Ignite issue: doubly compressed SYSCMDS

[Yusuf Batterywala]

Hi,

I'm facing an issue with Ignite bootable CD. The SYSCMDS file is doubly compressed on the ignite boot media created by Ignite version 6.10.X which is causing the loadfile to fail during booting.

Apparently, this is an issue with all Ignite versions beyond 6.0.X. I wanted to know about more details on versioning so that I can modify the bootable media accordingly. Which versions of Ignite expect SYSCMDS to be a doubly compressed tar file while booting? Also, which versions of ignite started creating this archive in a doubly compressed format?

Thanks in advance!
Yusuf

[Scot Bean]

Looks like what you are describing was first shipped in version C.6.9 (Sept2006). The release notes here

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/IUX/docs/release_note.html

document this newer feature, called 'compressed install kernels'.

Sounds like system firmware may also be involved. Maybe newer firmware could resolve your issues.

[Yusuf Batterywala]

Hi Scot,

No, its not the install kernels. And this issue cropped up with ignite releases after 6.0 as I've already mentioned. The effect of having a doubly compressed SYSCMDS results in the following errors during boot in recovery shell:

=== Message Begin ===

NOTE: Creating the second RAM disc and mounting on /dev ...

* Generating device file for the second ramdisc...

* Loading mkfs to make a file system...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/fs/vxfs/mkfs not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/fs/vxfs/mkfs not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/fs/vxfs/mkfs not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/fs/vxfs/mkfs not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/fs/vxfs/mkfs not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/fs/vxfs/mkfs not found.

ERROR: Could not load mkfs command! The second ramdisc will not be created!



WARNING: Failed to create second ramdisc!

* Loading insf to create disk device files...

* Creating disk device files...

* Loading in a shell...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/sh not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/sh not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/sh not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/sh not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/sh not found.

NOTE: Retrying loadfile command...

ERROR: directory checksum error

ERROR: File: /sbin/sh not found.

loadfile command failed, retry? ([y]/n):

=== Message End ===

I can get rid of the problem by extracing the SYSCMDS from the lif image, decompressing it once and adding it back. But I need to know for what all versions will this be an issue? Does any version of Ignite expect it to be doubly compressed (tar -> gzip -> gzip)? If not then I can simply decompress it once (if it is doubly compressed) and create the media irrespective of the ignite version.

Thanks,
Yusuf

[Shane Seymour]

No version of Ignite-UX should expect SYSCMDS to be doubly compressed by gzip. I've never seen this issue reported before (that doesn't mean that it hasn't been reported though).

The make_medialif command from what I can see doesn't attempt to gzip SYSCMDS again (the only thing it may compress are the SCRIPTS lif file and the kernel (if it's not already done)).

I would recommend checking that SYSCMDS is not doubly gzipped on your system. It shouldn't be installed like that.

The only place it exists in that form would be inside the .depot file since although it's gzipped the depots for Ignite-UX are created with all of the files compressed, but it should be gunzipped once when SD installs the software.