[cobalt-users] My GUI is buggered -- BIZARRE SOLUTION FOUND -FYI

["Robert Davis" <dbugger@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ahoy

My buggered GUI is back alive and well. postgresql would not start because
the /tmp directory had disappeared! mkdir /tmp solved all!

Here is the complete sequence of events, all in one place, for the archives.

         Symptoms:

The GUI died suddenly. The Server Management page could find zero sites to
list.
The System Status page generated a 500 error
Any http://www.yoursite.com/personal generated a 500 error
No new sites could be added
etc.

But the server itself ran fine.

       Investigation:

I got hold of meta-verify by:

 wget ftp://ftp.cobalt.com/pub/users/duncan/meta-verify/meta-verify-raq3

I ran:

meta-verify-raq3 -u -a

It gave me:

checking system+database coherency...
Can't call method "exec" on an undefined value at
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
/Cobalt/Meta.pm line 1056.

Meta.pm is located at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/Cobalt/Meta.pm

A quick read of Meta.pm revealed:

The database handle $dbc is opened on line 386
It failed to return a value on line 1056

Ironically, there appears to be all sorts of checking to find out whether
the handle is valid, such as:

unless ($dbc->status eq PGRES_CONNECTION_OK)
     {
warn "META connect - FAIL: " . $dbc->errorMessage . "\n" if ($METABUG);
return;
   }

starting at line 391, but nothing is reported until line 1056

ps aef | grep postgres returned nothing. This told me the postgres daemon
was dead.

When I tried to:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql start

I got:

Setting up PostgreSQL: FATAL: StreamServerPort: bind() failed: No such file
or directory
     Is another postmaster already running on that port?
     If not, remove socket node (/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5583) and retry.
/usr/bin/postmaster: cannot create UNIX stream port

rm /tmp/.s.PGSQL.5583 got me no such file

locate .s.PGSQL.5583 got me /home/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5583

And when I removed /home/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5583 and try again, I got the same
message again

netstat did not find anything using port 5583

Archive researches revealed several people who had encountered similar
problems, but none reported how they solved it.


     Resolution:

Finally, I went to /tmp to see what was parked in there

THERE WAS NO /tmp !!

bizarre to say the least

restoring it solved all

Aloha
Davis