[OpenIndiana-discuss] "format -e" segmentation fault attempting to label a 5 TB disk in Hipster 2017.10

[Richard L. Hamilton]

I'm not an OS developer (although I have read a fair bit of Solaris etc source over the years, and have written a kernel module or two for my own amusement). That said, if you have a core file,

pstack core_file

(whatever the core file's name is) will give a backtrace, which might (although with a SEGV, it might not, too) provide SOME clue what's happening.

I don't know where that specific size limit comes in. Typically, the limit for a bootable partition in Solaris is 2TB (1TB on older systems, even lower on ancient ones). EFI labels/partitions will likely support larger disks than VTOC (SPARC) or fdisk (x86/64) label. I don't know whether OpenIndiana has the same limits.

People that know this stuff well enough that for any given problem you might have, can say "that's fixed in version such-and-such", or "here's a workaround" are rare enough even for systems that have big commercial support. OpenIndiana/Illumos may have SMALL commercial support, but it's also mostly a SMALL number of volunteers. It's a bit much to expect that any of them would have a 5TB disk on hand to try and re-create your problem (let alone have a saved install of the old version you're running), and finding it by inspecting code wouldn't be quick either. That says nothing about the future of anything, save that support options are obviously limited, particularly if you're not paying someone for priority service.

> On Feb 21, 2021, at 18:56, Reginald Beardsley via openindiana-discuss <openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Sunday, February 21, 2021, 02:53:48 PM CST, Toomas Soome <tsoome at me.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hipster 2017 is 4 years old, please use current version. If it still is dumping core, please file issue/let 
>> us know.
> 
> If the developers/maintainers can't/won't verify this themselves I don't see much future for SunOS/Illumos. I find that heartbreaking, but I'm not in a position to do anything about it. It's a lot easier to plug a large hard drive into a current system and do a "format -e" than it is to sort through the complications of doing an upgrade from 2017.10. As I read the wiki, I have to do at least 2 upgrades to get to the current release. It's arguably simpler to backup my files, do a fresh install and restore my files.
> 
> My earlier question about grub was motivated not by a failure to research the subject, but the failure to document *in* /boot/grub what the various files are. I see absolutely no reason that boot strap files for other systems should be in /boot/grub for OI. "I read it on the Internet" doesn't count for much. There are far too many native English speakers who cannot write grammatically correct sentences.
> 
> I downloaded the most recent ISO images today. If I boot the LiveImage and "format -e" still dumps core on a segmentation fault I shall simply move to BSD or Linux for Internet access and keep my offline Solaris 10 system for use when I have serious work to do. I've used a dozen or so *nix debuggers. The Sun/Forte dbx is by far the best.
> 
> I've done my turn at software support and system administration starting with a MicroVAX II world box in the late 80's. After maintaining about 2.5 million lines of other people's code I'd like to do something else in the time I have remaining.
> 
> Reg
> 
> 
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