More on 10.2.8 server upgrade
I am pretty sure that there are problems with the latest releases of 10.2.8 server and workstation. Aperently Apple has not quality tested the latest few releases on the older Beige and Powerbook G3's as there are tons of reports of problems. When I get a chance (which may not be until next year ;) I am going to do a fresh load of 10.2 server with the 10.2.8 combo update to a spare drive on my server, before I attempt to update again to 10.2.8. Or I'll watch the posts and SU for a newer release. I want to get off of my G3 anyhow (but it is sutch a good task for the old machine, works fine as a server and does not require a ton of memory, disk space or power for what I use it for). I really need to get a new worksation for home ans turn my old G4 into the server. In the future I will run two copies of the server on two different drives. One will be the test environment that can crash, the other will be production. Other things I will do are; only use combo updates, repair permissions before and after the upgrade and READ ALL the posts on the Apple Discussion board. I will also not load a new update until it has been out for about a month so that others can crash and burn rather than me.

There are still several things about my server that could have contributed to this. First I had a hard drive crash (actually the OS 9 part of the drive decided to have problems, I was lazy and did not fix this until the upgrade, should not have been a factor, but you never know). Second I have a couple third party things in my server, all minor issues; third party USB since Beige had none, third-party ULTRA-SCSI and ATA drives, which also should not be a problem. I also run a third-party 100TX NIC, but it appears as a regular Apple card and I don't have to load a driver for it. And I had Norton System works loaded due the the hard drive problem I was trying to repair. The existance of Norton Utilities and NAV are the only third-party software that was RUNNING on the server. Again I doubt that any if this was a factor, but you never know. That is why I am going to have a test drive for all this. Another theory I have is that this is related to memory and a really bad leak or other bug. It certanally seems as the case based on how the server was acting. I have seen reports on the boards that G3's with less than 256 and more than 256 MB of memory are affected (the more than with the old release of 10.2.8 and now the less than with the new). SInce I have only 192 MB in the machine I just can't win without finding some more memory. There have been reports that other machines that did similar stuff to what I reported were seeing mass amounts of memory page outs after the upgrade. My server did not stay up long enough for me to determine this, but based on what I saw and experienced I'm sure that was the problem. Once I attempted to load the 10.2.8 combo update to fix the problems the box started kernel panics due to an incomplete install of 10.2.8 combo (would go dark and in a coma close to the start of the install or download of the software, I even tried a CD-r with the update burned onto it with no luck)
1:09:17 PM     comment []

OS X 10.2.8 warning!
Do yourself a favor. If you run Mac OS X do not install 10.2.8 on to a server until Apple works out all of the bugs. As many of you may know 10.2.8 for workstation was released and pulled due to quality problems over the past couple of weeks. A new version was re-posted and avalable through software update last weekend. I have upgraded almost all of my laptops and workstations with success, but I spent all day and into the night on Saturday trying to revive and ending up reloading my server . I followed all the standard precautions-restarting before and verifying the disc, using only the stand alone updates and not trusting SU. Things seemed fine, but then the server would go dark after a few min. After trying a few things it started kernel panics instead of going dark. The system would not stay up long enough for the standard fixes.

Next blogs: next steps in getting to 10.2.8, theory as to what could be the problem and things to do to avoid update problems.
12:24:47 AM     comment []

Stale Blog
Yes, I know my blog is stale. I have lots to say and to write about. Stay tuned.
12:13:46 AM     comment []