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When it rains, it pours

By Q-Bert - Posted on 12 October 2007

So, I was upgrading KC today (the server this website resides on) I was pretty much done.

My last step was to tune the dependancies and save a few configs. So I ran an automated script.

Well, the script ended up re-updating the main library that all Unix programs link to (glibc for the initiated). In fact, it downgraded my library. Now, only Apache and PHP work. That's why you can view this site right now, but I cannot login to my own machine, and no emails are being received or sent.

To fix this, I have to put an even older copy of those libraries on the machine.... Well, those libraries are not in any binary form on the Internet anymore. I have the source, but I have to login to compile it. Catch-22. Lovely. Besides, I can't copy anything to the machine right now.

I can attempt to login to the Host Server (KC is a Virtual Machine) but the owner of the Host is away on business and nowhere near an Internet connection. I cannot go physically to the machine, since it is in a locked room in a telco downtown.

pwned

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good old KC

Submitted by Noir on October 15, 2007 - 2:10pm.

Q-bert, isn't KC a Gentoo machine? Couldn't you just: emerge --fix world ?

That's *one* of the things I had to do...

Submitted by Q-Bert on October 15, 2007 - 2:12pm.

But it is hard to do emerge when the glibc that python was using got deleted...
Once MCR gave me the VM's HD looped unto the Host, I was able to tarball an ebuild package (emerge -B glibc) and untar it unto KC, then rebooted the VM.
Once it came back up, I was able to emerge --fix world and revdep-rebuild pretty much the whole machine.

Gentoo FTW