System wont boot past multiuser as var is not writable

saurabh nigam · 02-15-2011, 06:42 AM

Hi all,
My Slackware's display suddenly got hanged with just a black screen and a mouse pointer visible not even the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace worked.So I switched off my system by pushing the button on the CPU .

After that when I tried to boot into my system it wont boot past going multiuser
with below error messages

Code:

touch /var/run/utmp :No such file or directory
chown /var/run/utmp :No such file or directory
chmod /var/run/utmp :No such file or directory
touch /var/lock/subsys/serial :No such file or directory

and also some errors stating that /var/.... is not writable

hanging @ starting

Code:

sysklogd

Though I can login when trying to boot through singleuser but when I try to

Quote:

startX

it again gets stuck at the above errors

P.S.:This problem
seems to be similar

EDIT:I recently checked out the history from where I found I did a

Code:

rm -rf /var/*
rm -rf /var/lock/(...someslackpkg lock)

which might be causing the problem

Also here is

Code:

ls -al /var
total 32
drwxrwxrwx  8 root        root  4096 2011-02-13 23:47 ./
drwxr-xr-x 27 root        root  4096 2011-02-13 22:52 ../
drwxrwxrwx  4 devtestimdv users 4096 2011-02-13 22:00 cache/
drwxrwxrwx  3 root        root  4096 2011-02-13 21:44 lib/
drwxr-xr-x  3 root        root  4096 2011-02-15 23:55 lock/
drwxrwxrwx  8 root        root  4096 2011-02-15 23:55 log/
drwxr-xr-x  6 root        root  4096 2011-02-16 00:00 run/
drwxrwxrwt  3 devtestimdv users 4096 2011-02-16 00:03 tmp/

All helps are welcome.

druuna · 02-15-2011, 06:52 AM

Hi,

A hard power-off, although sometimes necessary, can play havoc with your system. One of the first things I would suggest you do is to force a disk/partition check. This will find and hopefully correct disk errors that might have been created during the hard power-off.

Create the following file: /etc/forcefsck and reboot your system. All the partitions present in your /etc/fstab file will be checked during the boot. The /etc/forcefsck file will be automatically removed after it is done booting.

Hope this helps.

honeybadger · 02-15-2011, 07:00 AM

If you have a live cd the you can boot using that and see if the /var is present.
I really wouldnt worry much. You can log into a single user mode and run 'poweroff -r -F' and the system would run fsck on the next boot.

Hope this helps.

saurabh nigam · 02-15-2011, 12:52 PM

@druuna I tried forcefsck but it too doesn't have any effect.I still can't boot into system .

Though I tried to boot through single-user by doing a
touch /var/run/utmp
but it further got hanged after displaying my Desktop.

@SilverBack

Quote:

see if the /var is present.

Yes SilverBack /var is there.

@All also check my updated Original post after watching into history

druuna · 02-15-2011, 01:12 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Code:

rm -rf /var/*
rm -rf /var/lock/(...someslackpkg lock)

which might be causing the problem

Did you do this as root user?? If so: That is your problem.

Quote:

Code:

ls -al /var
total 32
drwxrwxrwx  8 root        root  4096 2011-02-13 23:47 ./
drwxr-xr-x 27 root        root  4096 2011-02-13 22:52 ../
drwxrwxrwx  4 devtestimdv users 4096 2011-02-13 22:00 cache/
drwxrwxrwx  3 root        root  4096 2011-02-13 21:44 lib/
drwxr-xr-x  3 root        root  4096 2011-02-15 23:55 lock/
drwxrwxrwx  8 root        root  4096 2011-02-15 23:55 log/
drwxr-xr-x  6 root        root  4096 2011-02-16 00:00 run/
drwxrwxrwt  3 devtestimdv users 4096 2011-02-16 00:03 tmp/

Did you recreate this yourself (still assuming the rm -rf /var/* was done as root, and some of the users/groups and permissions seem wrong)?

Quote:

I tried forcefsck but it too doesn't have any effect.I still can't boot into system .

If the disk check did run you can be sure the disk/partitions are error free. Or did the check produce errors?

Quote:

@All also check my updated Original post after watching into history

Next time please post new info in a new follow-up post.

saurabh nigam · 02-15-2011, 10:31 PM

About

Code:

rm -rf /var/*

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

Hi,
Did you do this as root user?? If so: That is your problem.

Yes I did it as root Any solutions then?
And regarding

Code:

ls -al /var

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

Did you recreate this yourself (still assuming the rm -rf /var/* was done as root, and some of the users/groups and permissions seem wrong)?

No I didn't they were automatically created and I don't know what should be correct permissions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

If the disk check did run you can be sure the disk/partitions are error free. Or did the check produce errors?

Yes it produced no errors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

Next time please post new info in a new follow-up post.

Pardon me for being so much addicted to StackOverFlow

druuna · 02-16-2011, 01:22 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by saurabh nigam

About

Code:

rm -rf /var/*

Yes I did it as root Any solutions then?

If at all possible you need to restore /var and all its files/directories to the original settings.

I don't have Slackware installed at the moment, so the following could be a bit off (maybe some slackware users might jump in and help):

The following commands need to be done as the root user

Code:

# set correct permissions and user on /var:
chown root:root /var
chmod 755 /var

# Create missing directories:
mkdir /var/{local,mail,opt,spool,state}

# Set correct permissions and user:
chown root:root /var/*
chmod 755 /var/*
chmod 1777 /var/{mail,tmp}

# Create needed files and set correct user / permissions:
touch /var/run/utmp /var/log/{btmp,lastlog,wtmp}
chgrp -v utmp /var/run/utmp /var/log/lastlog
chmod -v 664 /var/run/utmp /var/log/lastlog

Hopefully the above will fix (most of) the problems. You might still see some errors, but we tackle them when they arise.

The following directories are probably still missing some files and/or directories and I'm not sure if they are made on the run:
- /var/lib
- /var/mail
- /var/spool

Hope this helps.

saurabh nigam · 02-16-2011, 11:19 AM

@druuna I tried steps given by you but it doesn't has any effect
Here is my

Code:

#ls -al /
...
drwxr-xr-x  13 root root  4096 2011-02-16 22:27 var/
...

And here is the output of

Code:

#ls -al /var/
total 52
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:27 ./
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root 4096 2011-02-13 22:52 ../
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:30 cache/
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 2011-02-13 21:44 lib/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:27 local/
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:31 lock/
drwxr-xr-x  8 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:33 log/
drwxrwxrwt  2 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:27 mail/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:27 opt/
drwxr-xr-x  7 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:31 run/
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:30 spool/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 2011-02-16 22:27 state/
drwxrwxrwt  3 root root 4096 2011-02-16 00:03 tmp/

druuna · 02-16-2011, 11:47 AM

Hi,

Your error messages should be different then before.

What are the exact messages you are getting now (also look at the log files if possible -> /var/log/ -> secure and messages).

saurabh nigam · 02-16-2011, 10:26 PM

@druuna I could not copy those error messages but they were something like

Code:

named not getting started trying again
mysql.pid cannot be initialized ..somewhere in /var/mysql/
..
could not create /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
...
could not bind to to /var/lib/dbus/system_bus_socket
...
error in /etc/httpd/http.conf at line 167 :DocumentRoot must be a directory

And at line 167 of httpd.conf is

Code:

DocumentRoot "/srv/httpd/htdocs"

and there is no htdocs folder in /srv/httpd/
Should I create one?

Though dmesg or /var/log/messages do not show any errors.

druuna · 02-17-2011, 01:22 AM

Hi,

If you are not able to post the exact messages, you need to have a good look at them yourself and act accordingly. For example:

- You mention the mysql error message: There is no /var/mysql directory, create it (mkdir /var/mysql),
- The dbus message has the same underlying problem, create the /var/lib/dbus directory (mkdir /var/lib/dbus).

The above should get you one step further in the process, but you might still encounter problems. File owner/permissions might be one, other missing directories might be another.

If I look at the httpd error it seems that you have more problems then /var alone. If /srv/httpd is gone, all the rest that belonged to apache is also gone (the actual web pages in htdocs for example). If you do not have a backup, you are out of luck.

I'm not sure if it is an option, but maybe you should consider re-installing Slackware. If you want to do so: Make sure that you have a backup of the stuff you want to keep (if it is still present....).

saurabh nigam · 02-18-2011, 07:28 AM

So I finally did a reinstall as suggested.