Skip to content

Troubleshooting

Alex Stoyanov edited this page Apr 17, 2026 · 8 revisions

Troubleshooting

If something fails, start here and change one variable at a time.

Fast Triage

  • Confirm you are using one backup set only.
  • Confirm the current flags with ethernity <command> --help.
  • Keep original inputs unchanged while troubleshooting.
  • Retry with the simplest possible input path before making wider changes.

If this is an active incident, start with Recovery Incident Runbook.

The Three Most Common Operator Mistakes

  1. Mixing artifacts from different backup sets.
  2. Copying payload or fallback text through tools that wrap or alter lines.
  3. Troubleshooting with production data before the basic workflow has ever passed with test data.

Common Symptoms And Quick Fixes

Symptom Likely cause First thing to try
No such option stale command example run ethernity <command> --help
payload text decode fails wrapped or altered payload lines re-export clean payload lines or switch to --scan
fallback parse fails damaged or wrapped fallback text re-copy the source text exactly
auth verification fails missing or wrong auth material add the correct --auth-* inputs from the same set
restore output looks wrong mixed inputs or wrong target state retry with one known-good set and compare against a trusted source
macOS blocks execution quarantine or local policy verify the release first, then apply the local unblock steps from Release Artifacts

When To Stop And Escalate

Pause and escalate if you see any of these:

  • repeated parse or conflict failures with known-good artifacts
  • signer or trust mismatches you cannot explain
  • provenance verification failures for release binaries
  • restored output that still disagrees with a trusted reference after a clean retry

Related

Clone this wiki locally