I just did a big update with the latest wheezy update (using the aptitude GUI). Several things seemed odd; and I'm not sure if everything is OK. I'm hoping for some info about what's going on.
I have LVM volume groups that are missing disks, which produce errors during some operations (e.g., update-initramfs). In the past the errors haven't prevented updates from working.
I've listed the oddities with the ones most likely to indicate a real problem first.
I) "failed" message
This time the installation messages included "failed" (2nd to last line below)
-----------------------------------------
Setting up lvm2 (2.02.95-8) ...
[....] Setting up LVM Volume Groups... Couldn't find device with uuid GKasb9-Qo8q-vC83-S0N7-cvUd-nE0J-EEeMgv.
Couldn't find device with uuid eDiLHt-Pzom-tjdr-Ky12-Z6Gx-o3Iz-lYh1wL.
[snip more errors]
Refusing activation of partial LV cyrspool. Use --partial to override.
Refusing activation of partial LV cyrlib. Use --partial to override.
failed.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
--------------------------------------------------
Though the last 2 messages look OK
---------------------------------
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-amd64
------------------------------
So, aside from the fact I'm missing disks that are not essential for operation, have my initrd's and grub been updated properly?
2) Grub Reports Missing Disk
Before any of the above I got a debconf dialog from grub:
-------------------------------------------------
| The GRUB boot loader was previously installed to a disk that is no longer present, or whose unique identifier has changed for some reason. It is important │
│ to make sure that the installed GRUB core image stays in sync with GRUB modules and grub.cfg. Please check again to make sure that GRUB is written to the │
│ appropriate boot devices.
# followed by a list of devices on which to install grub
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This seemed peculiar because one of the disks listed was the one on which GRUB was already installed.
Anyway, I told it to install there again.
It may be relevant that I am not booting off sda. sda likely also has grub on it, and some of the dead disks did as well.
3) Lots of updates
I got a whole batch of updates, apparently coinciding with the release of Debian 7.2. Am I missing something in sources.list? Before wheezy these point releases were basically non-events for me because I had picked up the updates as they came out. Currently I have
deb
http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian wheezy main contrib non-free
deb
http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
4) Unknown Debian release: 7.1
At the very start of the install:
------------------------------------------------
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
supported_versions: WARNING: Unknown Debian release: 7.1
--------------------------------------------------------------
Why 7.1 would be unknown I don't know. I presume that is what I was running. One of the updates to base-files included the move to 7.2 as the base version but a) I don't think that would have taken effect so early in the installation process and b) I don't see why it would make 7.1 unknown.
Thanks.
Ross Boylan