smpatch nightmare

I learned a valuable lesson this weekend. Don抰 trust smpatch! I admit some error on my part not reviewing all the patches before applying them but I抳e become pretty confident in smpatch抯 ability to not apply 搒pecial needs?patches and I handle those on a case by case bases.

My normal run for patching a solaris box was to smpatch update in multi user mode and after that completed init S to single user mode and smpatch add 杧 idlist=/var/sadm/spool/disallowed_patch_list.

Well I ran smpatch update and upon completion it said to init 6 so I did but the OS never came back up. I noticed grub was added and I received a panic cannot mount boot archive error. Tried a few things but nothing worked so I called Sun Support and they said I抎 have to reload the OS due to a corrupt kernel. They did have me try booting off CD 11/06 and running the installgrub command but that didn抰 work.

Has this happened to anyone else? If I would've smpatch analyze/download and then init S and ran smpatch update do you think I would have hit the same problem?

Steve

[1081 byte] By [tazmarine24a] at [2007-11-26 14:27:46]
# 1
Hi.The Update Connection support team haven't had any reports of this happening. Do you still have the /var/sadm/spool/disallowed_patch_list file? If so, could you post its contents?Mod.
ForumModeratora at 2007-7-8 2:21:24 > top of Java-index,Administration Tools,Sun Update Connection-System...
# 2

I didn't even get to the disallowed patches. I just issued the smpatch update from the command line and watched while it applied what it could and then when it completed I ran init 6 to reboot it. This is were the system paniced. Here is the list of patches that it need to apply:

Non-Critical 120283-02 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome CD Player Utility Patch2006/05/01

Non-Critical 120411-17 SunOS 5.10_x86: Internet/Intranet Input Method Framework patch2006/12/22

Non-Critical 118997-10 SunOS 5.10_x86: format patch Restart Required Icon 2006/08/21 1

Non-Critical 121978-02 CDE 1.6_x86: dtlogin resources patch2006/06/30

Non-Critical 121488-02 CDE 1.6_x86: dtmail patch2006/09/28

Non-Critical 119314-11 SunOS 5.10_x86: WBEM Patch2006/12/13 2

Non-Critical 122655-05 SunOS 5.10_x86: jumpstart and live upgrade compliance patch Restart Required Icon 2006/06/30

Non-Critical 119471-08 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun Enterprise Network Array firmware and utilities2006/12/21

Non-Critical 121011-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: rpc.metad patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/14

Non-Critical 122670-01 Evolution 1.4.6_x86: Cryptographic Library patch2006/04/27

Non-Critical 122211-01 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: GNOME Media Player Patch2006/03/29

Non-Critical 122861-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: SCN Update Manager localization patch2006/12/22

Non-Critical 119853-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: unix branding patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/25

Non-Critical 119649-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: vlan driver patch Restart Required Icon 2006/12/21

Non-Critical 119539-10 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Window Manager Patch2006/11/29

Non-Critical 122173-05 SunOS 5.10_x86: swap swapadd patch2006/08/23 1

Non-Critical 122647-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: zlogin patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/26 1

Non-Critical 120455-02 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome Apoc GConf Adapter Patch2006/06/12

Non-Critical 118778-07 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun GigaSwift Ethernet 1.0 driver patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/03

Non-Critical 122753-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: fma snmpd patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/28 3

Non-Critical 119419-03 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome On-screen Keyboard Patch2006/11/08

Non-Critical 122762-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun Update Connection Bootstrapper2006/09/26

Non-Critical 124615-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: sconadm proxy: UnknownHostException2006/11/12

Non-Critical 123325-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: sshd patch2006/06/21

Non-Critical 121735-05 SunOS 5.10_x86: patch to support addition of new UTF-8 locales2006/07/20

Non-Critical 118919-19 SunOS 5.10_x86: Solaris Crypto Framework patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/20

Non-Critical 122035-04 SunOS 5.10_x86: awk nawk Patch2006/08/21

Non-Critical 118347-05 SunOS 5.10_x86: libnsl Patch Restart Required Icon 2006/06/27

Non-Critical 119091-20 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun iSCSI Device Driver and Utilities Restart Required Icon 2006/07/06

Non-Critical 123521-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: dirname & basename patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/14

Non-Critical 119907-08 Gnome 2.6.0_x86: Virtual File System Framework patch2006/12/19

Security 118966-24 X11 6.8.0_x86: Xorg patch2006/08/24

Non-Critical 120285-04 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: GNOME CORBA ORB and component framework2006/12/04

Non-Critical 124287-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: chkey patch2006/11/28

Non-Critical 122411-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: ldaplist patch2006/08/04

Security 119549-07 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome Multi-protocol instant messaging client Patch2006/12/11

Non-Critical 119415-12 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome Accessibility Libraries Patch2006/11/16

Non-Critical 120347-06 SunOS 5.10_x86: Common Fibre Channel HBA API Library2006/12/20

Non-Critical 119369-05 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Printing Technology Patch2006/09/12

Non-Critical 123612-02 X11 6.6.2_x86: Trusted Extensions patch2006/11/29

Non-Critical 120987-06 SunOS 5.10_x86: mkfs, newfs, other ufs utils patch Restart Required Icon 2006/08/18 1

Non-Critical 122084-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: fsck mirrored patch Restart Required Icon 2006/08/28

Non-Critical 119599-08 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome Screen Reader and Magnifier Patch2006/11/16 1

Non-Critical 122078-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: NIS yp utilities patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/11

Non-Critical 124189-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: Trusted Solaris Attributes Patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/29

Non-Critical 119411-05 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome Applets Patch2006/06/30 1

Non-Critical 122532-04 SunOS 5.10_x86: volmgt and bsmconv patch Restart Required Icon 2006/10/09 1

Non-Critical 119118-25 Evolution 1.4.6_x86 patch2006/12/06

Non-Critical 123333-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: tftp and in.tftpd patch2006/07/14

Non-Critical 120740-03 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: GNOME PDF Viewer based on Xpdf2006/09/11

Non-Critical 122405-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: xntpd patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/06

Non-Critical 120033-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: libresolv.so.2 patch Restart Required Icon 2006/05/05

Non-Critical 119253-16 SunOS 5.10_x86: System Administration Applications Patch Download Icon 2006/11/08

Non-Critical 120037-07 SunOS 5.10_x86: libldap patch Restart Required Icon 2006/08/31

Non-Critical 122653-04 SunOS 5.10_x86: utilities patch2006/09/20 1

Recommended 118855-19 SunOS 5.10_x86: kernel patch Restart Required Icon 2006/09/21

Non-Critical 122528-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: mech_krb5.so.1 patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/21 1

Non-Critical 123337-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: statd patch Restart Required Icon 2006/08/25

Non-Critical 119279-12 CDE 1.6_x86: dtlogin patch2006/11/05 3

Non-Critical 119281-10 CDE 1.6_x86: Runtime library patch for Solaris 10 Download Icon 2007/01/03 2

Security 119758-04 SunOS 5.10_x86: Samba patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/17

Security 119116-20 Mozilla 1.7_x86 patch2006/10/14

Recommended 118960-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: patch usr/bin/acctcom and usr/bin/lastcomm Restart Required Icon 2006/06/27

Non-Critical 122661-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: zoneadm patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/27 3

Non-Critical 122665-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: libzonecfg.so.1 patch Restart Required Icon 2006/05/19

Security 119060-19 X11 6.6.2_x86: Xsun patch2006/11/16

Non-Critical 122120-05 SunOS 5.10_x86: Patch for Arabic Fonts2006/10/17

Non-Critical 122530-05 SunOS 5.10_x86: nge patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/03 1

Non-Critical 121805-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: GRUB patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/29

Non-Critical 124400-01 CDE 1.6_x86: dtfile patch2006/11/04 3

Non-Critical 124458-01 X11 6.6.2_x86: xdm patch2006/11/03

Non-Critical 122175-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: dumpadm patch2006/08/10 1

Non-Critical 124443-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: ssh patch2006/11/03

Recommended 119247-21 SunOS 5.10_x86: Manual Page updates for Solaris 102006/12/11

Non-Critical 119547-07 APOC 1.2_x86: APOC Configuration Agent Patch2006/07/26 1

Security 118668-09 J2SE 5.0_x86: update 9 patch (5.0u9)2006/11/12

Non-Critical 120461-10 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome libs Patch2006/11/07

Non-Critical 121240-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: libgss patch Restart Required Icon 2006/08/18

Non-Critical 124187-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: flash issue with SUNWscn-base due to broken package2006/11/03

Non-Critical 120630-04 SunOS 5.10_x86: libpool patch2006/11/06

Non-Critical 121871-01 X11 6.6.2_x86: xterm patch2006/05/03

Non-Critical 124207-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: libtsol patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/03

Non-Critical 122755-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: libexacct.so.1 fma patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/18 1

Non-Critical 123321-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: libbsm.so.1 patch2006/08/07 1

Non-Critical 124394-02 CDE 1.6_x86: Dtlogin smf patch Restart Required Icon 2006/12/07 2

Non-Critical 120183-05 SunOS 5.10_x86: Sun Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter Library2006/12/20

Non-Critical 122663-06 SunOS 5.10_x86: libzonecfg patch Restart Required Icon 2006/10/15

Non-Critical 120100-07 APOC 1.2_x86: Sun Java(tm) Desktop System Configuration Shared Libraries2006/08/23

Security 118372-07 SunOS 5.10_x86: elfsign Patch Restart Required Icon 2006/05/03

Non-Critical 123067-01 Value not Found Restart Required Icon

Non-Critical 122534-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: ktkt_warn patch2006/08/28

Non-Critical 122857-04 SunOS 5.10_x86: sendmail patch2006/10/10

Security 119214-10 NSS_NSPR_JSS 3.11.3_x86: NSPR 4.6.3 / NSS 3.11.3 / JSS 4.2.42006/10/06

Non-Critical 121134-02 SunOS 5.10_x86: power patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/27 1

Security 121309-08 SunOS 5.10_x86: Solaris Management Console Patch2006/11/12 1

Security 120468-05 SunOS 5.10_x86: lp patch2006/09/08

Non-Critical 121668-02 SunOS 5.10_x86 : pilot-link header patch2006/05/11

Non-Critical 120289-03 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome terminal Patch2006/11/16

Non-Critical 123163-02 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: Gnome Java Run Time Patch2006/08/04

Non-Critical 124406-01 CDE 1.6_x86: sdtfprop patch2006/11/03 3

Non-Critical 123939-01 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: GNU Transport Layer Security Library Patch2006/12/04

Non-Critical 120273-07 SunOS 5.10_x86: SMA patch Restart Required Icon 2006/10/16 2

Non-Critical 122196-04 SunOS 5.10_x86: pkgadd assertion patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/27 1

Security 121005-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: sh patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/27

Non-Critical 119686-09 SunOS 5.10_x86: lib/svc/bin/svc.startd Patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/07

Non-Critical 124402-01 CDE 1.6_x86: dtpad patch2006/11/03

Non-Critical 124396-01 CDE 1.6_x86: dtaction patch2006/11/03 3

Non-Critical 119987-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: clri patch2006/07/27 1

Non-Critical 123133-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: more patch2006/07/12

Non-Critical 120846-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: auditd patch Restart Required Icon 2006/11/13

Non-Critical 118816-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: /usr/xpg4/bin/awk patch2006/06/28

Non-Critical 123303-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: snoop patch2006/06/30

Security 119904-02 Openwindows 3.7.3_x86: Xview Patch2006/08/11

Non-Critical 120536-12 SunOS 5.10_x86: Updated video drivers and fixes2006/08/18

Non-Critical 119398-04 SunOS 5.10_x86: Patch for North America Region locale issues2006/11/05 1

Non-Critical 122471-02 Gnome 2.6.0_x86: GNOME Java Help Patch2006/08/16

Non-Critical 124404-01 CDE 1.6_x86: dtstyle patch2006/11/03 3

Non-Critical 121948-01 SunOS 5.10_x86: New keyboards software needed for S11 and S10 U22006/05/23

Non-Critical 119975-06 SunOS 5.10_x86: fp plug-in for cfgadm2006/12/19

Non-Critical 122213-14 GNOME 2.6.0_x86: GNOME Desktop Patch2006/12/12

Non-Critical 122659-03 SunOS 5.10_x86: zonecfg patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/27 3

Non-Critical 122641-06 SunOS 5.10_x86: zfs genesis patch Restart Required Icon 2006/07/27 1

tazmarine24a at 2007-7-8 2:21:24 > top of Java-index,Administration Tools,Sun Update Connection-System...
# 3

If the OS group you raised the case with suspected a corrupt kernel, then I would be inclined to go with that explanation.

The two patches I would suspect most from that list are the kernel patch 118855-19 and the GRUB patch 121805-03.

The kernel patch has been in production since Sept 21, and the GRUB patch has been out since the end of November, so I imagine there are a number of users who have applied these patches. I haven't seen any cases raised involving these patches at the Sun Update support side.

I'll keep an eye out for anything like what you experienced.

Mod

ForumModeratora at 2007-7-8 2:21:24 > top of Java-index,Administration Tools,Sun Update Connection-System...