odd issue on 14.2

jloco · 04-01-2017, 10:50 AM

Hello,

I'm running Slackware ARM 14.2 on a RPi2 and I've run into a bit of an issue that I cannot seem to solve.

Any changes to disk I make disappear like I never did them.

Example running slackpkg update slackpkg upgrade-all lists all patches I need to install, I install them, and upon reboot nothing changes. No errors are displayed, nothing seems out of the ordinary.

If I download the packages manually and use upgradepkg to install them, the same thing happens. Everything I did just disappears.

Use rpi-update to upgrade to 4.9 series kernel, it says everything was fine, reboot and I'm back on 4.4.38 again....

massively confused... can anyone shed some light on this for me??

Penthux · 04-02-2017, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jloco

Hello,

I'm running Slackware ARM 14.2 on a RPi2 and I've run into a bit of an issue that I cannot seem to solve.

Any changes to disk I make disappear like I never did them.

Example running slackpkg update slackpkg upgrade-all lists all patches I need to install, I install them, and upon reboot nothing changes. No errors are displayed, nothing seems out of the ordinary.

If I download the packages manually and use upgradepkg to install them, the same thing happens. Everything I did just disappears.

Use rpi-update to upgrade to 4.9 series kernel, it says everything was fine, reboot and I'm back on 4.4.38 again....

massively confused... can anyone shed some light on this for me??

Very odd indeed. Are you able to create a new file (just for testing purposes) and is it present after you reboot? For example:

Code:

echo "mumbojumbo" > /boot/testfile.txt

then reboot and check that this file has been saved and is readable.

What happens if you use the 'sync' command before and after installing and/or upgrading? Perhaps it's a cache issue and you need to flush the filesystem buffers.

Or it could be filesystem issue. Is your root partition mounted read only? Use the 'mount -l' command to check it.

Code:

root@slackarm:~# mount -l
/dev/mmcblk0p3 on / type ext4 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /boot type vfat (rw,fmask=177,dmask=077)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)

You could also try a fsck scan to see if that brings up any errors. Adding the following code to the cmdline.txt file would force a fsck scan every time you (re)boot but that's not going to help if the file is not being saved.

Code:

fsck.mode=force fsck.repair=yes

There's always the possibility that the microSD card you are using is faulty. I would make an image of the current microSD card and write it to another card just to test. I'd also then re-install Slackware ARM to the current card to see if it produces the same issues/results.

jloco · 04-02-2017, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penthux

Very odd indeed. Are you able to create a new file (just for testing purposes) and is it present after you reboot? For example:

Code:

echo "mumbojumbo" > /boot/testfile.txt

then reboot and check that this file has been saved and is readable.

Tried this with files and making directories and saving files into them.... all always deleted upon reboot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penthux

What happens if you use the 'sync' command before and after installing and/or upgrading? Perhaps it's a cache issue and you need to flush the filesystem buffers.

Or it could be filesystem issue. Is your root partition mounted read only? Use the 'mount -l' command to check it.

Code:

root@slackarm:~# mount -l
/dev/mmcblk0p3 on / type ext4 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /boot type vfat (rw,fmask=177,dmask=077)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)

SD was listed as being rw, so I knew that it had to be something else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penthux

You could also try a fsck scan to see if that brings up any errors. Adding the following code to the cmdline.txt file would force a fsck scan every time you (re)boot but that's not going to help if the file is not being saved.

Code:

fsck.mode=force fsck.repair=yes

There's always the possibility that the microSD card you are using is faulty. I would make an image of the current microSD card and write it to another card just to test. I'd also then re-install Slackware ARM to the current card to see if it produces the same issues/results.

In the end, I did clone the SD card and installed the result onto a new SD card and what I found then was that it did, in fact, write and keep changes made to the OS afterwards. It seems sometime on January 23rd, it stopped writing to the card, yet continued to operate without any real issue besides the inability to update anything. Very interesting behavior for a failed SD card. Now I know if this happens again, how a SD dies

Thank you for your valuable incites!

Penthux · 04-02-2017, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jloco

Thank you for your valuable incites!

Always welcome. Glad you were able to locate the cause of this issue and resolve it.