Debian laptop won't boot

war1025 · 07-14-2007, 02:28 PM

are ACPI and acpid different? Because it seems that ACPI handles the IRQ's and stuff during a normal boot, even in single user mode, but when acpid tries to launch, that is when we get problems. So is there a way to prevent acpid from launching on boot and then just running it afterwards? Because it seems to start up fine once everything is up and going...

war1025 · 07-16-2007, 02:17 AM

okay, we were messing around with this some more. And this is what I've decided so far:

I think that hal is trying to start up before dbus and acpi are ready, it then freaks out because they aren't up and running and the system stalls.

any idea how to fix this?

makuyl · 07-16-2007, 08:38 AM

Have a look at hal startup numbers for different runlevels, namely rcS, rc1 and rc2 under /etc. Try setting hal to start a bit later, or set acpi to a different starting number.

war1025 · 07-16-2007, 11:09 AM

okay, so when it says:
S20acpid
S20dbus
S24hal

are those the start numbers? and I would change them by just renaming them to a different number? Or is it something in the file itself?

And when I do change that, do I need to change all of the run level numbers after that too?

S30gdm is there and then it goes to
S89anacron

So, if I changed everything from hal to gdm by say 5 anacron wouldn't be affected would it? I mean even if it is dependant on gdm it can't take 59 to start up can it?

makuyl · 07-16-2007, 12:32 PM

I'm having serious problems understanding what you wrote

Yes, you can just rename the files from say S20blah to S25blah.
hal is already starting after dbus and acpi, so the problem is probably not there.
Did you already try all kernel parameters for acpi? Like these:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Kernel_Pa..._for_ACPI/APIC

war1025 · 07-16-2007, 12:58 PM

that's what happens when I get excited

Anyways, if I turn off ACPI it refuses to boot. If I go into single user mode and run /etc/init.d/dbus start ; /etc/init.d/acpid start ; and then /etc/init.d/hal start, they all run properly. If I try to boot through the normal kernel, acpid gets through the first line of it's output and freezes (there are normally like 6 lines it spits out) Basically, I have no idea what I'm doing but I figure if I change things around enough, eventually I'll find the problem.

makuyl · 07-16-2007, 02:28 PM

acpid is a daemon for acpi events. That's why I suggested giving different acpi kernel parameters a try, if one would help the acpid daemon.

You manually started dbus before acpid, so try if changing this:
S20acpid
S20dbus
S24hal

To this helps:
S20dbus
S22acpid
S24hal

war1025 · 07-16-2007, 02:36 PM

I'll try that. Thanks.

war1025 · 07-16-2007, 02:37 PM

Okay, just a thought.

If I went through and started all of those processes in the order that they show up in the rc2.d file, shouldn't it come up with the same error? Then I'd be able to figure out what it is... maybe?

makuyl · 07-16-2007, 02:58 PM

Yes... maybe.

Stop the services first though. If the box gets stuck, the correct way to "cold boot" a linux system is:
alt+sysctrl+s
alt+sysctrl+u
alt+sysctrl+b

war1025 · 07-16-2007, 03:51 PM

as opposed to holding the power button down until it dies? I assume?

makuyl · 07-18-2007, 08:45 AM

Use the power button as last resource only when everything else, like commands above, fails.

alt+sysctrl+s (syncs disk data)
alt+sysctrl+u (unmounts disks)
alt+sysctrl+b (boots)

war1025 · 07-31-2007, 05:08 PM

We figured out the problem... pretty much on accident. And the solution seems quite strange to me.

It will boot just fine if it isn't plugged into wall power.

If it is plugged in, ACPI freezes.

Don't ask me why.