idea. No messages.

 Paul,

 I ran into a similar problem to what you are describing when building
xscreensaver, and i'm reasonably sure it's not hardware.

 I had an older version (6.2.1) of MesaLib (which is required by xscreensaver)
installed.  However, during the xscreensaver build, it started to build
and then install a later version of MesaLib, 6.4.2.

 This blew up, as you can see below.  I removed the older version of
MesaLib in a different window (where it says, "# Mesalib 6.2.1 removed"
below), and then typed "make install" a second time. That second attempt
died without any errors, which sounds similar to the trouble you reported.
I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe in the "work" directory where the new
MesaLib was being built, there was some leftover cruft from the failed
install, and it caused the second "make install" to silently fail, but
that's just a guess.

 For reasons i don't understand and haven't examined, the third "make
install" worked just fine.  I probably should have looked at the
".work.log" file in the "work" directory before doing "make install" a
third time -- there may have been some indication of the problem in
there. (That might be something for you to check if your builds continue
to fail.)

 I've restarted the xscreensaver build and i'll let you know how it goes,
though it may be some time before i have a chance to take a look at the
results of the build -- these big, X packages are a lot for this SPARC5 to
grind through, as i'm sure you're well aware. :)

 -johan

 
=> Becoming ``root'' to make su-install-all (ksu)
Authenticated johan@EWRANGLERS.COM
Account root: authorization for johan@EWRANGLERS.COM for execution of
               /bin/sh successful
Changing uid to root (0)
ERROR: MesaLib-6.2.1 is already installed - perhaps an older version?
ERROR: If so, you may use either of:
ERROR:     - "pkg_delete MesaLib-6.2.1" and "/usr/bin/make reinstall"
ERROR:       to upgrade properly
ERROR:     - "/usr/bin/make update" to rebuild the package and all
ERROR:       of its dependencies
ERROR:     - "/usr/bin/make replace" to replace only the package without
ERROR:       re-linking dependencies, risking various problems.
*** Error code 1

Stop.
make: stopped in /tew/netbsd-src/packages/pkgsrc/graphics/MesaLib
=> Dropping ``root'' privileges.
# Mesalib 6.2.1 removed
brahma:/usr/pkgsrc/graphics/MesaLib $ make install
===> Checking for vulnerabilities in MesaLib-6.4.2nb1
=> Checksum SHA1 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaLib-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum RMD160 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaLib-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum SHA1 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaGLUT-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum RMD160 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaGLUT-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum SHA1 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaDemos-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum RMD160 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaDemos-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
===> Overriding tools for MesaLib-6.4.2nb1
brahma:/usr/pkgsrc/graphics/MesaLib $ make install
===> Checking for vulnerabilities in MesaLib-6.4.2nb1
=> Checksum SHA1 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaLib-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum RMD160 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaLib-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum SHA1 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaGLUT-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum RMD160 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaGLUT-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum SHA1 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaDemos-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
=> Checksum RMD160 OK for Mesa-6.4.2/MesaDemos-6.4.2.tar.bz2.
===> Overriding tools for MesaLib-6.4.2nb1
===> Installing for MesaLib-6.4.2nb1
=> Becoming ``root'' to make su-install-all (ksu)
Authenticated johan@EWRANGLERS.COM
Account root: authorization for johan@EWRANGLERS.COM for execution of
               /bin/sh successful
Changing uid to root (0)
=> Creating installation directories
Installing libraries.