Topic: *** THERE ARE UNACTIVATED CHANGES - QUIT ANYWAY? ***

[Sergei Slobodov]

The above message is what I got after modifying some harmless user account settings. There is NO suggestion how to recover whatsoever. Here is the full text:

e-smith server and gateway 4.1    Copyright (c) 1999-2001 e-smith, inc.




  lqqqqqqqqqu *** THERE ARE UNACTIVATED CHANGES - QUIT ANYWAY? *** tqqqqqqqqqk
  x                                                                          x
  x There are unactivated configuration changes. Quitting now means the      x
  x e-smith templates have not been expanded with the current settings.      x
  x This may result in unpredictable system behavior.                        x
  x                                                                          x
  x Are you sure you want to quit now?                                       x
  x                                                                          x
  x                                                                          x
  x                                                                          x
  x                                                                          x
  x                                                                x
  x                                                                          x
  mqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqj


Sorry e-smith guys, but this is NOT the way to do error handling. I can't exit the session now, for fear of "unpredictable system behavior", I can't find a way to fix the problem, because it's unclear what's gone wrong.

What is a poor me to do?

Thanks,
Sergei Slobodov

[Jason Miller]

> The above message is what I got after modifying some harmless user account settings. There is NO suggestion how to recover whatsoever. Here is the full text:

What configuration parameters did you edit and how?  This message is indicative that you have edited a configuration value (/home/e-smith/configuration) either:

a) Through the console without ever finishing going the whole way through.

b) Running /sbin/e-smith/db configuration [etc, etc.]

c) Custom changes (i.e. installing a contributed module)

You should only be able to see this if you have not completed your configuration or have not signaled the appropriate events following doing development work using the db-tools.  Or, potentially from installing a custom package which doesn't completely/correctly finish its job of setting values, re-expanding templates and running the required events.

If you're in the console, complete the configuration changes by going all the way through to the end, and let it save its configuration changes.  This automatically signals the appropriate events (usually just console-save) which then re-expand templates based on the new values and restart services.

If you got to this screen without one of the above methods - please report to bugs@e-smith.com so that we can have a chance to verify it and post an appropriate fix.

> Sorry e-smith guys, but this is NOT the way to do error handling. I can't exit the session now, for fear of "unpredictable system behavior", I can't find a way to fix the problem, because it's unclear what's gone wrong.

This is a design philosophy, not error handling.  The design says:

1. set the configuration values
2. expand the appropriate templates
3. run the appropriate events to restart the required services

If done through the console configuration or the e-smith manager, these things will happen automatically for you.

> What is a poor me to do?

1. Report what changes you made to the configuration values and how you made them.

2. Post your findings to bugs@e-smith.com if you think there is something broken with the e-smith software.

3. Report to documentation@e-smith.com if you feel that the error message about "unsaved/unactivated changes" is not detailed enough to describe how to fix the problem.

[Sergei Slobodov]

Jason Miller wrote:

> What configuration parameters did you edit and how?  This

I have changed user email setting from "forward" to "forward and store locally" then pressed "save", then, after getting a response, "q" to quit lynx. I have no custom packages, I have not touched command line tools, and repeating the change to user settings does not fix the problem. Sounds like a bug to me.

> This is a design philosophy, not error handling.  The design
> says:
>
> 1. set the configuration values
> 2. expand the appropriate templates
> 3. run the appropriate events to restart the required services
>
> If done through the console configuration or the e-smith
> manager, these things will happen automatically for you.

Well, they didn't, so this is an error handling due to likely a bug in the console config tool.

>
> > What is a poor me to do?
>
> 1. Report what changes you made to the configuration values
> and how you made them.
>
> 2. Post your findings to bugs@e-smith.com if you think there
> is something broken with the e-smith software.
>
> 3. Report to documentation@e-smith.com if you feel that the
> error message about "unsaved/unactivated changes" is not
> detailed enough to describe how to fix the problem.

I must have not made myself clear... I was wondering what do I do to RECOVER from the error, not how I assist e-smith. That would be the next step, once my system is back to normal.

And yes, I feel that the error handler is missing one crucial part: a button that says "expand templates now".


Regards,
Sergei

[Michael Maxwell]

Sergei Slobodov wrote:

> I have changed user email setting from "forward" to "forward
> and store locally" then pressed "save", then, after getting a
> response, "q" to quit lynx. I have no custom packages, I have
> not touched command line tools, and repeating the change to
> user settings does not fix the problem. Sounds like a bug to
> me.

Maybe you sould read the e-smith manual 4 or 5 times...

"This is not a BUG"

Onec you have saved your changes in the e-smith-manager under LYNX which you got access to via the admin console its saved..... "No Need To save It In The Admin Console Too"

[Jason Miller]

Sergei Slobodov wrote:

> I have changed user email setting from "forward" to "forward and store locally" then pressed "save", then, after getting a response, "q" to quit lynx. I have no custom packages, I have not
  touched command line tools, and repeating the change to user settings does not fix the problem. Sounds like a bug to me.

That does sound a lot like a bug.  I've taken the liberty to forward your message to bugs@e-smith.com so that it can be looked into and, if necessary, post a fix.  I'm uncertain what version of the software you are running but suspect that the problem likely exists in 4.1/4.1.1/4.1.2.

> I must have not made myself clear... I was wondering what do I do to RECOVER from the error, not how I assist e-smith. That would be the next step, once my system is back to normal.

In the meantime, the easiest method to recover is to walk through the console configuration from start to finish, ensuring that the settings are still correct (hitting 'keep').  At the end it will ask if you wish to save the settings and will then automatically process the event console-save, thereby clearing the UnsavedChanges flag.

BTW, as an aside, you can see the problem as it occurs by looking in /var/log/messages.

i.e. grep UnsavedChanges /var/log/messages will return a number of results, but around the time of changing the user settings it will probably have something like:

Apr 22 13:10:38 cr402706-a /etc/e-smith/events/console-save/S95reset-unsavedflag[28329]: /home/e-smith/configuration: OLD UnsavedChanges=no
Apr 22 13:10:38 cr402706-a /etc/e-smith/events/console-save/S95reset-unsavedflag[28329]: /home/e-smith/configuration: NEW UnsavedChanges=yes

Once your machine has been recovered, could you please send /var/log/messages to bugs@e-smith.com so that we can easily find a solution and post a fix?  

Thanks for the report.

Regards,

Jay

[Sergei Slobodov]

Thanks, Jay. That helped. I hope the problem is reproduceable. I'll send the log shortly.

Again, my suggestion would be to add the "expand templates" option as a button to the "unactivated changes" screen or as a menu item to the main screen.

Regards,
Sergei Slobodov