Bug#499833: [SOLVED] - chccwdev cannot set device offline in Lenny
On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 11:53:47 -0500 (EST), Frans Pop wrote:
> They are not mystery files at all. They are part of sysconfig-hardware and
> their exact purpose is to bring up devices during system boot!
I'm sure that they are no mystery to you, but they *were* a mystery
to me until you explained their purpose.
I knew next to nothing about sysconfig-hardware, except that
it configured the OSA during boot. Now I know a little more.
> They were almost certainly created when you installed the system because
> you selected at that time to activate the devices.
That makes sense. That is how I did my first migration of data from
cdl minidisks to CMS minidisks: with the installer. However, after
migrating I deleted 0200-0203 and renamed 0400-0403 to 0200-0203.
This change was made in the CP directory entry for the virtual machine
in z/VM. This change was made without the knowledge of sysconfig-hardware.
So whenever a dynamically linked device showed up using one of the
device numbers 0400-0403, sysconfig-hardware was convinced it needed
to be brought online immediately! What I don't understand is why,
when it is *manually* varied offline *after* being brought online
automatically, sysconfig-hardware thinks that it has to be brought right
back online again! I'm not sure if this behavior is considered "working
as designed", but it's definitely not working as *desired*, at least not from my
point of view. Nevertheless, it's easy enough to circumvent. Just
delete the file.
My production minidisks, 0200-0203, are brought online automatically,
but in a different way. They are part of the "dasd" option passed to
the "dasd_mod" module via an "options" record in a file called
/etc/modprobe.d/dasd. This file is included in the initial RAM
file system image, of course. sysconfig-hardware is not needed to bring
these devices online. But if I *manually* take one of these devices
offline, it *stays* offline! It is only brought online *automatically*
during the boot process. (I can't get "/" offline while running,
of course, but I can get "/boot", "/home", and my swap partition offline
while running, if necessary.)
All of this is how my Lenny system works. I haven't done a Squeeze
install yet. Not on the s390 platform, that is.
I will leave it up to your discretion whether to re-open this bug
and assign it to sysconfig-hardware (using a more appropriate title,
such as "device manually varied offline comes right back on again",
or some other similar title, or to leave it closed. If this problem
has been fixed in Squeeze, then I'm content. And if it hasn't been,
I now know how to work around it.
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