bash errors after update

JonathonReinhart · 01-09-2006, 10:04 PM

Hello everyone. I am running a server in my buddy's basement, and SSH into it from my home dial-up connection. I was running YaST in SuSE 9.1 (upadated with a 9.3 online source) and everything was working good. I went into the online updates (mostly security updates) and started it downloading like 10 - one of which i believe had to do with bash...

My connection got dropped, so I could no longer see the YaST update window... now when I try to SSH in, I get this:

Code:

login as: root
Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
Password:
Last login: Tue Jan 10 10:30:03 2006 from ac8b4478.ipt.aol.com
Have a lot of fun...
-bash: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Please help, I'm not really sure what to do - I can't get to bash to even reboot....

Thanks again!

gyc · 01-09-2006, 11:44 PM

can you do this:
cat /root/.bashrc
and show us the output?

JonathonReinhart · 01-10-2006, 05:39 PM

I forgot to mention that after that message, the SSH connection is closed by the server. So maybe I need to somehow pass something to it from PuTTY? It's a decent drive to his house, and even there, there is no keyboard or monitor, only power and eth; I had been using SSH from there as well.

Any other suggestions? Hard Reboot?

bosewicht · 01-10-2006, 05:45 PM

Did it bail before or after you started the updates? was it ur connection or the servers? you may need to reinstall readline.

timmeke · 01-11-2006, 02:03 AM

bosewicht is right. It's just a missing library. You can verify this by typing something like:
whereis libreadline.so.
That should show all libreadline.so.x files on your system.
Maybe you are using a more recent version (ie .so.5 or .so.6) or an older version (.so.3) instead of the .so.4.
Or it may simply be that you need to install the package that provides the .so.4 file.
If you have a more recent version, look for a "compatibility package". Such packages provide old versions of certain libraries
mainly for compatibility.
If you have an older version, you'll need to upgrade your installation to the right version.
If you don't have any version at all, you'll need to install the package that provides it.

If your system supports rpm installation, you can try searching for the libreadline.so.4 file for instance on http://rpmfind.net.

JonathonReinhart · 01-11-2006, 04:37 PM

Ok, but I still have the probelm of not being able to do anything with the system - As soon as I log in using SSH, it throws that error and closes the connection. Is there anything I can do without driving there and actually sitting at a monitor and a keyboard? If I call my friend and have him hard-reboot it, will that hurt anything and maybe let me get in to fix it?

bosewicht · 01-11-2006, 04:46 PM

is it a webserver? is the server running? maybe you could try piping some commands after the ssh login and send the output of them to a web directory and view the outputs there. if that works, maybe you could reinstall readline like that. Honestly tho, I'm not sure if it would work, worth a try though.
Unfortunately, you may just have to drive over there and get on the physical machine, if you can't open a connection and send commands.

jomen · 01-11-2006, 05:19 PM

to do _anything_ with the machine, you need to login...
since you cannot do that - because ssh is the only way in and it itself is not working ok. you will need to go there - and take a backup and a live-CD with you - so you can fix it without needing to login - because this could very well fail the same way it did over ssh.
A reboot would very probably not help...

Cheers

bosewicht · 01-11-2006, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonathonReinhart

Code:

login as: root
Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
Password:
Last login: Tue Jan 10 10:30:03 2006 from ac8b4478.ipt.aol.com
Have a lot of fun...
-bash: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

It would appear that he/she is logging in

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonathonReinhart

Code:

Last login: Tue Jan 10 10:30:03 2006 from ac8b4478.ipt.aol.com
Have a lot of fun...

So that is why i said maybe piping some commands immmediately after the login stuff might be able to push them thru

JonathonReinhart · 01-11-2006, 05:29 PM

ok if you have any details on how to do this? there is a webserver running - ajmwps.kicks-ass.net

bosewicht · 01-11-2006, 05:45 PM

it would be something like

ssh ajmwps.kicks-ass.net 'slocate libreadline > /var/www/html/something.txt'

this will still prompt you for a password and may not work if bash is hosed, but maybe you could do something similar with yum to reinstall libreadline

I'm not anywhere where i can test this, but something along this line may work

jomen · 01-11-2006, 06:07 PM

...he can logon - or he can not. <--period
assuming ssh is safe - as well as the web-server - all there is to do is: logon and fix it - if you cannot - go there...

bosewicht · 01-11-2006, 06:13 PM

he/she can log on, but because there is a prob with bash, it kills the connection. If you look at the post, you will see there is a successful login.
Again, like i said before, piping may or may not work, regardless, it is worth a try rather than making a long drive

JonathonReinhart · 01-21-2006, 12:48 PM

Ok, I found myself in the area, and picked up the machine and brought it home. You were right, bash is messed up here too, using a monitor and keyboard - no ssh. Makes sense, bash is bash.... So what can I do to fix this? My first guess would be to reinstall readline, but I don't know how to do this; I have no idea what readline is!

Until someone posts back, I'll try booting from CD1 and seeing if I can try those few things you mentioned above.

Thanks!