Sequence of events at boot

Sequence of events at boot

[Jim Reimer]

As of today, my FC4 machine is not booting.  The last thing on the screen during boot is

Processing `etc/joe/jstarrc`...Done

jstar is the default editor on the system, and the "Processing" line on the screen follows
lm_sensors, automount, nifd, and mDNSResponder.  Also, curiously, it says twice that it's
processing the jstarrc file.

Can't find where jstarrc is run during boot, so I have no idea what should be happening
next.  I've looked at every config, init, and rc file and directory I can think of, and
I'm drawing a blank.

Where do I look?

-- 
-jdr-

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Re: Sequence of events at boot

[joy merwin monteiro]

it must be finding jstarrc _somewhere_, otherwise it
would have complained. did you try setting the default
runlevel to someother value( like 1) and booting ?
it may not be about processing jstarrc, but something
after that. you never know.

all bootup scripts should be in /etc/init.d/
try grepping for jstarrc there. you can probably
see what is getting executed after 'processing jstarrc'.

On 10/12/06, Jim Reimer <jdr@wa5rrh.us> wrote:
> As of today, my FC4 machine is not booting.  The last thing on the screen during boot is
>
> Processing `etc/joe/jstarrc`...Done
>
> jstar is the default editor on the system, and the "Processing" line on the screen follows
> lm_sensors, automount, nifd, and mDNSResponder.  Also, curiously, it says twice that it's
> processing the jstarrc file.
>
> Can't find where jstarrc is run during boot, so I have no idea what should be happening
> next.  I've looked at every config, init, and rc file and directory I can think of, and
> I'm drawing a blank.
>
> Where do I look?
>
> --
> -jdr-
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
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Re: Sequence of events at boot

[Ray Olszewski]

OK. Jim, I don't use Fedora, but there are a few basic thoughts that 
might help anyway.

1. That the line you quote ends with "Done" makes me suspect that it is 
not the problem. As Joy notes below, it probably is the next script that 
is hanging, not this one. (I can't tell from what you write below, but 
does the cursor advance to the next line after "Done"?)

2. I believe FC4 keeps its init scripts in /etc/init.d . Have you grep'd 
"jstarrc" in that directory? More basically, have you grep'd "jstar"? 
For this kind of problem grep'ing is better than "looking".

3. I'm not sure where RC4 puts its runlevel symlinks (the links to init 
scripts that Debian and its derivatives put in places like /etc/rc4.d), 
  but I'd suggest you find that location (actually there will be two of 
them, one for the single-user scripts, another for the actual runlevel 
scripts -- on a stock Debian system, they are /etc/rcS.d and /etc/rc4.d) 
and use the numbering it provides to deduce which script is involved.

4. Not to quibble, but your problem is not a boot failure; it is an init 
failure. What happens after the (apparent) hang? Do you always give up 
and reboot? How long do you wait (try at least 5 minutes, if you haven't 
already ... it may be some wacky DNS thing, and they normally time out 
after 3 minutes)? Does hitting ^C have any effect? Since you say "I've 
looked at every config, init, and rc file and directory I can think of", 
you must have *some* way of getting past this stoppage. What is it?

joy merwin monteiro wrote:
> it must be finding jstarrc _somewhere_, otherwise it
> would have complained. did you try setting the default
> runlevel to someother value( like 1) and booting ?
> it may not be about processing jstarrc, but something
> after that. you never know.
> 
> all bootup scripts should be in /etc/init.d/
> try grepping for jstarrc there. you can probably
> see what is getting executed after 'processing jstarrc'.
> 
> On 10/12/06, Jim Reimer <jdr@wa5rrh.us> wrote:
> 
>> As of today, my FC4 machine is not booting.  The last thing on the 
>> screen during boot is
>>
>> Processing `etc/joe/jstarrc`...Done
>>
>> jstar is the default editor on the system, and the "Processing" line 
>> on the screen follows
>> lm_sensors, automount, nifd, and mDNSResponder.  Also, curiously, it 
>> says twice that it's
>> processing the jstarrc file.
>>
>> Can't find where jstarrc is run during boot, so I have no idea what 
>> should be happening
>> next.  I've looked at every config, init, and rc file and directory I 
>> can think of, and
>> I'm drawing a blank.
>>
>> Where do I look?
>>
>> -- 
>> -jdr-
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Re: Sequence of events at init (was boot) - fixed (sort of)

[Jim Reimer]

I added a bit to /etc/profile a couple of days ago to set the EDITOR
environment variable to /usr/bin/jstar....  that was the problem.  I
don't know WHY that should be a problem, but removing is has cured
the malady.  (Now - how do I use jstar as the default editor?)


Ray Olszewski wrote:

<snip>

> Why are you running mDNSResponder? Try disabling it from runlevel S 
> (just remove the symlink to its init script in /etc/rcS.d, or change the
> starting S to NOT) and see if it helps. You may have to disable nifd as
> well, since it appears to require nDNSRresponder.

I guess I'm running it because it got installed with everything else
when I installed FC4....  I'm still weeding out things I don't need -
the problem is knowing what those things are.

> Final thought ... what did you change recently? If this behavior is new,
> it probably results from your having made some change since the last
> successful boot/init.

See above.

I'm back in business.  Thanks.

-- 
-jdr-


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Re: Sequence of events at init (was boot) - fixed (sort of)

[Ray Olszewski]

Jim Reimer wrote:
> I added a bit to /etc/profile a couple of days ago to set the EDITOR
> environment variable to /usr/bin/jstar....  that was the problem.  I
> don't know WHY that should be a problem, but removing is has cured
> the malady.  (Now - how do I use jstar as the default editor?)

You don't ... since it apparently is not functional as the systemwide 
default editor. (If you figure out the problem ... my prior, off-list 
message to you offered some advice as to how ... then you may be able to 
use jstar this way.) I don't use jstar or its ancestor joe, but the 
Debian package for joe describes it as WordStar-like. That means -- at 
least in its jstar configuration -- it is a fullscreen editor using 
(probably) nsurses, and it may not function properly when called 
non-interactively, say, as any bash script might.

That's all just a guess. The only way to know the specifics of the 
problem is to find the init script that is invoking the editor ... I 
believe bash uses the built-in command "edit" to invoke EDITOR, so check 
the init scripts for that.

But do you need it as the systemwide default? You could add an EDITOR= 
line to specific users' /home/[userid]/.profile or ./.bashrc 
directories. Don't try this with root, though, or you may recreate the 
problem you just fixed.

> 
> Ray Olszewski wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
>>Why are you running mDNSResponder? Try disabling it from runlevel S 
>>(just remove the symlink to its init script in /etc/rcS.d, or change the
>>starting S to NOT) and see if it helps. You may have to disable nifd as
>>well, since it appears to require nDNSRresponder.
> 
> 
> I guess I'm running it because it got installed with everything else
> when I installed FC4....  I'm still weeding out things I don't need -
> the problem is knowing what those things are.
> 
> 
>>Final thought ... what did you change recently? If this behavior is new,
>>it probably results from your having made some change since the last
>>successful boot/init.
> 
> 
> See above.
> 
> I'm back in business.  Thanks.
> 

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Re: Sequence of events at init (was boot) - fixed (sort of)

[Hal]

On 10-12, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> I don't use jstar or its ancestor joe, but the 
> Debian package for joe describes it as WordStar-like. That means -- at 
> least in its jstar configuration -- it is a fullscreen editor using 
> (probably) nsurses, and it may not function properly when called 
> non-interactively, say, as any bash script might.

	I know Ray encourages comments like this; so AFAIK, since
I've been using Joe and it's many key mapping derivatives, Joe runs
vga=normal and doesn't need curses, at least the versions I'm using.
<grin>  Correct me if wrong..

-- 

    Hal.
.
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Re: Sequence of events at init (was boot) - fixed (sort of)

[Ray Olszewski]

Hal wrote:
> On 10-12, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> 
>>I don't use jstar or its ancestor joe, but the 
>>Debian package for joe describes it as WordStar-like. That means -- at 
>>least in its jstar configuration -- it is a fullscreen editor using 
>>(probably) nsurses, and it may not function properly when called 
>>non-interactively, say, as any bash script might.
> 
> 
> 	I know Ray encourages comments like this; so AFAIK, since
> I've been using Joe and it's many key mapping derivatives, Joe runs
> vga=normal and doesn't need curses, at least the versions I'm using.
> <grin>  Correct me if wrong..

You're right that I do favor this kind of kibitzing. It's why I always 
try to keep my responses on-list, not private (though I messed up this 
time around with one reply).

That said, here's what the Debian package archive says about joe:

Package: joe
Priority: optional
Section: editors
Installed-Size: 880
Maintainer: Josip Rodin <joy-packages@debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Version: 3.3-5
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-21), libncurses5 (>= 5.4-1)

If Debian thinks joe *depends* on libncurses5, then joe does most likely 
*use* ncurses. That's quite consistent with vga=normal; you may have 
been thinking of libsvga, which accesses vga graphics mode without using X.






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