[ Note to the list - Nathan was updating a 1.2.1 system to -current,
  hence the need for a special procedure, which is outlined in the
  snapshot's README. ]

On Fri, 30 May 1997 01:29:52 -0700 
 Nathan Gelbard <gelbard@ENGR.ORST.EDU> wrote:

 > I reboot with the new bootblock & new kernel. No problem. <g>

Cool... that went well, at least...

 > Extracted usr.libexec. I think my 1st mistake was here.
 > 	I rebooted ;(
 > I got really familiar with the kernel debugger. 

...what do you mean?  You rebooted... that should have worked ok... why
did you need to use the debugger?  What happened, exactly?  Nothing
should have gone wrong there.  If it did, there is a bug somewhere :-)

 > Extracted the rest, couldnt write over init, tar, gzip because
 > I was using them. I still havent found a way to overwrite them
 > because I need to run them to write over them! er...

...sounds like you didn't follow the "special instructions" exactly.

You want to extract usr.libexec.tar.gz. because that gives you a new
ld.so which works with m68k4k and m68k8k libraries/binaries, and can
mix them.  You should have made a backup of your ld.so first, like:

	cp /usr/libexec/ld.so /usr/libexec/ld.so.bak

After extracting usr.libexec.tar.gz, you should have made a
backup copy of your latest libc.so.*.  Then you should have extracted
usr.lib.tar.gz.  Then the rest, in any order...

Note, that the README is very explicit about how to run tar:

	(a) Make sure you are in / when you run the tar command, and

	(b) invoke tar like "tar --unlink -zxvpf /path/to/file.tar.gz"

The "--unlink" is VERY IMPORTANT!  I cannot emphasize that enough.
The --unlink option causes tar to unlink the file before writing the
new copy.  That will avoid the "text file busy" errors that you encountered
during the process.

 > My scsi chasis/controller (?) is fubar, so I cant extract from my
 > 1.2 system.

...did this happen only after the new kernel was booted?

 > fsck -p returns an error and messes up rc.

What errors?  This information is important!

 > telnetd no longer works.

Define "no longer works"... are there errors?  Does it core?  Again,
the details are important...

 > Sigh. Looks like tomorrow its going to be a complete reinstall of 1.2.1.

...not necessarily... get fsck to clean up the file systems... then
extract the snapshot binaries again, using the proper invocation of
tar... you may be able to salvage this :-)

 > Sorry Jason, I've failed.

...don't worry about it... sometimes sh*t happens :-)  Besides, like
I said, you may be able to recover from this pretty easily...  Just
relax, and think through things you do... don't rush or panic.  If
you have questions, ask them.

Good luck!

Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
NAS: M/S 258-6                                          Work: 415.604.0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035                                Pager: 415.428.6939