[arch-general] Pacman get stack when updating the kernel!!

[Thomas Bächler]

Am 20.08.2011 10:23, schrieb Hector Martinez-Seara:
> Hi,
> I'm sorry for the late reply. After rebooting my computer was not
> functioning any longer :).

Of course it wasn't.

> Yes, I have a USB 3.0 controller and an
> external disk attached to it in a x86_64 system.  Once I unplugged the
> disk everything worked as should be and I manage to install the new
> kernel. I have notice that trying to downgrade to previous linux
> version lead (3.0.2) lead me to the same problem despite I could
> install it without any problem when it was pushed.

It's not about the version you install, the problem is the version you
are running while you install.

> I haven't tried to
> plug it back and I won't be able to until monday. Any body knows what
> happened?

Lots of guessing here: In the autodetect stage, mkinitcpio autodetects
hard disk controllers, file systems and raid superblocks. The only place
where it actually accesses any hard drive is the RAID autodetection. It
probably hung while accessing the USB3 drive in that stage.

I guess this is a kernel bug that could be triggered by accessing the
USB3 drive any time (some RAID versions store their superblock at the
end of the partition, so maybe accessing the end of your drive is a
problem). You can probably work around the update problem by
uninstalling mdadm, in case you do not use RAID.

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