[LON-CAPA-users] RPM update

Scott Harrison lon-capa-users@mail.lon-capa.org
Mon, 3 Jun 2002 13:52:04 -0400


Dear Dr. Jensen:

> Scott,
> 
> The reboot went smoothly after the kernel upgrade. I'm now runnink the
> 2.2.19smp kernel. -All connections even seems to have been established 
> after the reboot. 
> 
> Shouldn't we also be upgrading the filesystem to ext3 or reiserfs in
> order to prevent disasters after a power loss?

I have encountered bugs with ext3, but I do not believe they relate to anything
LON-CAPA software is doing (it was a Sun software application that was
abusing/"optimizing" system filesystem memory and paging/caching).

ext2 versus ext3?  There is not a major difference, and disasters after
power losses (regarding ext2) are rare.  If you are backing up your data,
ext2 power losses are especially not much of a concern.

Since LON-CAPA largely uses the filesystem directly as a database,
I think it is reasonable to consider making reiserfs the standard
filesystem for LON-CAPA sometime in the next few years.

If anyone has a development machine to play with, I would be curious
to hear how well LON-CAPA runs on reiserfs compared to ext2.

I would strongly advise against using reiserfs for a production server
at the present time.  ext3 is probably okay if, in your opinion as a
system administrator, it is stable.

Regards,
Scott

> 
> Lars. 
> 
> On Sat, 1 Jun 2002, Scott Harrison wrote:
> 
> > Dear Dr. Jensen:
> > 
> > It should work, especially if you read the information that
> > I suggested at redhat.com.
> > 
> > If your system does not boot up, you can always rescue it with
> > the original RedHat 6.2 installation CD-ROMs based on instructions
> > at:
> > 
> > http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-6.2-Manual/ref-guide/s1-sysadmin-rescue
> > 
> > If there are any problems with this, perhaps contact me directly at
> > harris41@msu.edu when convenient.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Scott
> > 
> > > Dear Scott,
> > > 
> > > I did your steps below, except that I forgot step 1, and I did step 4
> > > with rpm -Fvh instead (am I in trouble??). I think I 
> > > have a backup floppy somewhere in my
> > > office, though. Everything in /boot looks good, and lilo
> > > ran without errors. The 2.2.14 kernel is gone from /boot, so I
> > > don't have it as a backup. If things go wrong when I do the re-boot, will 
> > > I be able to use the original lon-capa CDROM to boot from?
> > > 
> > > Lars.
> > > 
> > > On Thu, 30 May 2002, Scott Harrison wrote:
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 1) Make a backup floppy bootdisk:
> > > >    mkbootdisk 2.2.14-5.0
> > > > 2) Test your floppy bootdisk
> > > > 3) Get kernel, kernel-headers, and kernel-smp RPMs
> > > > 4) Install with '-ivh', NOT '-Uvh'
> > > >    rpm -ivh kernel-2.2.19-6.2.16.i686.rpm
> > > >    rpm -ivh kernel-headers-2.2.19-6.2.16.i386.rpm
> > > >    rpm -ivh kernel-smp-2.2.19-6.2.16.i686.rpm
> > > > 5) IMPORTANT!  Since you are using the kernel-smp package, you must
> > > >    do this step (which is normally not needed)
> > > > 
> > > >    /sbin/mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.2.19-6.2.16.img 2.2.19-6.2.16
> > > >    /sbin/mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.2.19-6.2.16smp.img 2.2.19-6.2.16smp
> > > > 
> > > > 6) Edit lilo.conf.
> > > 
> > > --
> > > Lars Jensen, TMCC/Vista B200, 7000 Dandini Blvd, Reno NV 89512-3999. 
> > > Internet: <jensen@physics.unr.edu>, http://www.scsr.nevada.edu/~jensen
> > > Tel: 775.673.7113  FAX: 775.674.7592
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > LON-CAPA-users@mail.lon-capa.org
> > > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users
> > 
> > -- 
> > Scott Harrison, harris41@msu.edu
> > 
> > Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
> > --Jonathan Kozol
> > _______________________________________________
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> > LON-CAPA-users@mail.lon-capa.org
> > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users
> > 
> 
> --
> Lars Jensen, TMCC/Vista B200, 7000 Dandini Blvd, Reno NV 89512-3999. 
> Internet: <jensen@physics.unr.edu>, http://www.scsr.nevada.edu/~jensen
> Tel: 775.673.7113  FAX: 775.674.7592
> 
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-- 
Scott Harrison, harris41@msu.edu

Do what you can with what you have where you are.
--Theodore Roosevelt