Hi Forum,
I am using a Knoppmyth install from 2006 to record tv-broadcasts using a sat dish.
The (linux) machine is a combined front/backend.
The harddrive is a seagate 1 TB sata disk.
I do (did) record tv-programs, edit them (removing unwanted parts and commercials) and archive the recordings to dvd-isos (and burn to dvd).
My problem now:
many recordings still waiting to be processed in this way, but on booting the machine the boot process starts normally but ends in a loop (and a halt without finishing).
Result: I cannot access the data.

The loop is a multiple times screenprinted line:
"Suspend2 2.2.8.4: Missing or invalid storage location (resume2= parameter). Please correct and rerun lilo (or equivalent) before suspending."

This ends in:
"/linuxrc: Out of file descriptors
/etc/init: Out of file descriptors
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!".

At this point, the machine can only be shut off...
On every boot I get the same problem..

Additional to this:
some days before the problem started, the machine started fine and I got to the Knoppmyth desktop (and could view recordings a.s.o.).
and:
over a longer period before, occasionally the machine had this problem, but when I did shut it off, waited some time, and rebooted again, all was fine..

How to resolve the problem (note: I am no nerd and do not know what is going on)?

From the loop-text, I *think* there may be a problem with a section on the harddrive used for storage of something.
I found "suspend2" is a program(?) used in this old distro's.
I searched for a configuration file, but did not find one in the OS.
There was/is free space on the harddrive.

Note: Knoppmyth was discontinued many years ago, no support available anymore.

Hope some member will see/know what is going on and how to rescue.

Thank you,
oldstuffer

From your description it's hard to decide whether Knoppmyth is the name of a Linux distro, or a application running in some Linux desktop that records and/or edits programs received via satellite dish, or some proprietary all in one system based on Linux. Odds are decent that whatever is on that 1T HD that it can be connected to a current Linux distro running on an ordinary PC and accessed via VLC and/or SMPlayer and/or one of a number of FOSS video editing applications. Digital satellite STB's commonly feature recording systems in software that are usable simply by connecting a HD via USB. None I'm aware of do any editing, but the recordings they create are transport streams that can be edited using FOSS software, e.g. Openshot, Handbrake or Kdenlive.

Knoppmyth is a combination of Knoppix (OS) and MythTV, same construction as MythDora and MythBuntu were..
It was easier/leaner to use Knoppmyth as to install the Knoppix OS on a box and after that install the MythTV software.

Your solution is sort of a work-around for viewing and editing the recorded files on another Linux system.
Thanks for your suggestion!

Hope someone will give clues how to solve the 'non-booting issue' I described. Repair of that would give me the ability to
use Knoppmyth again, with the tools it has in it and which I can handle.

Some clarification of the suspend2 fault (what does it mean and what it going on there) would help me too.
On the web, the suspend2.net page is static and dead, a forum which was there doesn't seem to exist any more.

oldstuffer

Possibly someone on the debian-knoppix@lists.debian.org mailing list would have some insight on the booting issue. It might be useful to know something about the hardware this is running on if/when asking there. If it's using lilo as a bootloader, I'd try rescue boot and chroot to replace lilo with grub, which has a boot shell sometimes useful in troubleshooting odd boot problems via on the fly editing the kernel command line.

Suspend2 (later tuxonice) was, as it suggests, a suspend/hibernation tool. It was as far as I knew out-of-tree - interesting Debian would use it.
It is invoked like it's peers, by including a resume2= keyword in the boot parameters as per your message. So that implies you have a (going) bad disk or partition. Especially as you've had similar previously. Reboot fixing it might imply you're using a file rather than a partition for suspend as that sounds like fsck repairing the filesystem.

I would run up a modern liveCD and run SMART on the disk (if supported) and check out the parms passed to lilo/grub (that would be legacy grub, also unsupported) - remove the resume parm and regen the boot config. All from a chroot as suggested - the Debian doco should cover that, although I've never used Debian.

1 members found this post helpful.

I'm not sure what is relevant to OP about this statement, but regardless, grub 0.97 remains available in currently supported versions of Debian and openSUSE repos. The Knoppix DVD at least as of V8.2 includes grub-legacy, which I know because I still use it to configure multiboot initialization of new MBR disks, which I upgrade on first openSUSE installation to use its Grub Legacy that better supports EXT4.

Just trying to be helpful.
The OP may have grub installed - all current doco for grub will be useless; or worse. Few users would notice the version number - especially someone using kit this old.

I agree that maybe a live media is the place to start. Also consider booting to memtest either on current or on live media.

Might be able to view any /var logs too on live media.

Get an old Knoppix cd/dvd I'd think would be fine to use. Maybe V5 or so ish.

I happpend to download a 5.5 cd-image, but that is an install cd and not a live cd.

I did some testing on the Knoppmyth harddrive too: mounted on another Linux system and booting with the actual UBCD-5.3.8-live cd.
On it is the Partimage tool, and I can run the Gsmarttool
Short test and Extended test don't give errors on the Knoppmyth hd.
Running fsck.ext3 in a terminal screen on the UBCD and checking the Knoppmyth disk end without errors too.

How certain I can be/get the hd is deteriorating (as said the tests don't confirm this)?
Couldn't it be some files, related to suspend2, are damaged or have gone lost?

The Knoppmyth system had 2GB of memory (when I installed, I made a swapfile (partition) of 2GB too).
Recently I upgraded the ram to 4GB, -without thinking to re-size the swapfile-.
Sad enough, I cannot remember if this change introduced the described 'suspend2 problem'....
After the problems started, I removed the added 2GB again, so now I am back to the original configuration.

I mention this in this thread, as I do not know it could be relevant to the problem, and I do not understand what is going on.

Maybe some followers here have good ideas on this?

oldstuffer