Unsuccessful Software Update :-(

[Ashley Aitken]

Howdy All,

It seems I am up the creek without a paddle.

I have had an unsuccessful software update of Mac OS X Server (10.4.6  
to 10.4.9).  It has left the machine without a whole lot of system  
files (I believe).  It can boot until the boot startup / progress bar  
screen but it stops there.  Interestingly the mail server seems to  
continue to work but the Web server doesn't.  I can't connect with  
Server Admin or login to the machine directly (since there is no  
login screen) or remotely (it will accept the ssh but the password  
doesn't work).

I tried a safe boot, booting without extensions, zapping the PRAM  
etc, but nothing helped.  Finally I booted into single user mode and  
tried to run softwareupdate (to see if the update had succeeded).  It  
won't run because parts of the Security.framework are missing.   
Similarly, the system.log says that parts of the servermgr are  
missing (image missing from framework).  So, as mentioned above, it  
seems as though the update didn't complete successfully (for some  
reason).

I have the OS on a different partition from the user data and other  
files.  However, there is a lot of stuff still embedded in the OS  
volume (eg databases, configuration files).  I back up the user data  
partition but I haven't backed up the OS (silly me, I guess, since  
all of those configuration files are embedded therein I should  
have).  Any suggestions on what I should do next?  Can I recover this  
partition, or do I need to do a fresh install (on another partition)  
and scavenge old data?

It would be nice if I could just run softwareupdate again on this  
partition (the receipts file for 10.4.9 isn't there) and hopefully  
this time complete the update.  The corrupted system itself won't let  
me do that.  Unfortunately, the OS volume is on a SCSI disk and  
doesn't show up in TDM, so I can't boot from another machine.  I  
don't believe the OS X Server install disk will allow me to run  
softwareupdate on another partition but I guess I will try that first.

Any other suggestions, or tips or hints, most appreciated.

Cheers,
Ashley.

--
Ashley Aitken
Perth, Western Australia
mrhatken at mac dot com
Skype Name: MrHatken (GMT + 8 Hours!)