respawning too fast
 

This problem is driving me nuts!!!!!!
I had this problem about a week ago and I replaced the disks (just because). I've reloaded RH6.2 and some applications and upon trying to reboot, I receive this error message:

Init ID "#" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

The above ID # goes from 1-6 with the same error.
I also haven't been able to boot into single user with;
linux single...

Re: respawning too fast
 

The message usually cames up if the called program for the according tty ends (dies) quickly so init has to respawn the tty (according to /etc/inittab). If that happens several times the respawn is disabled - that's what the message tells you.

It seems that there is a bug in the login program that should be spawned. You should be able to boot with:
Then you will have to remount your root partition writeable:
And can now edit your file and look which programs are called in there. It comes down often to lines like this:
You should be able to find similar lines there. If there is no special program mentioned /bin/login is called. Try to start it, it might be broken. It might be needed that you replace that program.

After you've tried to find out what happens there you should of course mount your root partition back into read-only mode (mount -oremount,ro) and can reboot then.

There are several getty's that can run different programs than just /bin/login - maybe you can substitute the above lines to one of those (like running /bin/bash) - but take care of this, this will start the program as root, you should fix your problems quite soon after you did that.

HTH,
Alfie

Actually, when I attempt single-user, it still ends up at the same place with the same error.

respawning too fast solution
 

I'm posting this replay mainly so that anyone serching has an easier time solving the problem than I did. The problem, at least in my case, was that the /bin folder and contents was deleted either accidently by myself (likely) or by a malicious attack (possible). The tell-tale signs that this was the case are 1) a few lines above the "respawnging too fast" message is the message "cannot execute rc.sysinit" which is the first file loaded from the inittab. 2) One can't even bring the machine up using "linux single" or "linux init=/bin/bash". Both of these errors stem from the fact that bash is gone. The solution requires that you have access to anohter linux box. Download a cp of Tom's rootboot from www.toms.net. Download everything in /bin diretory from another linux box. You'll probably need root access for this and should probably cp the /bin contents to a tmp folder before cp to floppy.
Boot the broken box using Tom's root boot. Mount the floppy drive ("mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/tmp"). Create the toplevel /bin directory and start cp the floppies into the /bin directory. The new directory will be larger than the original so if you are crunched for space you'll need to take a look at the /bin on another machine and recreate the ln's.

respawning too fast
 

I have the same problem with RH 7.1. I am new to Linux from Win2k and do not understand how to access and modify files if Linux will not initialise correctly. Is your solution feasible with a Linux rexcue boot?

respawning too fast
 

The rescue disk didn't work for me. It evidently is dependent on bash being present in the /bin directory. Tom's root-boot was key. Give it a try and email me if you have problems. BTW, I need to thank the guys at LinuxCare they're great and are the one's who pointed me to Tom's root boot which is equally great.

Paul, thanks for your help, but I really feel as if I'm floundering about in deep water. I've downloaded the Tom's root-boot dos zip program and created the boot floppy. It seems to work, however I cannot access the floppy or harddisk partitions nor read its contents (dir, ls).The root boot floppy has 3 ramdisks( given by "mount").

Simply put in idiot language, what is the syntax needed to copy the bin folder contents as you advise?

I am nearly ready to junk my installation, Linux(RH 7.1) has never initialised or started. The book and disk cost me $50, I'm starting to regret it.

I've found Linux drivers for my Kyro II video card for RH so I'm stuck with this distribution.....

Andrew Quenet

respawn too fast
 

Rooman,
In the error messages that linux is printing out when you are trying to boot from the hd does it say "cannot execute rc.sysinit"? If it doesn't you have a different problem and http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue16/answer.html#spawn is a good place to start looking for solutions. If you do have the rc.systint error then at the command prompt type "fdisk -l". You should get a listing of all the partitions available. Some these will be the partitions that Tom's root boot is using and be the same as what you get by entering "mount -a", which only shows what is listed in the "mnttab"
file. Somewhere in the "fdisk -l" listing will be something like: /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc. BTW, be careful with the fdisk command and type it only as given otherwise you'll end up repartitioning your hd and then your hosed. look for the largest /dev/sda? partition. This will usually be sda5 or sda6. Type mkdir "/mnt/tmp" and then "mount /dev/whatever-partititon-you-want-to-look-at /mnt/tmp" This will mount whatever hd partition you specify at the mount point /mnt/tmp. Cd to /mnt/tmp and then you can list the contents. If ls gives you the /etc, /sbin, /usr, etc. dirs then you are in the right place. You then need to mkdir /mnt/tmp/bin if bin is missing and then start copying the /bin contents from another machine into the directory. I'd start by copying the following executables: /sh, /bash, /cp, /mv, /mkdir, /touch. That should at least allow to reboot from the hd.

Are you ready for this Paul?
I've managed to mount the floppy and the harddisk partitions. /bin and the others that you mentioned are present. Snooping around I found boot.log.1 which indicates perfect startups each time I've tried!(including for rc.sysinit) There are no error messages!

During the boot there are no error messages either right up to the text log-in, then the screen display starts flashing and showing it's message " INIT:Id"x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 mins"

ps: fdisk returns command unknown... etc from the root!

Any ideas?

respawning too fast
 

Rooman,
It is still possible that an executable is missing from the /bin dir but probably not likely. The ld"x" error usually means that there is problem starting your desktop manager. The default in RH7.1 is gnome. The desktop dependences can run pretty deep but the error is usaully a broken link or lack of the proper video driver. If you get the RH splash screen then it is probably not the driver. You'll notice at the bottom of the screen it say "control-x" for text mode. Do that and type either "linux single" or "linux 3". They both do the samething, that is to boot you into single user mode, which is text based. You can then login and move about the system. If that works then there is something wrong with GNOME. A temporary solution is to use KDE as your desktop manager. Use vi or ed to change the switch in the /etc/sysconfig/desktop file from "GNOME" to "KDE". There are probably ohter/better ways of doing this but this will work as well. Cd / and type "telinit q" to get the machine to reread the inittab. If you don't get a Xlogin then the problem is probably with your video driver. In which case can preferably download the rpm and install it which can all be done from the command line.
If any of this helps and you get your machine up please pay it forward and help some else out in the future.

Paul, following your advice I tried to install (rpm) the video driver for my card. The only driver available for RH is for 7.2 and of course I have 7.1. The error message returned by the rpm command indicates that I need the kernel 2.4.7 and Xfree 4.1.0, do you know if these are standard with RH 7.2? I have found the xfree 4.1 files and I think they are installed correctly. For the kernel however I am rather stuck and don't know where to put the tar.bz2 file before bzip2ing it. It would be simpler to have the 7.2 cd from scratch...
I have spent over four hours downloading files (lousy 56k) and with 1 or 2 hours every night in front of the pc since more than two weeks my wife is starting to wonder if Linux is worth while!! Do you know someone who would burn me RH 7.2 in return for a couple of cd-rw for example?

RH 7.3 install
 

Rooman,
If you have access to another computer you can download a disk image of RH7.2 from www.redhat.com/download/howto_download.html. Best of all it's free.

Paul

Yes thanks not a bad idea, but I don't think thirty odd hours of download would be acceptable to my better half....(and she doesn't want to pay for cable or adsl.)