On 04/25/2015 09:33 PM, don fisher wrote:
On 04/25/2015 05:29 PM, Anton Aylward wrote:
On 04/25/2015 04:31 PM, don fisher wrote:
I would like to know what is causing my system to hang.
[...]
My system hang is probably not wicked based. It usually occurs during boot. It may be my graphics system, but I do not know because I receive no information.
Actually you do get information, you just haven't told us. Its called context, and I'm well known for saying Context is Everything Where in the boot sequence is the context. It hangs WHERE? Do you get the BIOS self test? On my Dell machines I can set for short or detailed self test. Does your BIOS allow similar? Does it jet past the power on self test? The BIOS then loads the MBR. Where did you put the MBR? Is the MBR loading? IIR Felix has a lot to say on where you should put the MBR and why and what the side effects of putting it in the wrong place might be. Do you get into GRUB? If you can't is that because of a disk problem or because you have the MBR not leading to /boot? Does GRUB hang or do you get the menu? GRUB may just say "GRUB" or part of that word ... Then nothing. https://en.opensuse.org/GRUB https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Troubleshooting if you get to the menu you should have the option of "recovery mode". Does that work? If you get the menu can you edit an entry at all? If, as you think, this has to do with your graphics adaptor, there a number of command line options to disable that, run in text mode, disable automatic or some features of how X talks to the graphics hardware. These are all documented. RTFM on kernel parameters. https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt (leads to many more documents) One of the command line options is "init=" If you google you'll find examples of that for giving a shell rather than booting the system properly. Many other options for working with, for example ACPI, interrupts etc. One I mentioned was turning SMP off so that you're not confused by multiple threads. Systemd will ytry running many fscks in parallel and that cab be very confusing. As for the serial adapter idea, or its network equivalent, if you really are in dire straits and the problem is before GRUB gets the initrd to run and the kernel to get as far as reading the command line and setting up that channel, then its not going to be a lot of use. That's my experience. I've never set up such a channel, always managed to do my boot problem debugging with the above sequence or by using the rescue disk. Most of my boot problems have involved lvmetad, and while the kernel messages go quickly when I take out "quiet" that has never mattered. Its ALWAYS been what happens last before the hang/crash occurs and that stays on screen :-) Grub can let you test the disk, search for something to load. Google for that. of course there is an implicit assumption in all this: that you have a second machine connected to the 'net so you can google, search the opensuse wiki, google in general, read the documentation. This kind of debugging is mix of being holistic, that is comprehensive, considering all those possibilities, and of being reductionist, listing all the possible 'failure modes' and their paths and effects. I admit I'm more explicit in this, enumerating the check list. I was taught to keep a log not only of what happens but also of my decision-tree, why I chose to investigate a path, how I interpreted the evidence, so I can back-track and see if my assumptions were wrong. The only problem with this is that, as the FBI, police deparments and lawyers have found, is that searching all those notes can become difficult. That's why we have wikis, not the MediaWiki ones but ones that do automatic linking. Sadly they don't help with records on "dead trees". Keeping records addresses a human shortcoming. We think we can hold things in our head, but the reality is that we can only hold a few in short term memory and to hold them in long term memory means a more formal mechanism. That long term memory might be the notebook or wiki. -- A: Yes. > Q: Are you sure? >> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. >>> Q: Why is top posting frowned upon? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org