Kernel Panic during upgrade - some insights

[nunovi]

Hi,

After getting yet another kernel panic after upgrading my VB, I've decided to further dig into the problem. On my testing it seems the problem might be related to the VB Web GUI. If I install a fresh copy of VB 2.0 from around 1 month ago and perform the upgrade directly via the command line with a simple yum upgrade, the upgrade goes smoothly and the system works fine. If I upgrade via the Vortexbox Web GUI, then I get the POSTTRANS error and respective kernel panic. Now given the package generating the error is httpd, it could be that whilst on the webgui the httpd daemon is active and, as such, somehow hampers the upgrade of the package and corrupts the kernel installation.
I have no idea how this could be solved but right now I've found the only way to reliably upgrade is via the command line.
Worth taking a look as I've seen already people moving away from Vortexbox after their systems get bricked everytime they do an upgrade. I will also look further into this and check back if I find a solution.

[Ron Olsen]

Brilliant insight! I believe you are correct in your analysis. This explains why I did not see the problem — I always upgrade from the command line. Also why I could find little info about this via Google — this is a VB GUI problem, not a Fedora problem.

Perhaps the VB GUI code can be modified to exclude httpd from updates, or not update httpd and the kernel at the same time. More investigation is needed to find a fix, but at least now we know where to look.

Thanks for figuring this out!

[nunovi]

Brilliant insight! I believe you are correct in your analysis. This explains why I did not see the problem — I always upgrade from the command line. Also why I could find little info about this via Google — this is a VB GUI problem, not a Fedora problem.

Perhaps the VB GUI code can be modified to exclude httpd from updates, or not update httpd and the kernel at the same time. More investigation is needed to find a fix, but at least now we know where to look.

Thanks for figuring this out!

As a first approach, why not stop the httpd service, start the upgrade and then start the httpd again or reboot. This would at least avoid further bricking until a more elegant solution is found. A message would be needed to warn the webgui would be down for the upgrade.

[garym]

So for now is the upgrade as simple as:

Connect to vb with cryptoterm
at command line enter
yum upgrade

(or is that not the exact command)
How do I reboot from command line after above command runs.

[Ron Olsen]

As a first approach, why not stop the httpd service, start the upgrade and then start the httpd again or reboot. This would at least avoid further bricking until a more elegant solution is found. A message would be needed to warn the webgui would be down for the upgrade.

If you want to experiment, the code to modify is in /opt/vortexbox/doaction.sh, in the Upgrade section.

[nunovi]

So for now is the upgrade as simple as:

Connect to vb with cryptoterm
at command line enter
yum upgrade

(or is that not the exact command)
How do I reboot from command line after above command runs.

Just type reboot

[Ron Olsen]

So for now is the upgrade as simple as:

Connect to vb with cryptoterm
at command line enter
yum upgrade

(or is that not the exact command)
How do I reboot from command line after above command runs.

The way to upgrade from the command line is

yum clean all; yum update

A reboot is only needed if the update installed a new kernel – look for an install of the kernel-PAE package.

To reboot, enter

reboot

If you're doing this from a remote login, "reboot" will close the session. You'll have to wait for the VB to complete the reboot before you can login remotely again.

[radish112]

nunovi,

Brilliant! After having experienced many kernel (and personal) panics over the last couple of upgrades via the VBA GUI, I just did a painless upgrade using the command line option, and all's right with the world (well...the audio part anyway).

Many thanks for the clear thinking and excellent tip.

Rad

[divreg]

I altered the upgrade script to skip upgrading apache. Here is quick command to do it:

sed -i 's/--skip-broken/--skip-broken --exclude=httpd/g' /opt/vortexbox/doaction.sh

[Falcon Eddie]

Hi, as such, somehow hampers the upgrade of the package and corrupts the kernel installation.
I have no idea how this could be solved but right now I've found the only way to reliably upgrade is via the command line.
Worth taking a look as I've seen already people moving away from Vortexbox after their systems get bricked everytime they do an upgrade. I will also look further into this and check back if I find a solution.

Not that my input or opinion matters at all, but, your deduction is quite right-on as I've already decided on moving away from vortexbox for awhile now and have been on a path do that. I find it difficult at best to deal with a lot of the issues that seem to crop up including the rudeness and disrespect of some of the members/people I have received on this website. As a matter of fact, I have not mentioned a word about this but I was basically banned from logging in on several occassions. I will not go into the details other than saying I went to log in the normal route and the system told be I had used all my attempts at logging in and try again in 15 minutes. Well, I did that too and the same thing happened. I could go into detail here, but will not.

Also, having to even use something like a command line is not something for mainline users. It appears some on here try and one up the next with their command line knowledge and less about the music which is what this whole thing is about. To say that users should know all these things does not make sense at best and the command line people can argue to the cows come home. This is not supposed to be about who has the most "computer power user" knowledge. A normal user looks at all this stuff and wonders why? Excuses abound... This just turns into a 1 up type sitution on whom claims who knows the most. My opinion and I should be entitled to it. Now, the person who blocked my logging in before can do the same things again or maybe try the logging me out before I post the message in hopes the message gets lost and not posted like was done before. All an accident? I highly doubt it.

Anyway, I do not plan on being around much after the end of this year, so many will be happy with this result anyway. I suppose it is a win-win for many of us without going into detail. I was never here to get into peacock fights and contests about who knows more about the command line or not.