If you can get sshd running, or some other file server, you could try to pull the data off that computer and onto another. It might be less failure prone than doing it on the local machine.
-Matt On 10/16/05, Aloomis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have a Compaq Evo N600c laptop which I've been running debian on for > a year or two. Other than some quirky behavior on suspend, it's worked > fine. Recently it started occaisionally kernel panicking when I leave > it on a soft surface turned on overnight or so. I figured this was > probably heat. The last time it did this however, it wouldn't boot up > again. It would get to running ntpdate (which I expected to fail due to > lack of network connection) and just sit there forever. I tried booting > with init set to /bin/sh. I could run one command but would never get > the prompt back, even if the command was ls. I then figured out that if > I made my one command "bash" I could then run other stuff under bash. > However, occasionally I'd run something (even something mundane like ls) > and it wouldn't return me to a prompt. I tried running memtest for > several hours and it didn't find anything. I booted from a redhat > rescue disk and mounted my drives. Same deal. Periodic strange > behavior from processes that seem to just get stuck. (such as running > sshd, having it exchange some info with the other side and then just > stop responding to it). > I tried "while /bin/true; do ls && sleep 1;done". That just keeps > running, but I can't stop it. I finally booted redhat's rescue cd, > didn't mount my drives (so I know they can't be the issue), and ran > python2.4. I tried ctrl-c and got no response. Same for ctrl-d. The c > char on the keyboard works, and ctrl-c got me out of python. > I've tried backgrounding a sleep 500000& and using killall on it. That > works. > > Any idea what's going on here? It almost has to be hardware failure, > but I can't begin to figure out what. It's a work laptop, so it's not > really my problem to fix, but I want to know what's going on. (And > whether I can find a way to freshen up my backup before delivering the > laptop to someone who may wipe the drive.) > > -- > > Public key available at: > http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x192565D4 > Key fingerprint: EF38 363A 7FA1 5E40 712E 1511 7B1B 337A 1925 65D4 > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQFDUvqFexszehklZdQRAhviAKDmnHRC9FCyvWqL7o+vYh9OJG0cwwCdG/43 > wAeTT/l1DipEgMlSYd+qbfs= > =Zb1d > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > >
