Redhat 8.0/update agent freezing
 

All,

I have an IBM Netvista, model 6339-66A, that I have just installed Redhat 8.0 on. The hardware was working fine for the last 12 months with NT on it, so I very much doubt this a hardare issue.

Obviously, the first thing to do after the initial install (that all appeared to go smoothly) is run up2date or the update agent, whatever you want to call it, to fix any security holes etc. Problem is the system hangs after about 2 minutes everytime I try. I mean, I've never seen a linux box do this, it reminds me of Macs 10 years ago. The system just hangs completely, can't move the cursor (stuck as the watch symbol), can't Ctrl-Alt-FX to a console, can only hard reboot.

I have run the system for over a day without problem, and had it sit there crunching on a kernel re-compile etc. to stress test it, and it's fine. As soon as I run up2date it freezes 2 mintues into the downloading section.

I really don't know what to start looking at next... does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks guys/gals/bullfrogs...

Well I ran into a similar problem that might be of some assistance to you. If you are trying to download ALL the current up2date rpms at once it seems to be a problem. What I had to do was download and install the new kernel rpms ONLY and then reboot to test the new kernel. Then I downloaded the rest of the updates but I also ran into a problem here as well. My suggestion is to download small amounts of updates at a time: say 5 to 10 depending on the packages sizes.

Just make sure you install all the new kernel packages first. I don't know if this is your exact issue but it solved my problem.

Thanks, but I certainly tried this already. If I pick something really small, it manages to download and install, however if I try even a single package with a size of over a meg or so it still dies partway through the download of the first (only) rpm.

I'm not sure I'd be really happy if that was the solution anyway... seems like something that should work by 8.0 ;-)

Any other takers???

Stupid question but your sure it dies right? I mean I just can't understand why small packages would install but larger packages would lock up your system. I'm sure your thinking the same thing too. Now this is really going to bug me. Do me a favor and make sure you post a solution when you find one and you will.(The force is strong with this one.) I want to see what the heck is going on here. Thats right I said it. HECK

Thought I'd give you guys a quick update... as I suspected the problem seems to be network card/driver related rather than up2date related, maybe I should update the title of the parent post if I can work out how.

I configured ftp on the Redhat box and tried to push a movie file accross to it from my lappy... sure enough about 30 seconds into the transfer... FROZEN!!!

Again, good luck to those brave enough to tackle this one.

try

up2date -u