zfs discuss - Nov 2008 - 2008.11 rc2 weird zpool import behaviour

Hello,
after installing 2008.11 and accidently locking up the administrative account by
giving it userid=0, I cannot login to our machine (only role based access
allowed).
So I tried it the usual way: boot from 2008.11 live-cd, then ''zpool
import -f -R /a rpool''
or  ''zpool import -f -R /a 23532453453 root_pool''  (tried both
variants, id is fake).

The weird effect is that, although zfs list shows that rpool/ROOT/opensolaris is
mounted
on /a, I can only see a few directories (/a/export/home/,/a/rpool), but no files
at all, and
also not the usual root directories ! So no way to change /a/etc/shadow and 
/a/etc/passwd.
Booting again  from the disk, everything is fine (except no login possible...).

What''s going on here ? A rc2 bug ? Any other ways to get the pool into
a usable state ?
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

I found I had to set the mount point property for the rpool/ROOT/opensolaris
filesystem; zfs mount it and do the edits and then unmount and reset the mount
point property back to root (I made the mistake of messing up the user_attr
file).


Udo Grabowski wrote:
> Hello,
> after installing 2008.11 and accidently locking up the administrative
account by
> giving it userid=0, I cannot login to our machine (only role based access
allowed).
> So I tried it the usual way: boot from 2008.11 live-cd, then
''zpool import -f -R /a rpool''
> or  ''zpool import -f -R /a 23532453453 root_pool''  (tried
both variants, id is fake).
> 
> The weird effect is that, although zfs list shows that
rpool/ROOT/opensolaris is mounted
> on /a, I can only see a few directories (/a/export/home/,/a/rpool), but no
files at all, and
> also not the usual root directories ! So no way to change /a/etc/shadow and
> /a/etc/passwd.
> Booting again  from the disk, everything is fine (except no login
possible...).
> 
> What''s going on here ? A rc2 bug ? Any other ways to get the pool
into a usable state ?

Am I right in thinking that it hadn''t mounted the pool, but a directory
of the same name was there?
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

Tried setting the mountpoint explicitly already, gives exactly the same 
behaviour.  There wasn''t a directory of the same name (tried with /a
existing
and /a not existing before the import/mountpoint setting), and zpool status
and zfs list show exactly what is expected. But only the mountpoints under /a
and a few of the subdirectories there appear, not a single file. zpool status
before the
import was empty, so no duplicate rpool. Tried setting mountpoint to legacy
and mounted by hand somewhere, exactly the same strange appearance.
We''ve root on zfs over a year now with SXDE 01/08 (fiddled at lot with
zfs to get it
running before it was officially possible), and never have seen such a
behaviour.
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

Udo Grabowski wrote:
> Tried setting the mountpoint explicitly already, gives exactly the same 
> behaviour.  There wasn''t a directory of the same name (tried with
/a existing
> and /a not existing before the import/mountpoint setting), and zpool status
> and zfs list show exactly what is expected. But only the mountpoints under
/a
> and a few of the subdirectories there appear, not a single file. zpool
status before the
> import was empty, so no duplicate rpool. Tried setting mountpoint to legacy
> and mounted by hand somewhere, exactly the same strange appearance.
> We''ve root on zfs over a year now with SXDE 01/08 (fiddled at lot
with zfs to get it
> running before it was officially possible), and never have seen such a
behaviour.
That is odd - I just went through it here on a virtualbox system:

o boot from the iso image
o fire up an terminal window and did the following:
	zpool import -f rpool
o cd /rpool and this only shows two directories for boot and etc	
o zfs set mountpoint=/foo rpool/ROOT/opensolaris
o zfs mount rpool/ROOT/opensolaris
o ls /foo and all the pieces are there

Is this what you are doing ? Note /foo did not exist.

ta
pete

Ok, your procedure differs slightly from what I''ve done:
zfs import -f rpool
zfs set mountpoint=/a rpool/ROOT/opensolaris
ls -l /a

Setting mountpoint AND explicitly mounting indeed gives the files back !

I didn''t mount it explicitly after setting mountpoint to /a, since it
used to be
mounted automatically then, also mounted via ''mount -F zfs
rpool/ROOT/opensolaris /a'',
but with setting mountpoint of opensolaris to legacy.
Doesn''t it automatically mount when mountpoint is set any longer ? Or
is
this behaviour a consequence of the mount failure on import when it tries
to mount over / ?

Thanks a lot for the hints, you saved my day !
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

Udo Grabowski wrote:
> Ok, your procedure differs slightly from what I''ve done:
> zfs import -f rpool
> zfs set mountpoint=/a rpool/ROOT/opensolaris
> ls -l /a
> 
> Setting mountpoint AND explicitly mounting indeed gives the files back !
> 
> I didn''t mount it explicitly after setting mountpoint to /a, since
it used to be
> mounted automatically then, also mounted via ''mount -F zfs
rpool/ROOT/opensolaris /a'',
> but with setting mountpoint of opensolaris to legacy.
> Doesn''t it automatically mount when mountpoint is set any longer ?
Or is
> this behaviour a consequence of the mount failure on import when it tries
> to mount over / ?
I suspect that is the reason - simply because all the other filesystems 
are mounted (well in my case anyway).
> 
> Thanks a lot for the hints, you saved my day !
Great stuff.