viewing the boot log/dialogue?
 

OK, so I boot the system, select mandrake and off I go.

As I watch the boot dialogue, I notice something RED that flies off the screen at light speed and I want to know what it is.

RED, during the mandrake boot dialogue is usually FAILED, so how do I view the boot dialogue or is there going to be a boot log that will show me what has possibly FAILED at boot?

regards

John:confused:

p.s. I have looked in the "mandrake control centre" and there doesn't seem to be a facility to do this. I have tried following the "syslog" through but can't work out if that is telling me what I want to know?

Those are stored in the main log file, /var/log/messages. You can also use dmesg

# Use dmesg to view the kernel ring buffer (error messages)
dmesg | less

# Watch error messages as they happen (sysklog needed)
as root, tail -f /var/log/messages (shows last 10 lines, use a number in front of f for more lines)

Eh?

Thanks for the reply fancypiper, but what/where/how do I look for the failed/error stuff?

I'm not fluent in Tuxspeak and don't follow how to view a /var/log/messages file or what the stuff from dmesg would mean.

regards

John

edit: - I get permission denied if I try to enter/look at /var/log/messages (as root)

:confused: By browsing the file or dmesg.:scratch: That is strange. How did you become root? Did you su, su - or log in to the root account in the gui?

If you install Midnight Commander, you might find it a little easier to use than vi to view files.

# Mandrake links
Mandrake home page
Mandrake Users website
Easy urpmi config for Mandrake
urpmi mini-HOWTO
Easy software management: Red Carpet
Maximum RPM
rpmfind
You didn't install the developmental packages? As root, command:
urpmi gcc
An Introduction to the Midnight Commander. You can install it by commanding:
urpmi mc
Midnight Commander home page

I su'd into root and the bash reply was permission denied.

Midnight commander. Forget it, I've been having enough problems getting to grips with kde, konqueror, kwrite, etc etc to name but a few.

I'll have a go at konqueror for the /var/log/messages thing. the dmesg only works on my system as root (a permissions thing ??), but the output was more of the incomprehensible "blurb" that means absolutely nothing do me.

regards

John

OK, so if I try to look at the /var/log/messages as a user, then I just get an empty file. So I have to log out, back in as root to get basically the same incomprehensible blurb as I get when I try the dmesg | less command (as root).

I wouldn't be able to spot an error or problem amongst that lot if it stared me in the face.

Any other idea's

regards

John

su doesn't give full root power, but su - does.

As root, the command urpmi midnight commander will install it. I use it more than any other tool in administering my system. It makes the command line much less scary...

It's a shame you can't even figure out how to use the pointy-clicky stuff in Linux.

Open an x terminal, su- to root and run the editor (the Linux way).

After you loaded it into an editor, did you try searching for the term "fail"?

x terminal ? is that different from a "normal" terminal?

and to confirm, I should be using the command su- and not su to be able to do everything?? - ha! that presumes that I know how to do command line stuff.

That's often why/where I come unstuck. What I know about command line could be written on the back of a very very small postage stamp.

The point and click stuff under linux seems often to be a pain in the arse, whenever I look at something, and maybe amend it, I just get permission crap.

Thus far, I haven't worked out how to have root and user running in/on the same pc at the same time. Which is somewhat, erm, inconvenient, is a good word!

regards

John

You have more trouble in Windows. Only one account can be logged into, not both.

# System administration
The best ways I have found to administer my computer is with basic bash commands in a virtual terminal or an xterminal, or with another powerful shell, the well kept secret of mc (Midnight Commander), with a file manager, editor, and lots more handy tools.

If you use the gui log in, you will be on virtual terminal 1 (most installs default to 6 of these terminals) and your x session will be running in virtual terminal 7.

You have mouse support in the command line with gpm unless it has been disabled, so copy and paste is just as easy in virtual terminals as it is in x.

From a virtual terminal, you can switch from one terminal to another by holding down the alt key and pressing one of the function keys F1 - F6. If you are in x, hold down the control key as well as the alt and F<N> key and you will go that terminal. The terminal that was first used to login will be busy and if x was run from that terminal, the error messages generated by x will be shown. The others will display the login prompt until it is used to log in to an account. To return to x from a virtual terminal, press alt and F7 and you are back to your x session.

To change to the root account, use these commands from your user account. Note the change in the prompt.
Remember, whatever you command in root (it's the "god" mode. You can bless or destroy at your whim) usually gets done if enough system is left to carry out the command. :D Sit on your hands and read at least 3 times before pressing the enter key when in root.

Type and press return and the Midnight Commander shell should run. Type control-o and you are in bash. Type control-o and you are in mc. will give lots of info. You can use Midnight Commander in either user or root accounts.

You can do the normal linux copy/paste with the mouse from one virtual terminal to another by left clicking and swiping text in one, alt-FN to switch to the virtual terminal you wish to paste into, and middle click will paste the text that was swiped in the first virtual terminal into the file at the blinking cursor position.

To surf the internet from the command line, I recommend installing links as it displays most pages reasonably. Also, you can use it to post your questions about Linux here using it. Remember to refresh the posting page after login.

There should be no fear of the command line as it is actually easier to use than the gui. All that is necessary is to know the commands.

If you have zgv installed, you can even view images from the console command line. :cool:

This is where I get totally lost.

I understand the root and user differences, whereas when in windows I just use the one account and I can do whatever.

I appreciate that this is sacriledge under linux.

I understand that X runs in the background and KDE runs over the top basicly telling X what I want to tell it.

As far as net browsing, I use opera with both the mandrakelinux and windows I prefer the familiarity.

But when it comes to doing command line stuff, I just try to avoid it. You can see that I have also linked "ruteuser" in my sig, but again, it's not written with the basic user in mind, but the enthusiast - that's not me.

I see that amongst others, you have mandrake 9 in your system, do you know of anyway I could take a snapshot of the boot dialogue?

I did try the "non-fb linux" that shows up on my lilo list of OS's and did the "I" thing for interactive boot.

It showed up that it had failed at the "checking for new hardware" stage, but I don't get that with a normal mandrake boot. The other thing that appeared was connected to "acpi" and when I let it boot on it's own, I just about spotted the "acpi" thing alongside with the red FAILED thing.

any ideas how I check acpi?

regards

John

Re: ACPI
First you'll want to see which power management scheme you're using. It will be either APM or ACPI. Try 'ps -e | grep apm' and 'ps -e | grep acpi' to see which of the power management daemons were loaded at boot.
Have a look at the the goods in /proc/acpi (try 'cat /proc/acpi/info' for starters) and you can see how much of your ACPI is supported. You'll need to have ACPI configured in your BIOS as well.

As far as your fear of the command line goes, if it wasn't for the <tab> autocomplete I'd probably do very little in the console. A few days with it and you'll be a convert. I just spent a week with XP and ME and boy did I miss that feature.

ACPI=Advanced Configuration and Power Interface which is in the kernel configuration. It is safe to ignore.

Your boot messages will start with the last entry that reads similar to mine June 29 15:33:33 localhost syslogd 1.4.1: restart. and mine ends with June 29 15:33:40 localhost xinetd: xinetd startup succeeded

Ha Ha!
 

I just rebooted so I could find it easily and this is what I get

Jul 27 17:59:03 localhost acpid: acpid: can't open /proc/acpi/event: No such file or directory
Jul 27 17:59:03 localhost acpid: acpid startup failed

I tried "Mac's" suggestions and the got this

[john@localhost john]$ ps -e | grep apm
3 ? 00:00:00 kapmd
1079 ? 00:00:00 apmd
[john@localhost john]$ ps -e | grep apci
[john@localhost john]$

Which again leaves me a little confused. I have never seen anything that "failed" during boot. Now it appears that the power management is apm (apm daemon - whatever that is) and the return to the $ prompt, I presume means that acpi is disabled ?

I'm happy that this can be ignored, but why should it start showing up all of a sudden?

regards

John

It just means that your kernel is using APM and that the apmd daemon is handling APM requests. Your system can only use one of the power management schemes and it looks like APM is it. A lot of how the power management is started is dependant on the kernel setup and your boot scripts. It could be something as simple as _not_ starting apmd which may (depending on how the kernel was built) allow you to use acpid, or it may involve loading some ospm_* modules and starting the acpid at boot before the apm scheme is started.

I have to admit that I'm not very familiar with Mandrake or RedHat so I'm not sure where to look for the startup scripts. You could try 'grep -r acpi | /etc/*' and look for 'apm' as well...