Re: port-vax/60478: releng testbed is busted on VAX

["Andreas Gustafsson via gnats" <gnats-admin%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR port-vax/60478; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Andreas Gustafsson <gson%gson.org@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost
Cc: kre%netbsd.org@localhost, campbell+netbsd%mumble.net@localhost
Subject: Re: port-vax/60478: releng testbed is busted on VAX
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:01:06 +0300

 Robert Elz via gnats wrote:
 >    | 	anita test https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/20260722083921Z/vax/
 >  
 >  It should certainly have been fixed before then.   What anita is doing
 >  differently on some ports than others would be interesting to know.
 
 That is probably the wrong question to ask.  When tests fail on the
 testbed, in the vast majority of cases, it means the testbed has found
 a bug in NetBSD (or in this case, more than one), not that NetBSD has
 found a bug in the testbed.  And when different ports behave
 differently, it's usually because of actual differences between the
 ports that will also manifest outside the testbed environment.
 
 >  The amd64 install failed the same way (and was fixed after the change
 >  was reverted), but the i386 install wasn't bothered by the change at
 >  all (and I am still running it as my /bin/sh).
 
 This, too, probably means NetBSD/i386 and NetBSD/amd64 behave
 differently, not that anita tests them differently.
 
 >  There's no question but that the alteration (since reverted) wasn't
 >  complete, and could lead to this issue (the "bad file descriptor" would
 >  be -1, as nothing would have attempted to open the controlling tty to use).
 >  The question is why the different path through the shell for amd64 and vax
 >  (and perhaps others) than for i386?
 
 I believe we are dealing with two different bugs.  If your sh change
 was fully reverted, it can't be the cause of the ongoing vax breakage.
 The install console logs show different error messages before and after
 the reversion:
 
 https://releng.netbsd.org/b5reports/vax/2026/2026.07.19.16.16.04/install.log
 
 init: kernel security level /install.sh: Cannot set tty process group (Bad file descriptor) at 1462
 /install.sh: Cannot set tty process group (Bad file descriptor) at 1462
 Terminal type (just hit ENTER for 'vt220'): xterm
 /install.sh: Cannot set tty process group (Bad file descriptor) at 1462
 
 https://releng.netbsd.org/b5reports/vax/2026/2026.07.21.04.05.06/install.log
 
 [   1.0700030] kern.module.path=/stand/vax/11.99.7/modules
 [   1.0800030] WARNING: preposterous TOD clock time
 [   1.0800030] WARNING: using default initial time
 Fatal error
 Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh:
 
 I have kicked off a couple of builds to narrow down when the new error appeared.
 -- 
 Andreas Gustafsson, gson%gson.org@localhost