Not sure how to recover from failed live dist upgrade 11.3 -> 12.3

My first live dist upgrade, controlled environment so no ‘downed server’ urgency but after a lot of reading, still unable to proceed. Essentially, I followed a how to very strictly and have everything documented. However, the blip that happened would suggest a loss of connectivity or a human break. However, there is evidence in the screen output of neither (obviously I know for sure there was no human break). As the output shows, a package was downloaded, installed as expected. The next package was downloaded and then out of the blue, evidence of rpm db corruption, install failure. I ignored as I knew what abort would do, The next package downloaded and failed on install again, same issue, rpm db corruption, as expected. Love to know how to figure out what happened.

In an effort to fix this to restart maybe, I tried a zypper clean all. failed.

zypper clean --all
zypper: error while loading shared libraries: librpm.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

rebuilt the rpm db, no problems (or so I presume with no output)

owenlab:~ # rpmdb --rebuilddb
owenlab:~ #

It would seem zypper is borked. I would assume most things are borked by extension.

Figuring all was lost anyway, I rebooted. Came up ok, but same situation, zypper borked. If I could, I would restart the ‘zypper dup’ and hope it finished what it started with the rpm db rebuilt. However, with no zypper, I am lost since the only way I have ever installed anything was using zypper or Yast via gui. This device does not have a gui console installed and uses a stripped down version of opensuse. I can console in as root. I can connect via a nic and open a web interface. Nothing works since nginx is not running and seems to be in some state of in between.

When I rebooted, grub came up with 11.3 and 11.3 failsafe options. Left it to boot as 11.3 When I check opensuse version, I get 12.3

owenlab:~ # cat /etc/SuSE-release
openSUSE 12.3 (i586)
VERSION = 12.3

Lots of things won’t run and the missing librpm.so.1 file seems to be the issue reported in most all cases. Searched for the missing rpm library. No .1, but others exist following an updatedb:

owenlab:~ # locate librpm
/usr/lib/librpm.so.3
/usr/lib/librpm.so.3.0.2
/usr/lib/librpmbuild.so.3
/usr/lib/librpmbuild.so.3.0.2
/usr/lib/librpmio.so.3
/usr/lib/librpmio.so.3.0.2
/usr/lib/librpmsign.so.1
/usr/lib/librpmsign.so.1.0.2

From this thread:

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/471123-update-upgrade-fails

From this thread, I have learned, albeit, too late, that upgrading from 11.3 is not advisable except by downloading all the RPMs in advance.
I have also gathered that a possible fix for my situation would be to reinstall the rpm rpm for 11.3:

====
On 2012-01-13 18:36, mlh85386 wrote:
> After rebuilding the rpm-database as recommended, any continuation of
> the upgrade process fails with a message on the missing rpm-library
> librpm.so.1
>
> This library seems to correspond the rpm 4…8.0 which is/was replaced
> by rpm-4.9.1.2 during zypper’s upgrading routine

You have to reinstall “rpm”, using itself if possible. If not, you have do
it from a rescue system.

Can anyone confirm this or set me on a different path that will allow me to move forward without starting from scratch. I have to do a bunch of these and knowing how to recover is something I would call valuable to know.

While not a total newb to Linux, I could count the times on one hand I installed a non-propietary version of it and have never done an upgrade, so, I am prepared to be humbled here. :slight_smile:

TIA
O

testing if I will be emailed if someone responds

You have the 12.3 rpm, but other packages like zypper are still from 11.3.

I think the easiest way to proceed would be to download a 12.3 installation medium (full DVD or Net-Install CD), and do an upgrade installation.

If you don’t want to do that for some reason, I would start with installing the 12.3 zypper RPMs (zypper, libzypp, solv-tools) using “rpm -U”.
If you are lucky, zypper would work then and you could continue the upgrade.

But as you found out yourself, upgrading directly from 11.3 to 12.3 is NOT supported in any way and not advisable, especially not using the online method.

On 2014-04-01 20:46, oparker wrote:
>
> My first live dist upgrade, controlled environment so no ‘downed server’
> urgency but after a lot of reading, still unable to proceed.
> Essentially, I followed a how to very strictly and have everything
> documented.

Well, it is documented that you can not do a live upgrade from 11.3 to
12.3. From 11.3 you can only live upgrade to 11.4, then after
verification, upgrade in another step to 12.1, verify… etc.

You can attempt to repair things by booting the 12.3 full DVD, and
choose “upgrade”.

Some reading material:

Online upgrade
method
Offline
upgrade method

Chapter 16. Upgrading the System and System Changes
Chapter 16. Upgrading the System and System Changes
openSUSE 12.3 Release Notes
openSUSE 13.1 Release Notes


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

Thanks very much for the replies and advice. I will try to upgrade zypper via RPM. The biggest issue is simply that most tools I need will not rn, like zypper, ssh, etc. If I have to I will do an upgrade from dist DVD… I would have liked to come across the documentation that 11.3 to 12.3 was a no no before I burned a day. Lesson learned :slight_smile:

O

If anyone else finds this because they are in the same spot, I used this command at the command line to install zypper 12.3 so I could possibly carry on without a DVD as I have no portable DVD player on hand…

|rpm -Uvh http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/libcryptsetup4-1.5.1-2.1.1.i586.rpm http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/systemd-195-13.11.1.i586.rpm http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/aaa_base-12.3-14.3.1.i586.rpm http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/mkinitrd-2.7.2-3.2.1.i586.rpm http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/zypper-1.8.11-1.1.1.i586.rpm http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/libzypp-12.9.0-1.1.1.i586.rpm http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/libsolv-tools-0.2.4-2.1.1.i586.rpm http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/libudev1-195-13.11.1.i586.rpm http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/udev-195-13.11.1.i586.rpm
|
|

I am going to carry on with this:

zypper dup --download-in-advance

to see if that will get me where I need to go to finish the 12.3 upgrade…

You could also copy the installation medium ISO image to an USB stick and install from there if you don’t get it to work otherwise.

On 2014-04-02 20:36, oparker wrote:
>
> Thanks very much for the replies and advice. I will try to upgrade
> zypper via RPM. The biggest issue is simply that most tools I need will
> not rn, like zypper, ssh, etc. If I have to I will do an upgrade from
> dist DVD… I would have liked to come across the documentation that
> 11.3 to 12.3 was a no no before I burned a day. Lesson learned :slight_smile:

It is there. Look:

“… a live upgrade from the prior version is officially supported.”

From the prior version, not several prior back.

“The following steps show you how to update your openSUSE distribution
to the current packages before upgrading to the next version.”

To the next version, not to a version after the “next”.

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade

Yes, I agree that the wording should be way more explicit. I’m adding a
comment on the discussion tab right now.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

On 2014-04-02 22:16, oparker wrote:
>
> If anyone else finds this because they are in the same spot, I used this
> command at the command line to install zypper 12.3 so I could possibly
> carry on without a DVD as I have no portable DVD player on hand…


> rpm -Uvh   http://tinyurl.com/lgmw8k5
> http://tinyurl.com/ld8qfx9   http://tinyurl.com/lk4527y
> http://tinyurl.com/msugxza   http://tinyurl.com/n36wfrz
> http://tinyurl.com/keowufl   http://tinyurl.com/lckj5tz
> http://tinyurl.com/m66muzk   http://tinyurl.com/mvugw2n

Wow! Please, don’t do that. It is unreadable.

All I see is a list of tiny urls. I clicked on them thinking they were
some photos you pasted, and instead I got prompts to install a set of rpms!

When pasting computer commands and such, please use a CODE BLOCK, so
that the forum software doesn’t do silly things like converting URLS to
tiny urls or otherwise hide or alter the commands you entered. You get
them by clicking on the ‘#’ button in the forum editor.
See photo


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

On 2014-04-03 01:45, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2014-04-02 22:16, oparker wrote:

>


>> rpm -Uvh   http://tinyurl.com/lgmw8k5
>> http://tinyurl.com/ld8qfx9   http://tinyurl.com/lk4527y
>> http://tinyurl.com/msugxza   http://tinyurl.com/n36wfrz
>> http://tinyurl.com/keowufl   http://tinyurl.com/lckj5tz
>> http://tinyurl.com/m66muzk   http://tinyurl.com/mvugw2n
> 

>
> Wow! Please, don’t do that. It is unreadable.

Ok, I have no idea what you are installing, I can’t read it. I guess
that you are upgrading zypper. You also need to upgrade rpm.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

rpm is already upgraded, otherwise he wouldn’t have had the problem in the first place.

The old zypper needs librpm.so.1 while the newer rpm includes librpm.so.3.
That’s why the old zypper doesn’t work anymore.