[arch-general] Update to 4.15.8 on dual quad-core box locked on ( 3/16) Install DKMS modules, need help resurecting

[David C. Rankin]

On 03/11/2018 04:08 PM, Guus Snijders via arch-general wrote:
> Op zo 11 mrt. 2018 21:29 schreef David C. Rankin <
> drankinatty at suddenlinkmail.com>:
> 
>> All,
>>
>>   I experienced a hard lockup during kernel update to 4.15.8 on a
>> Supermicro
>> Dual Opteron Quad-core box.
>>
> [cd problem]
> 
> Just to make sure; can you run a memtest on this machine? It's a bit of a
> long shot,  but hard lockups are suspicious. Especially since the CD also
> acts strangely.
> Though an overheating CPU could also cause these symptons.
> 
> 
> Mvg, Guus Snijders
> 

This was a nightmare. It's not a CD problem, it's a problem with the system
seeing the CD Label and/or creating the /dev/disk/by-label directory in time
for the link to be created.

I burned 3 different CD's from the .iso (validating the sha1sum). I burned 2
of them from the Arch server next to this box running the 4.15.8 kernel whose
update went fine. I burned per:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Optical_disc_drive#Burning_an_ISO_image_to_CD.2C_DVD.2C_or_BD

cdrecord -v -sao dev=/dev/sr0 archlinux-2018.03.01-x86_64.iso

and I burned from K3b as well. No change. Same failure.

So even though this box cannot boot from a USB, I created a USB install media
and plugged it into a USB port so that maybe its ARCH_201803 drive label would
be seen. (I think the problem is the .iso CD lsblk Label isn't updated during
boot for some reason)

Low-and-behold... It worked!. I was able to boot to the Arch install prompt.
mdadm ran and assembled my arrays. I arch-chrooted to /mnt and then
reinstalled the kernel, kernel-lts and then had to reinstall the other 57
packages.

I don't know what the hiccup was, but for this box it was a death sentence. No
linker modules updated, only 2 out of 16 post install processes run. That
really leaves you in a bad way...

Fixed now.

So to recap, the key to solving the 30 second CD label not seen bug, was to
put a USB install media in a USB port before boot so the drive would be
activated and the LABEL available when it got to the find disk/by-label part
of the installer boot. (I hope I recall this trick 2 years from now when
something like this happens again...)

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.