From: terry@venus.sunquest.com (Terry R. Friedrichsen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: experience with upgrade to Ultrix 4.3 [long and sordid]
Summary: flakey, but it works now
Keywords: Ultrix   4.3    upgrade    flakiness
Date: 1 Oct 92 00:11:09 GMT
Followup-To: comp.unix.ultrix
Distribution: usa
Organization: Sunquest Information Systems, Tucson

Ultrix 4.3 arrived on a bunch of TK50s (no flames, please :-) today, so I
eagerly tore into doing an upgrade installation (not a full clean-the-
disks one) on a Personal DECstation model 5000/25.

The upgrade procedure went without a hitch, right up to the point where
it told me to do /etc/reboot.

The reboot worked, though I had this strange message in DEC's cute little
console window:

  0x54 A V1.0     DEC    VSXXX-BB -5830

However, the mouse (VSXXX-BB, don'tcha know) was working, so I thought
nothing of it.  There was a Digital login window on the screen (more about
this later), so I dove in.  After entering username/password, the login
window went away and nothing happened - forever.  Extreme lack of coolness.

So I three-fingered it, got back to the console, and entered the boot
command without the -a (to get to single-user mode).  Waited quite some
time; nothing happened.  At this point, I was getting nervous.  Three-
fingered it again, and did a "cnfg 3".  All present and accounted for;
entered the boot command and everything went OK.  fsck'ed some disks
and went hunting for the trouble.

I already knew what the trouble was, because of the Digital login window
I'd seen on the screen before - it's supposed to be xdm instead.  DEC's
upgrade procedure rudely blew away /etc/ttys, just like it always does.
Didn't even have the decency to save my old one.  Didn't *change* it,
either, except for simply undoing my changes.  So I used ed to comment out
DEC's ":0 blah blah dxprompter" line and added my own ":0 blah blah xinit"
line.  Then a control-D to go to multi-user mode, and I was OK.  Or so I
thought.

Rats!  Forgot to mount my user disk; worse, the mouse pointer won't move!
Three-fingered it again, and typed the boot command at the console prompt.

Nothing happened; the boot command hung - again.  Three-fingered it again,
did a cnfg 3, and then entered the boot command; success!

Or so I thought.  Everything came up wonderfully; I logged in, my environment
was there, and I thought I was dialed.  But oops - the mouse pointer won't
move!  Luckily, it's in an xterm window so I can type commands.  /dev/mouse
is there ... odd thing, though - about every third command I type, the key-
board locks a key into auto-repeat.  Banging on the keys eventually stops it.
More strangeness.

Suddenly, xconsole pops up with the same 0x54 message described above.
Incredibly, from that point on, the keyboard behaves normally and the mouse
works!

The only minor problem I have now is that I requested the installation of
the TrueColor server, but the Xtx server isn't on my disk anywhere ... sigh.
This also happened to the guy in the next office in a different context - he
installed a bunch of stuff including the TrueColor server, and the TrueColor
server just never made it.

Bottom line:  I'm up and OK now, but I sure hope this thing doesn't crash.
What if the mouse doesn't come back or the keyboard stays in hosed mode next
time?

So:

1)  make a copy of your ttys file, so you can put it back without suffering
the vileness of ed; do the replacement before you do the /etc/reboot the
upgrade tells you to do

2)  if your boot command hangs, don't panic; three-finger it and do a cnfg 3,
and then try the boot command again (I suspect that this problem is not
actually related to Ultrix itself)

3)  keep a supply of dragon's blood handy for use if your keyboard goes
flakey and your mouse pointer won't move (this is *definitely* some kind
of Ultrix problem

4)  if you need the TrueColor server, look to make sure it got installed
before you depend on it being there

Terry R. Friedrichsen

terry@venus.sunquest.com  (Internet)
uunet!sunquest!terry      (Usenet)
terry@sds.sdsc.edu        (alternate address; I live in Tucson)


Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix