Re: cannot access machine after apt-get dist-upgrade

[Daniel Burrows <dburrows@debian.org>]

On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 07:16:54PM +0000, Robert Cates <cates58@hotmail.com> was heard to say:
> >On Sun, Jun 03, 2007 at 11:58:55AM +0000, Robert Cates 
> ><cates58@hotmail.com> was heard to say:
> >> this is going to be my new server, so there's no GUI, only text mode, 
> >and
> >> it gets all the way to the login prompt, but the machine will not take
> >> keyboard (USB, which is what I always used) input.  As I was saying, I 
> >can
> >> see during the bootup that the network cards are not started, but I 
> >can't
> >> tell why, so I'm therefore also unable to access the machine per remote 
> >SSH.
> >
> >  OK -- have you tried booting with init=/bin/sh?  I'm betting you still
> >won't be able to type, but it might be worth a try.  You could also try
> >booting a live CD and using it to examine the system logs for clues about
> >what's happening.
> >
> >  Here's another thought: have you been loading the USB/network modules 
> >from
> >/etc/modules or from udev/hotplug?
> 
> Um, how do I set the boot option init=/bin/sh if I can't access the machine?

  Oh, sorry -- you said you were booting different kernels, so I figured
you had access to the bootloader.  Never mind then.

> Well, I can't tell from where the USB/network modules are loading from.  Is 
> this a difference between kernels 2.6.8 and 2.6.18?

  I'm not sure, but I doubt it's the kernel upgrade that caused your
problems (since they persist in both kernels).  I think the udev/hotplug
protocol did change a few times, but I couldn't tell you how -- however,
the code in udev did change (version 0.056-3 -> version 0.105-4), and
if udev broke *and* udev was loading your USB keyboard driver, that could
explain the problem.

  My general hunch is that something in the userspace toolchain that loads
your modules is broken, but I don't know what (for all I know it's as
simple as that you need to run depmod -a).

  Daniel