[Unionfs] corruption of rpm database with unionfs (and ldconfig)

[Urs Beyerle]

Hi,

I still see the same problem (or a similar one) on Scientific Linux 4 
(RHEL Kernel 2.6.9-67.0.7.EL) with latest unionfs-2.3.2_for_2.6.9-final. 
Did the fix also went to unionfs-2.3.2_for_2.6.9-final?

For the Scientific Linux 4 LiveCDs I use unionfs 1.1.5. I would like to 
update to 2.x to make it more stable. The rpm database corruption is one 
of the problems I still see with unionfs-2.3.2_for_2.6.9-final.

Mini LiveCD with unionfs 2.3.2:
ftp://ftp.psi.ch/psi/livecd/pub/testing/mini_livecd_SL46_unionfs-2.3.2-2008-04-05.iso

Mini LiveCD with unionfs 1.1.5:
ftp://ftp.psi.ch/psi/livecd/pub/46/i386/mini_livecd_SL46_2008-04-10.iso

To reproduce the rpm database corruption with 
mini_livecd_SL46_unionfs-2.3.2-2008-04-05.iso, boot the LiveCD:
# su -
# rpm -qa
# ldconfig
# rpm -qa (this is still ok)

Now do something "more complicate" than ldconfig, like copy a lot of 
files to a local harddisk (like it's done during the LiveCD installation 
to harddisk):

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
# cp -a /usr /mnt/sda1
# rpm -qa (now the rpm database is corrupted)

What's really strange, open an other xterm as normal and run
# rpm -qa (rpm database is still ok)
get root
# su -
# rpm -qa (rpm database is corrupted)


Just an other (I think unrelated problem) with 
unionfs-2.3.2_for_2.6.9-final:
On mini_livecd_SL46_2008-04-10.iso start firefox - it works.
On mini_livecd_SL46_unionfs-2.3.2-2008-04-05.iso start firefox - does 
not work.
Sorry, I haven't investigate this further so far.


Cheers,

Urs Beyerle, Scientific Linux




Olivier Blin wrote:
> Erez Zadok <ezk at cs.sunysb.edu> writes:
>
>> In message <m3prulos1m.fsf at dynamo.mandriva.com>, Olivier Blin writes:
>>> --=-=-=
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> We have a weird rpm database corruption in Mandriva live systems with
>>> current unionfs (2.2.4).
>>> Databases files from /var/lib/rpm get corrupted with no obvious
>>> reason after running ldconfig (at first look, it does not look
>>> related to the ldconfig thread on this ML).
>> Olivier, can you please retry with unionfs-2.3 and let me know if it
>> improves the situation?  If not, can you send me a URL to a new iso image to
>> test this on?  (I don't care how large the image is.)
>
> Hello Erez,
>
> I can't reproduce the bug with unionfs 2.3.1, thanks a lot for the fix!
> Any idea about which patch fixed the problem? Was it a mmap issue?
>
> If you still need a reproducible testcase, you can try with this
> updated image:
> http://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/MandrivaLinux/devel/iso/2008.1/rc2/mandriva-linux-2008-spring-rc2-one-KDE-int-cdrom-i586.iso
>
> Thanks again
>