Re: upgrade attempt
"Ben Scott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > kernel /vmlinuz-1.6.20-1.2944.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb > quiet irqpoll > > You've got a typo in the above. "1.6.20" should be "2.6.20". If > that's your actual kernel command (and not merely a transcription > error), that's your problem. You're right! Thanks! I don't know how that happened - I had no reason to edit that part of the command line. Though my vi skills are rusty, and I suppose I slipped up. I'll have to get emacs installed on that machine. I am amazed that I actually reported the kernel command line (transcribing my hand-written notes) accurately in my message. Thanks again! Of course, I still want the system to recognize a second SATA disk. > > "smartctl --all /dev/sda" reported: > > > > I was disappointed about this brand new drive not supporting SMART and > > decided to return it. > > You might need to tell smartctl the device is an ATA type: > > smartctl --device=ata --all /dev/sda I'll try that next. - Jim Van Zandt ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
System Recovery
What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and get a text display which states "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart GDM." This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage in linux... Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard drive and PCI errors. Good luck with it. mark On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and > get a text display which states > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart > GDM." > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage > in linux... > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > Bruce > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 10:34 -0400, Mark Greene wrote: > I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see > how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard > drive and PCI errors. i.e., insert Scientific Linux 5.2, CD1 (or DVD), and boot it like so: boot: linux rescue Does certainly sound like you've got a dedicated /var, and its been corrupted. Alternatively, you should also be able to boot into single-user mode and perform repairs from there. > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I > have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 > (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. > I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes > to complete > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X > mode and > get a text display which states > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set > to /var/gdm > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and > restart > GDM." > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk > - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed > ever since. > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it > that I can > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind > of carnage > in linux... > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > Bruce > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Thanks. It appears that I cannot descend into /var, but I can go into other root directories. What would be the recommended fsck options? #fsck -CV /var -n ? -Bruce From: Mark Greene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:34 AM To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org Cc: Labitt, Bruce Subject: Re: System Recovery I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard drive and PCI errors. Good luck with it. mark On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and get a text display which states "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart GDM." This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage in linux... Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
I have been able to log into root in cli mode. I tried fsck -cvfn /var and got Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /var. What does that mean? more importantly, what is the recommended course of action? -Bruce -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Labitt, Bruce Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:18 AM To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org Subject: System Recovery What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and get a text display which states "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart GDM." This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage in linux... Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Thanks Jarod. Hmm, I only have a 5.1 DVD right now. Will that work? Or do I have to create a 5.2 dvd on another machine? As for repairs they would be fsck? Thanks, Bruce -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jarod Wilson Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:57 AM To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org Subject: Re: System Recovery On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 10:34 -0400, Mark Greene wrote: > I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see > how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard > drive and PCI errors. i.e., insert Scientific Linux 5.2, CD1 (or DVD), and boot it like so: boot: linux rescue Does certainly sound like you've got a dedicated /var, and its been corrupted. Alternatively, you should also be able to boot into single-user mode and perform repairs from there. > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I > have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 > (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. > I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes > to complete > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X > mode and > get a text display which states > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set > to /var/gdm > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and > restart > GDM." > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk > - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed > ever since. > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it > that I can > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind > of carnage > in linux... > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > Bruce > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, July 15, 2008 10:18 am, Labitt, Bruce said: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. It sounds like the filesystem is thoroughly hosed. Based on the symptoms you describe, my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed K3b at your hard drive instead of the DVD drive. -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Yep, fsck would be the place to start. Look in /mnt/sysimage/etc/fstab to see what physical device /var is and fsck that bad boy. I'd start with just a simple 'fsck /dev/sdaX' and go from there. On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:12 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > Thanks Jarod. Hmm, I only have a 5.1 DVD right now. Will that work? > Or do I have to create a 5.2 dvd on another machine? > > As for repairs they would be fsck? > > Thanks, > Bruce > > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jarod > Wilson > Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:57 AM > To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > Subject: Re: System Recovery > > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 10:34 -0400, Mark Greene wrote: > > I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see > > how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard > > drive and PCI errors. > > i.e., insert Scientific Linux 5.2, CD1 (or DVD), and boot it like so: > > boot: linux rescue > > Does certainly sound like you've got a dedicated /var, and its been > corrupted. > > Alternatively, you should also be able to boot into single-user mode and > perform repairs from there. > > > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I > > have no idea > > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 > > (RHEL5.2). I > > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. > > I get a > > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes > > to complete > > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X > > mode and > > get a text display which states > > > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set > > to /var/gdm > > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and > > restart > > GDM." > > > > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk > > - if it > > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed > > ever since. > > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it > > that I can > > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind > > of carnage > > in linux... > > > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > > > Bruce > > > > ___ > > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > > > > > ___ > > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
It sure looks like k3b was involved. However, k3b only gave me the addresses for the two optical drives I have. ?? -Original Message- From: John Abreau [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 11:01 AM To: Labitt, Bruce Cc: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org Subject: Re: System Recovery On Tue, July 15, 2008 10:18 am, Labitt, Bruce said: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. It sounds like the filesystem is thoroughly hosed. Based on the symptoms you describe, my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed K3b at your hard drive instead of the DVD drive. -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
> my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed K3b at your > hard drive instead of the DVD drive. I'd think the damage would be much worse if that were the case, so my guess is that some b0rken kernel code (or maybe a HW problem) corrupted some memory that happened to correspond to metadata for /var and those bad data got written back to disk. In my experience fsck deals well with minor damage but throws in the towel pretty quickly when confronted with seriously b0rken metadata. Still, in most situations it's your only hope, unless you want to do (or more likely, pay for) some nasty by-hand salvage... :-/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
You need to give it a block device, not a file system path. i.e., you need to pass /dev/foo to fsck, not /var. On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > I have been able to log into root in cli mode. > > I tried fsck -cvfn /var and got > > Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while > trying to open /var. > > What does that mean? more importantly, what is the recommended course > of action? > > -Bruce > > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Labitt, > Bruce > Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:18 AM > To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > Subject: System Recovery > > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and > get a text display which states > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart > GDM." > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage > in linux... > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > Bruce > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:12 AM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks Jarod. Hmm, I only have a 5.1 DVD right now. Will that work? It should. The on-disk filesystem format is the same. I would definitely recommned booting from external media (DVD) and checking *all* the filesystems. There may be undetected corruption elsewhere on your disk. And you can't check the root filesystem of the running system. Initially, I would suggest "fsck -vfn" to see what the damage is like. Omit -c (badblocks) for now, that slows things considerably. Be sure to specific the actual device name, not the filesystem mount point. In other words, something like "fsck -vfn /dev/sda1" or whatever. On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while > trying to open /var. "short read" means fsck did a read()/fread() call for some number of bytes, but the kernel returned a smaller number of bytes. For example, maybe fsck attempt to read the the superblock (4096 bytes), but the kernel returned zero bytes. Causes of this that I've seen include: (1) Bad hardware. fsck requests a block, disk doesn't work, so kernel returns zero bytes to calling program. Check the kernel log (output of "dmesg") for clues. (2) Software bug in a disk controller driver. Basically the same as 1. (3) Severe filesystem corruption, such that the filesystem's data structures point to locations past the end of the actual disk. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
> I would definitely recommned booting from external media (DVD) > and checking *all* the filesystems. There may be undetected > corruption elsewhere on your disk. And you can't check the root > filesystem of the running system. Good advice. Note that you can sometimes manage to fsck even the root filesystem of a running system if you first say this: mount -oremount,ro / ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 15 Jul 2008, Michael ODonnell wrote: > > >> my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed K3b at your >> hard drive instead of the DVD drive. > > I'd think the damage would be much worse if that were the case, > so my guess is that some b0rken kernel code (or maybe a HW > problem) corrupted some memory that happened to correspond to > metadata for /var and those bad data got written back to disk. Perhaps. Or maybe k3b only started scribbling on the /var partition, then the machine rebooted when something critical in /var was stomped on. -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: >> Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while >> trying to open /var. On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You need to give it a block device, not a file system path. i.e., you > need to pass /dev/foo to fsck, not /var. I was wondering about that. While specifying the block device is certainly a good idea, if it was getting confused about what "/var" meant, fsck would generally emit a "/var: Is a directory" or "/var: Not a block device" sort of error. The "short read" message implies that fsck considered "/var" a mount point and resolved it to a block device. No? -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 12:28 PM, John Abreau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Perhaps. Or maybe k3b only started scribbling on the /var partition, then > the machine rebooted when something critical in /var was stomped on. Or maybe k3b thought /dev/sda3 (or whatever) was the block device to write to -- the partition block device, not the whole disk block device. Any which way you slice it (no pun intended), I think it's premature to be speculating about causes. We lack data. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:54 AM, Michael ODonnell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ... unless you want to do (or more likely, pay for) some > nasty by-hand salvage... :-/ That actually raises a good point: If this filesystem had valuable unique data on it, and you don't have backups, then you should stop what you're doing, shut off the power, pull the disk out of the system, and mail it off to a data recovery specialist. Misguided repair efforts can make salvage efforts harder or impossible. Such specialists charge hundreds or thousands of dollars, but that can be cheap in some situations. I've been assuming there's nothing that valuable on the disk in question, but we all know about assuming... -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Jul 15, 2008, at 11:01, John Abreau wrote: > It sounds like the filesystem is thoroughly hosed. Based on the > symptoms > you describe, my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed > K3b at > your hard drive instead of the DVD drive. Bruce, were you running k3b as root? We can save the scolding for later, but it would help to know what k3b could have conceivably done. e.g. If you were running as a normal user k3b couldn't have written to your /var partition, under normal circumstances. Also, dump your /etc/fstab up here to verify. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 13:42 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > >> Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while > >> trying to open /var. > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You need to give it a block device, not a file system path. i.e., you > > need to pass /dev/foo to fsck, not /var. > > I was wondering about that. While specifying the block device is > certainly a good idea, if it was getting confused about what "/var" > meant, fsck would generally emit a "/var: Is a directory" or "/var: > Not a block device" sort of error. The "short read" message implies > that fsck considered "/var" a mount point and resolved it to a block > device. No? If you're running from the rescue env, I don't think e2fsck knows to look in /mnt/sysimage/etc/fstab to resolve mount points, and if the rescue env auto-mounted /var, it would actually be at /mnt/sysimage/var, so I don't *think* it would work in that situation, but I certainly could be wrong. Now, if you're running from the actual system, fsck /mntpoint actually does definitely do the right thing and resolve to the correct block device, which admittedly, I didn't realize it did until I just checked on one of my own RHEL5 boxes here. :) # df -h /rhel4 FilesystemSize Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 31G 3.6G 26G 13% /rhel4 # fsck /rhel4 fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) e2fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) /dev/sda2 is mounted. WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause SEVERE filesystem damage. Do you really want to continue (y/n)? no check aborted. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Bill, I was running as a user. NOT root. #cat /etc/fstab /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00/ ext3defaults 1 1 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults1 2 tempfs /dev/shmtmpfs defaults 0 0 devpts /dev/ptsdevpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 sysfs /syssysfs defaults0 0 proc/proc proc defaults0 0 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01swapswapdefaults 0 0 /dev/lvol1/data /data ext3defaults 1 2 There maybe a typo in there, I had to copy it from one screen to another. I have a new disk that is used to create the /data directory. I will have my bladeserver os image and other stuff there. It appears I can access /data and its contents. I cannot access /var. How do I figure out what drive has what on it? sda, sdb, etc. Regards, Bruce -Original Message- From: Bill McGonigle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:48 PM To: Labitt, Bruce Cc: GNHLUG Group Subject: Re: System Recovery On Jul 15, 2008, at 11:01, John Abreau wrote: > It sounds like the filesystem is thoroughly hosed. Based on the > symptoms > you describe, my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed > K3b at > your hard drive instead of the DVD drive. Bruce, were you running k3b as root? We can save the scolding for later, but it would help to know what k3b could have conceivably done. e.g. If you were running as a normal user k3b couldn't have written to your /var partition, under normal circumstances. Also, dump your /etc/fstab up here to verify. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was running as a user. NOT root. Worrysome. Though, come to think of it, aren't some disc-recording types of programs normally installed SUID root? > There maybe a typo in there, I had to copy it from one screen to > another. For future reference, the only really important columns for this sort of thing are the first two, which specify the device and mount-point, respectively. Also, you can omitting virtual filesystems (proc, tmpfs, sysfs, etc.). So the short version is: LABEL=/boot /boot /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap /dev/lvol1/data /data That tells us you're using LVM, and that your /boot filesystem partition was being mounted via label. Unfortunately, that doesn't tell us anything about what's stored where. How many physical hard disk drives are part of this system? Are there any hardware RAID controllers or such in use? > It appears I can access /data and its contents. Appearances can be deceiving. Have you run fsck against /dev/lvol1/data yet? (Even that is far from perfect; if something scrambled just the contents of file data blocks but left the filesystem metadata structures intact, fsck won't see anything wrong. But best to start somewhere.) > How do I figure out what drive has what on it? > sda, sdb, etc. "fdisk -l /dev/sda" will show the partition table on the "sda" disk. Run that command as needed for all the disks in the system. "sda" will be the first SCSI, SATA, or other non-IDE device. The second would be "sdb", the third "sdc", and so on. IDE disks are "hda", "hdb", etc., instead. "pvs" and "lvs" will show you the physical and logical volumes LVM knows about. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 15:02 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Labitt, Bruce > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I was running as a user. NOT root. > > Worrysome. > > Though, come to think of it, aren't some disc-recording types of > programs normally installed SUID root? Yep. And k3b tends to complain loudly at startup if it isn't, iirc. > > There maybe a typo in there, I had to copy it from one screen to > > another. > > For future reference, the only really important columns for this > sort of thing are the first two, which specify the device and > mount-point, respectively. Also, you can omitting virtual filesystems > (proc, tmpfs, sysfs, etc.). So the short version is: > > LABEL=/boot /boot > /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / > /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap > /dev/lvol1/data /data > > That tells us you're using LVM, and that your /boot filesystem > partition was being mounted via label. Unfortunately, that doesn't > tell us anything about what's stored where. Well, it does say "there's no /var partition"... So I dunno wtf fsck was resolving to when he asked to fsck /var... -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
I just ran the SL5.2 CD1 and typed linux rescue. It ran a bunch of stuff and got to a colored (bright blue with red writing) display. It installed some ata_piix ?? stuff then back to black screen a long list of hex addresses? then install exited abnormally [1/1] sending termination signals...done sending kill signals...done disabling swap... /mnt/runtime done disabling /dev/loop0 /proc/bus/usb done /proc done /dev/pts done /sys done /tmp/ramfs done /mnt/source done you may safely reboot your system blinking cursor cntl-alt-del rebooted SOS. I did do a media check - it passes. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jarod Wilson Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 2:17 PM To: Ben Scott Cc: Greater NH Linux User Group Subject: Re: System Recovery On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 13:42 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > >> Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while > >> trying to open /var. > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You need to give it a block device, not a file system path. i.e., you > > need to pass /dev/foo to fsck, not /var. > > I was wondering about that. While specifying the block device is > certainly a good idea, if it was getting confused about what "/var" > meant, fsck would generally emit a "/var: Is a directory" or "/var: > Not a block device" sort of error. The "short read" message implies > that fsck considered "/var" a mount point and resolved it to a block > device. No? If you're running from the rescue env, I don't think e2fsck knows to look in /mnt/sysimage/etc/fstab to resolve mount points, and if the rescue env auto-mounted /var, it would actually be at /mnt/sysimage/var, so I don't *think* it would work in that situation, but I certainly could be wrong. Now, if you're running from the actual system, fsck /mntpoint actually does definitely do the right thing and resolve to the correct block device, which admittedly, I didn't realize it did until I just checked on one of my own RHEL5 boxes here. :) # df -h /rhel4 FilesystemSize Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 31G 3.6G 26G 13% /rhel4 # fsck /rhel4 fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) e2fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) /dev/sda2 is mounted. WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause SEVERE filesystem damage. Do you really want to continue (y/n)? no check aborted. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Network/Phone/Coax supply store
I'm thinking about doing some wiring of data, phone, and coax and want a rack to for all this stuff. I can find various parts but some don't appear to be for a rack unit. Is there a store locally that tailors to networks? I'm looking for cat6 plugs and patch panels. I would also like a RF distribution center since I also want to pull new coax there also. The thought would be the same, go to a patch panel, and then have some small patch cables from distribution amplifier to a patch panel and a patch panel for the drops and connect the two. I think a 16 port patch panel would suffice for it all. The current thinking is to pull 2 data, 1 phone and 1 coax for each drop. There will then be a drop that has 1 data and 1 phone. (but might have more cables in the outlet.) Is there one store were I could get about a 6U swinging rack, cat6 patch panel, cat6 spools, cat6 plugs, and then coax plugs and patch panel or pluggable patch panel? Dan ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 16:25 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > I just ran the SL5.2 CD1 and typed linux rescue. It ran a bunch of > stuff and got to a colored (bright blue with red writing) display. It > installed some ata_piix ?? It loaded the ata_piix module, as it detected you had a controller driven by it. > stuff then back to black screen a long list > of hex addresses? then > > install exited abnormally [1/1] > sending termination signals...done > sending kill signals...done > disabling swap... > /mnt/runtime done > disabling /dev/loop0 > /proc/bus/usb done > /proc done > /dev/pts done > /sys done > /tmp/ramfs done > /mnt/source done > you may safely reboot your system Ew, that sounds... bad. Although it sounds like it didn't actually go into the rescue env. but rather tried to install, based on the "install exited abnormally" message. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
new additions to Library
PHP, MySQL and Apache Dojo Using the Dojo Javascript Library to build Ajax Applications -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp DLSLUG/GNHLUG library http://dlslug.org/library.html http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dlslug http://www.librarything.com/rsshtml/recent/dlslug http://www.librarything.com/rss/recent/dlslug ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Network/Phone/Coax supply store
On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:21:55 -0400, Dan Miller wrote: > Is there one store were I could get about a 6U swinging rack, cat6 > patch panel, cat6 spools, cat6 plugs, and then coax plugs and patch > panel or pluggable patch panel? Check out LightYear Cable in Manchester, (603) 647-5920. http://www.lightyearcable.com They have a slew of products beyond what the website shows, so it's probably best to just give them a call; ask for Bill Tickler. HTH! -- Bill Mullen RLU #270075 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
How many physical hard disk drives are part of this system? [Labitt, Bruce] Two. The first drive 80GB has the system on it. Are there any hardware RAID controllers or such in use?[Labitt, Bruce] no. > It appears I can access /data and its contents. Appearances can be deceiving. Have you run fsck against /dev/lvol1/data yet? [Labitt, Bruce] no. actually there is no data worth anything there. (Even that is far from perfect; if something scrambled just the contents of file data blocks but left the filesystem metadata structures intact, fsck won't see anything wrong. But best to start somewhere.) > How do I figure out what drive has what on it? > sda, sdb, etc. "fdisk -l /dev/sda" will show the partition table on the "sda" disk. Run that command as needed for all the disks in the system. [Labitt, Bruce] I'll try that, once I get thru the 'boot' sequence again... sda 80GB: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders Device bootStart End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux /dev/sda2 14 972678019672+ 8e Linux LVM sdb 300GB: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders /dev/sdb1 1 36481 293033601 83 Linux "sda" will be the first SCSI, SATA, or other non-IDE device. The second would be "sdb", the third "sdc", and so on. IDE disks are "hda", "hdb", etc., instead. "pvs" and "lvs" will show you the physical and logical volumes LVM knows about. [Labitt, Bruce] response for both commands /var/lock: mkdir failed: Not a directory Locking type 1 initialization failed. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
I'm thinking at this point perhaps I should detach the problem 80GB disk and fresh install 5.2 on the 300GB disk. Afterwards I could attach the old 80GB disk and see if I can extract anything. Does this sound like it would be the safest course of action at this point? -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jarod Wilson Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 5:26 PM To: Greater NH Linux User Group Subject: RE: System Recovery On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 16:25 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > I just ran the SL5.2 CD1 and typed linux rescue. It ran a bunch of > stuff and got to a colored (bright blue with red writing) display. It > installed some ata_piix ?? It loaded the ata_piix module, as it detected you had a controller driven by it. > stuff then back to black screen a long list > of hex addresses? then > > install exited abnormally [1/1] > sending termination signals...done > sending kill signals...done > disabling swap... > /mnt/runtime done > disabling /dev/loop0 > /proc/bus/usb done > /proc done > /dev/pts done > /sys done > /tmp/ramfs done > /mnt/source done > you may safely reboot your system Ew, that sounds... bad. Although it sounds like it didn't actually go into the rescue env. but rather tried to install, based on the "install exited abnormally" message. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm thinking at this point perhaps I should detach the problem 80GB disk > and fresh install 5.2 on the 300GB disk. That is likely to be the easiest way. At the very least, it will make trouble-shooting the problem disk a lot easier, since you'll have a working, running system to trouble-shoot it with. You can get on the web, copy-and-paste output, etc., rather than running from a rescue environment. Alternatively, you could take the problem disk and attach it to a different, working, running system and trouble-shoot it, if you want to reserve the 300 GB disk for organizational purposes (e.g., 80 GB "system disk", 300 GB "data disk"). -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Right now, I don't have another working running system (linux) at work. I don't have a problem with a fresh start, (time to recreate everything is a pain) except that I have no idea what really hosed me to begin with. That is the part that is scary... Bruce -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ben Scott Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 6:26 PM To: Greater NH Linux User Group Subject: Re: System Recovery On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm thinking at this point perhaps I should detach the problem 80GB disk > and fresh install 5.2 on the 300GB disk. That is likely to be the easiest way. At the very least, it will make trouble-shooting the problem disk a lot easier, since you'll have a working, running system to trouble-shoot it with. You can get on the web, copy-and-paste output, etc., rather than running from a rescue environment. Alternatively, you could take the problem disk and attach it to a different, working, running system and trouble-shoot it, if you want to reserve the 300 GB disk for organizational purposes (e.g., 80 GB "system disk", 300 GB "data disk"). -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Labitt, Bruce
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> It installed some ata_piix ?? stuff
That's the driver module for your motherboard's SATA adapter.
Normal. (The name is vestigial; "PIIX" was some old Intel IDE
controller chipset, circa 1995.)
> then back to black screen a long list of hex addresses?
Sounds like a kernel crash ("oops"). Abnormal. It's not a good
sign that it happened during initialization of the rescue environment.
That suggests you may have a low-level hardware fault, like some bad
RAM.
-- Ben
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Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:25 PM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ew, that sounds... bad. Although it sounds like it didn't actually go > into the rescue env. but rather tried to install, based on the "install > exited abnormally" message. I think part of the "installer" is still in charge of setting up the rescue environment (loading drivers, detecting disks, filesystems, networks, etc.), so that might not be conclusive. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Network/Phone/Coax supply store
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:21 PM, Dan Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Is there a store locally that tailors to networks? Define "locally". The usual suspects are Graybar, Anixter, and Wesco. I know there are branches in the greater NH area. I can also say SmartHome (http://www.smarthome.com) has some useful and hard-to-find stuff tailored towards DIY home tech, but they're mail-order only. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 6:41 PM, Labitt, Bruce
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I don't have a problem with a fresh start ... except that I have
> no idea what really hosed me to begin with.
Yah, me too. If you're going to be wiping things clean anyway, you
may want to run some basic confidence tests on the system. I suggest:
Test the RAM. Run MemTest86 overnight (with all tests enabled if
that's an option). You can get bootable ISO and floppy images for it.
It's also included as a boot option for some distro install CDs (I
know Ubuntu has it).
Run a destructive write test on the disk. (WARNING: This will
*DESTROY ALL DATA* on the disk.) Boot a working rescue/install CD and
get a shell prompt, and then run "badblocks -s -v -w /dev/foo", where
"foo" is the name of the whole-disk device ("hda", "sda", whatever).
(WARNING: This will *DESTROY ALL DATA* on the disk.) When done, check
the kernel log ("dmesg") for any I/O or disk errors.
-- Ben
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Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 3:26 PM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 15:02 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Labitt, Bruce > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I was running as a user. NOT root. > > > > Worrysome. > > > > Though, come to think of it, aren't some disc-recording types of > > programs normally installed SUID root? > > Yep. And k3b tends to complain loudly at startup if it isn't, iirc. > I think k3b will refuse to run if it's run SUID. I think I tried it once & it compained. My Fedora 9 and Ubuntu systems do not have it SUID. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 18:43 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:25 PM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ew, that sounds... bad. Although it sounds like it didn't actually go > > into the rescue env. but rather tried to install, based on the "install > > exited abnormally" message. > > I think part of the "installer" is still in charge of setting up the > rescue environment (loading drivers, detecting disks, filesystems, > networks, etc.), so that might not be conclusive. Its all the same bring-up bits, but passing in the 'rescue' flag should replace all "installer" strings with "rescue environment", iirc. When start up, you generally see "welcome to anaconda, the red hat enterprise linux rescue environment" versus when doing an install, where you get "welcome to anaconda, the red hat enterprise linux installer". Could be I'm mis-remembering something and/or that particular string doesn't get replaced... -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 19:28 -0400, Tom Buskey wrote: > > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 3:26 PM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 15:02 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Labitt, Bruce > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I was running as a user. NOT root. > > > > Worrysome. > > > > Though, come to think of it, aren't some disc-recording > types of > > programs normally installed SUID root? > > > Yep. And k3b tends to complain loudly at startup if it isn't, > iirc. > > I think k3b will refuse to run if it's run SUID. I think I tried it > once & it compained. > My Fedora 9 and Ubuntu systems do not have it SUID. Correction: k3b complains if cdrecord isn't suid. Or at least it used to. That might be remedied now. Haven't actually used k3b in some time. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tuesday 15 July 2008 19:08, Ben Scott wrote:
> Run a destructive write test on the disk. (WARNING: This will
> *DESTROY ALL DATA* on the disk.) Boot a working rescue/install CD
> and get a shell prompt, and then run "badblocks -s -v -w /dev/foo",
> where "foo" is the name of the whole-disk device ("hda", "sda",
> whatever). (WARNING: This will *DESTROY ALL DATA* on the disk.)
Curious. Why not use the non-destructive badblocks write option -n?
Jim Kuzdrall
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Re: System Recovery
On 7/15/08, Jim Kuzdrall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Curious. Why not use the non-destructive badblocks write option -n? Background: The "non-destructive write test" goes through the disk, one block at a time, reading the existing contents into memory, then writing and reading test patterns on that block, then writing out the saved contents again. The "destructive write test" writes a test pattern to every block on the disk, then reads/compares, then repeats for each successive test pattern. So, my reasoning: First, the extra I/O to preserve the existing contents slows things down significantly. If you're wiping the disk anyway that's a waste of time. Second, because the destructive test writes the pattern to the entire disk before reading anything, if there's anything weird going on with caching or bleed-over or whatever horror story you can dream up, it's more likely to flush it out. Finally, the destructive test leaves every block on the disk zeroed, which clears out any residual traces of anything that might confuse the installer during the reinstall. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On 7/15/08, Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Yah, me too. If you're going to be wiping things clean anyway, you > may want to run some basic confidence tests on the system. I suggest: Oh, and if your computer hardware OEM/VAR/etc provides any diagnostics, run those, too. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On 7/15/08, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Its all the same bring-up bits, but passing in the 'rescue' flag should > replace all "installer" strings with "rescue environment" ... Could be > ... that particular string doesn't get replaced... Google results lead me to believe that is the case. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
[GNHLUG] BBS: The Documentary - Hampton - Wed July 16/23/30
What : BBS - The Documentary film Where: HoloDek, Hampton, NH Dates: Wed July 9, 16, 23, 30 Time : 7:00 PM The Ubuntu Local Community Team of NH is presenting "BBS: The Documentary", as a four-part film series, Wednesdays evenings throughout July. The documentary covers the history of BBSes -- dial-up computer Bulletin Board Systems -- and the culture and community which formed around them. BBSes were entirely individually operated, each with unique features and character. The FidoNet network which linked them together spanned the global and was entirely run by volunteers. Unlike the Internet, it had no government or university funding to get it started, yet at its peak it numbered over 40,000 nodes. Before Internet access became so ubiquitous in the US, BBSes were often the only way for private individuals to "network". Come remember or learn about these fascinating times. "BBS: The Documentary" (http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/) was released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike license, allowing anyone to copy or present the film. The NH Ubuntu LoCo will be showing it at HoloDek, in Hampton. Unfortunately, this notice goes out after the first session, but the remaining three are still upcoming. There is a $3 cover charge. Free Ubuntu discs will be given out. July 9 - "Baud" - The beginning of the BBS scene July 16 - "Sysops and Users" - Stories from the people July 23 - "Fidonet" - The largest volunteer-run network July 30 - "Artscene" - Soceity where art was the currency HoloDek (http://www.holo-dek.com/) is a computer gaming center/cafe/theater. Their website shows some pretty cool looking facilities, including a full-immersion spherical projection system. HoloDek 8 Merrill Industrial Drive Hampton, NH ___ gnhlug-announce mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-announce/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
