Re: etcupdate created empty files = system unbootable

On Thu, 27 Apr 2023, at 11:21, Miroslav Lachman wrote:
> Yesterday I upgraded one machine from 12.3 to 13.2 with source upgrade 
> (installkernel & installworld).
> Then I run "etcupdate" (about 100 changes listed, mainly U and A, only 2 
> C), "etcupdate resolve" to solve conflicts in newsyslog.conf and 
> sshd_config, then "etcupdate status" to be sure everything is OK, it 
> just said: "Modified regular file remains: /etc/motd"
>
> After this I updated bootcode with gpart and rebooted the machine but it 
> does not come up, cannot login via ssh. Accessing this remote machine 
> with remote mamagement / IPMI was a nightmare. It took me almost 5 hours 
> because of java etc. but it's a different story.
>
> The machine in question is all ZFS based.

Ouch. I don’t wish java remote console on anybody. I have heard a very small number of vaguely similar complaints but nothing concrete.

Do you still have the zfs snapshot this was upgraded from? It would be good to know if this issue is reproducible, and even better to work out what’s happening.

Please log a PR for this issue

Dave