Re: Help w/ Not-booting Problem

From: Ken Loomis (kloomis_at_notarealaddress.com)
Date: 08/31/03 

Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 01:28:00 -0400

Peter:

Thanks for your reply. Please see inline response.

On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 06:31:44 +0200, "Peter T. Breuer"
<ptb@oboe.it.uc3m.es> wrote:

>Ken Loomis <kloomis@notarealaddress.com> wrote:

> Telling you to "open the door" does not presuppose a
>millimetric exposition of the position of your feet and hands at every
>moment, partciularly when we can't know where your door is, what colour
>it is, or what height the handle is at, or how else it may open.
>
To someone who has not encountered a door before it could be daunting.
Read the Design of Everyday Things. Some doors are confusing.

>>>> Can't boot beyond hostname:
>>>You don't want to. What is your real problem?
>
>> Are you saying that setting the hostname is the last event in the boot
>
>No - setting the hostname is one element in the boot process. However I
>took you to mean by the above ("can't boot beyond hostname") instead
>that you arrive at a shell or login prompt containing the hostname,
>which would be correct. Be precise, please.
>

Now, who's demanding precision?

>What is the real problem?
>
>> process? Previously the system has always gone to Gnome (or a prompt
>> I believe.)
>
>Are you saying that you always used to get an X login screen or a text
>login prompt, and now you get neither?
>
>Or are you saying that the boot process hangs somewhere along the way?
>Well, tell us where it hangs.

 I have had a working system of RedHat Linux 7.2 for several months.
Suddenly I cannot reboot.

I boot into Grub. I can get as far as
setting hostname: localhost.localdomain

If I issue a Ctrl-C I get a couple of more lines further to
 Bringing up interface lo:
and then the system hangs.

An intermediate message is:
 /etc/rc.d/rc: /var/run/runlevel.dir: read-only file system

 I have googled this message and there is some history of it with
Linux 7.2. but the threads don't indicate any resolution.

>Better yet - you look where it hangs, run
>the script concerned by hand, and see what's up.
>
This is beyond my capability at this point

>>>I am not psychic. You tell me what's wrong and I may be able to offer
>>>a suggestion as to how to go about tackling it.
>
>> Earlier post laid out the problem.
>
>This is usenet. I don't see "earlier posts".
>
Doesn't your newsreader thread?

>> 0. Apache and SSL [were] working fine for several months.
>> 1. Yesterday [I] couldn't get into [the] Apache Web server.
>
> Are other people experiencing the same problem? Are you
>saying that the web server is not running? Those would be
>(respectively) reliable evidence of malaise, and a fact.
>
I don't know if others could not get in. I attempted to solve the
problem before others might experience it.
>
>> 2.[I] refreshed the router, [I] still couldn't get in.
>
>Doesn't mean anything as a phrase to me. What router? Nobody mentioned
>a router. Why do you have a router and how is it involved in your
>network?

The router sits behind a cable modem and leads to a hub off of which
the Linux box runs.

>
>> 3. tried to reboot the machine. It hung at setting hostname.
>
>Oh!!!!!! You are saying that it looks up its own IP address via an
>external DNS server on an adsl router! Why don't you say so!
>Well, don't do that. Give it a proper hostname with a FQDN and
>put it in /etc/hosts. Something like:
>
> 127.0.0.2 nutty.farm.house nutty
>
>and set your hostname to "nutty". Don't look it up over the net!
>You probably have changed IP or something like that, and previously
>you had your old IP engraved in stone somewhere.
>

It set the host name OK. Then the system hung on the next line without
a prompt.

I never changed the IP address. At some point a while back the Linux
box name got changed to localhost (not by any deliberate human means),
which I was not happy about. The directions I found to rename it were
quite convoluted and I never got to it.

>I believe you are saying that you can't look up your own hostname by
>inverse DNS resolution over the net from an external dns server. Is
>that correct?
>
I don't think so. I plugged a Windows notebook with Apache and SSL
into where the Linux box was and it works fine. The IP address for
users is the address of the modem. The IP address of the Linux box is
a DHCP address assigned by the router. Outside users can get in fine.
I usually get to the Apache server by going out to an outside site
that links to the Linux/Apache server.

>Maybe the external dns server has changed IP. Maybe you have. Tell us
>about your networking.
>
The notebook stand-in works fine.

>
>No, you're not taking enough trouble with the system.

I know, I know, I wish I could devote more time, but there are a lot
of other demands on my time.

>> read what I could regarding Linux, I'd love to learn more, but there
>> are not just not enough hours in the day to devote to it.
>
>It takes no time! What you are saying is that you are so technically
>challenged that it takes YOU hours to figure out anything. That doesn't
>apply to anyone else. It takes the rest of us no time at all, since we
>have normal technical intelligence, and "open the door" is not something
>that we need to "study" in order to do.
>
I'm sure that a considerable amount of study has gotten you to where
you are.

>> Ironically, I had planned on spending this weekend figuring out how to
>> upgrade Apache and SSL.
>
>Don't. Just do it. It's not a job that requires thinking or
>intelligence. Install a new apache compiled with support for ssl.
>Check that it works at least as well as old. End of story.

I haven't been able to get the RPM to work. It keeps crapping out
when it hits the net, but that's an issue for another day.

>
>You appear to have a networking problem. Probably external. Probably
>caused by misconfigured networking in the first place, and exposed by a
>change in IP address either of your dns server or of your own IP
>address.
>
>The simplest fix is to give yourself a hostname and a resolution
>mechanism that do not rely on external sources. Fin.
>
>But your netconfig is fscked anyway, and you want to hire someone
>competent to set up your network instead of breaking your
>insufficiently qualified head for hours on the mundane details of
>common or garden networking.
>

My network was lovely until XP came along. I agree that I can't
afford to focus too much on it. However, I have about a hundred users
who need to get access to this server.

Let me ask you this. If I unplug the Linux box from the network, why
won't it boot?

Ken

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