[lug] Booting issue. Deb Etch

[Gary Hodges]

Nate Duehr wrote:
> 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

Thank you for your comments Nate.  I was getting ready to dig in, but it 
seems I may have a hardware problem.  It will be tomorrow before I can 
work on it more.  I'll report back what I find.

Gary