Hi,

So I have this old pet Slack box that I have been upgrading from 10.0. Made it up through 11.0. While upgrading to 12.0, my /usr partition filled up before the end of install. I ctl-c 'ed the install, did house keeping on /usr, and went back to work. (Mind you, this is an old box. It originally started with Slack 8.1!)

So, I went to /packages (dvd mount point) and did a

for f in ls slackware/*/*.tgz ; do
name=`basename $ | cut -d'-' -f1
echo $name
file `which $name`
done > /root/checkthese.txt

Then I did a

grep 'empty' /root/checkthese.txt | wc -l

There were 69 files that were 'empty' that weren't installed properly.

Then I did a

grep 'empty' checkthese.txt > broken.txt

followed by a

for f in `cat broken.txt | cut -d':' -f1 | ; do
basename `echo $f`
done > To_Reinstall.txt

So now I had a semi-complete list of broken packages.

Next I wanted a path to the installable file on the DVD, so I did

for f in `cat To_Reinstall.txt` ; do
ls /packages/slackware/*/$f*.tgz
done > ToReinstall2

Just for a test, I did an upgradepkg --install-new on the first package on the list: /packages/slackware/n/gpa-0.7.5-i486-1.tgz

This failed. The pkg database thought this file was installed already.

Next I did an installpkg /packages/slackware/n/gpa-0.7.5-i486-1.tgz

Same problem. The install script lists all the files, but after each one:

/sbin/ldconfig: /usr/X11R6/lib/blahblah-sample-file: is empty, not checked.


So, it sounds to me like the install script doesn't care that the file it's supposed to install a) is incorrectly installed and b) can't deal with reinstalling it correctly.

So, with at least 69 files installed incorrectly (file is 'empty'), what can I do to correct these empty files? How can I reinstall them so they are no longer empty but 'full' like the rest of the installed files?

Thanks in advance!

Dave

PS This is not a production box. I'm upgrading it through all these revisions so I can 'catch up' with how Slackware has changed from 10.0. Yes it would be easier to nuke and pave, but I really want to try and fix this if I can. Thanks!

Hi, welcome!

upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new

Thanks for the reply Didier!

So I tried the --reinstall switch on the first pkg in the list and then went back to see whether I could find any emtpy files again.

I tried upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new gpa-0.7.5-i486-1.tgz package, which supplies lots of X libraries, some of which are

/usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw3d.so.8.0 and /usr/X11R6/lib/libpurple etc etc.

When I checked the actual files (ie targets of symlinks) they were 'empty'.


The files were listed as "empty, not checked"

So I gather this --reinstall switch didn't fix the problem. Is it supposed to just forcibly overwrite all the files it installes?

This is the first time I've ever seen this situation. :-)

Thanks again Didier!

Dave

upgradepkg installs the new package then remove files included in the old package but not in the new one.

--reinstall allows to install a package even if the same version is already installed.

--install-new allows to use upgradepkg to install a new package.

You could try removepkg followed by installpkg.

Okay, I tried the next two packages in the list, and I got a list from /sbin/ldconfig: that the same libraries I saw from the previous attempt were either empty or truncated. So maybe I was wrong about what the gpa pkg actually installed? Perhaps ldconfig was just complaining that those libraries were broken and needed to be addressed? And maybe gpa got reinstalled just fine?

This is indeed a learning experience... :-)

I'm just gonna rerun upgradepkg --reinstall --install-new on the whole shebang of those "empty" packages and see what happens. I am getting a list of a bunch of broken libraries in /etc/X11R6/lib but I'll see if these get fixed when the reinstall gets to the /slackware/x and /xap etc directories... Should be good, right? What could go wrong? :-)

Thanks for the help Didier!

Dave

Great! I'll give this a whirl if the reinstall doesn't work out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my little pet Slack box will be healed! :-)

Thanks for the help Didier!

Dave

Thanks for the help Didier!

The --reinstall switch was just what I needed. Then I just had to find all the broken packages, especially the libraries that ldsoconfig was complaining about. They're all happy now I think!

There are a lot of changes with Slack 12.0. This was a fairly big upgrade from 11.0. So I'll keep an eye on everything and make sure my init scripts are working. Looks like I'll need to make some changes there and also with the kernel startup before I start the next upgrade.

Thanks again!

Dave