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Binary PostgreSQL installer broken when used on RedHat EL5.3 / Dell PowerEdge 2950: Hangs server reboot.

This is a very quick post that would hopefully save someone else hours of hitting the head on the wall like I did. If you are installing RedHat Enterprise Server 5.2/5.2 x86_64 on Dell PowerEdge server, be aware of the following issue with PostgreSQL binary installer offered by EnterpriseDB.
After installation the server is unable to cleanly shutdown due to the fact that the binary installer does some voodoo with libtermcap - basically making this system library be used from inside postgres installation folder. Because of this, kernel can not umount /usr (or whenever your PostgreSQL is installed) and hangs the shutdown.
Solution:
Build PostgreSQL from the sources. They are ahead in minor version number anyway.
Thanks.

Comments

Anonymous said…
They're probably using ldconfig. You could probably recover the box by booting a livecd, mounting the filesystem and removing the line from /etc/ld.so.conf or ld.so.d
Friday, February 06, 2009
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