[lug] Booting issue. Deb Etch

[Nate Duehr]

Gary Hodges wrote:
> Gary Hodges wrote:
>> I attempted an upgrade (Sarge -> Etch) on a AMD K6-III machine, and 
>> was having an issue during the boot process.  I finally gave up and 
>> just reinstalled.  Same problem.
>>
>> The problem:
>> During the boot process it gets to a boot message saying udev is being 
>> fully populated.  Then I get two messages about the BusLogic adapter 
>> being successful, then...
>>
>> INIT: Cannot execute /sbin/getty
>> INIT: Id 1 respawning too fast: disable for 5 minutes
>> INIT: Id 2 respawning too fast: disable for 5 minutes
>> INIT: Id 3 respawning too fast: disable for 5 minutes
>> INIT: Id 4 respawning too fast: disable for 5 minutes
>> INIT: Id 6 respawning too fast: disable for 5 minutes
>> INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel
>> INIT: Id 5 respawning too fast: disable for 5 minutes
>>
>> If left it seems to repeat in some sense.  If I hit Ctrl C after the 
>> second BusLogic message it sometimes completes the boot process.  It 
>> sometimes produces those INIT messages too.  I don't know if Ctrl C 
>> does anything, but it gives me something to try.
>>
>> I have the 2.6.18-6-486 kernel installed.  I tried the 2.6.18-6-686 
>> kernel but it segfaults during the boot.  Once running the machine 
>> seems to be OK.
> 
> A little research later...  I'm gathering from some web searching that 
> maybe I should comment one or more, or maybe all, of the following lines 
> from the /etc/inittab file.
> 
> 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
> 2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
> 3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
> 4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
> 5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
> 6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6
> 
> Does this sound right?

If you don't know why getty is dying, yes ... that would stop the 
respawning.  Init is just trying to do what it was asked... start up 
terminal getty's on tty1 through tty6.  Perhaps those devices don't 
exist (renamed during upgrade, symlinks busted, who knows).

Are there other lines in there with gettys running for your console? 
That's what those are... under older versions.  If you take them all 
out, you may find yourself without console access.  Make sure you have 
SSH up and running and tested before you dump them so you can get back 
in and fix it -- in other words, don't lock yourself out.

My Etch machine has all of those...

durango:~# cat /etc/inittab | grep tty
# /sbin/getty invocations for the runlevels.
# characters of the device (after "tty").
# Note that on most Debian systems tty7 is used by the X Window System,
# so if you want to add more getty's go ahead but skip tty7 if you run X.
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6
# Example how to put a getty on a serial line (for a terminal)
#T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100
#T1:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS1 9600 vt100
# Example how to put a getty on a modem line.
#T3:23:respawn:/sbin/mgetty -x0 -s 57600 ttyS3

It's whining that it can't execute /sbin/getty.  Have you checked it's 
permissions?  Something whack permissions in /sbin?

 From my Etch box here...

durango:~# ls -al /sbin/getty
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 14796 Dec 22 06:47 /sbin/getty

What do you get if you type....

durango:~# getty
Usage: getty [-hiLmw] [-l login_program] [-t timeout] [-I initstring] 
[-H login_host] baud_rate,... line [termtype]
or      [-hiLmw] [-l login_program] [-t timeout] [-I initstring] [-H 
login_host] line baud_rate,... [termtype]

That's what I get.

Or perhaps you mashed the permissions in /dev somehow, or udev did, 
or... (insert other unknowns here)...

crw------- 1 root root 4, 1 Mar 31 14:36 /dev/tty1
crw------- 1 root root 4, 2 Mar 24 17:03 /dev/tty2

... etc.  Check those.

This stock Etch box has 755 permissions and root ownership on the /sbin 
dir, also... might check that if you did something and whacked it.

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 Feb 20 13:07 .

And lovely Crapcast (Comcast) just crapped out to the remote location 
where my Etch box is, or I'd send you some more... see if any of that 
above looks wrong on yours...

I just logged into a different location and Etch box and confirmed all 
of the above.

Also it's listed as an "essential" package, but I suppose during your 
upgrade you may have missed an error installing the util-linux package. 
  Check to see that it's really installed and not flagged as held back, etc.

root at anotherbox:~# dpkg --get-selections | grep util-linux
util-linux                                      install


Nate WY0X