Freezing on 'enter runlevel'

nappy501 · 03-24-2004, 10:03 AM

I am a newbie. Installed redhat 9, dual boot with Windows 98, as far as I can tell everything was working fine, but I couldn't get my modem to work.

Yesterday I went to a Linux seminar day and took my machine. A very nice man used my monitor, but his keyboard and mouse on my machine. It took him about 30 minutes to sort out my modem.

When I got home I set my machine up and went off to dish up the pasta, when I came back the machine was in kudzu and counting down to 0. In a panic I said ignore to everything and my machine continued to boot.

When it got to the login screen I got no response from the keyboard or mouse.

So I pressed the reset button. The machine now does not boot up, I don't even get the bit that says welcome to Redhat Linux with all the okays down the right hand side.

I get the black screen with the white writing and it gets as far as:-

INIT: version 2.84 booting
INIT: /etc/inittab (1): field too long (max 4 characters)
INIT: /etc/inittab (2): field too long (max 4 characters)
INIT: /etc/inittab (3): field too long (max 4 characters)
INIT: /etc/inittab (4): action field too long
INIT: /etc/inittab (5): field too long (max 4 characters)
INIT: /etc/inittab (6): field too long (max 4 characters)
INIT: /etc/inittab (7): rlevel field too long (max 11 characters)
INIT: /etc/inittab (8): rlevel field too long (max 11 characters)
INIT: /etc/inittab (9): action field too long
INIT: /etc/inittab (10): field too long (max 4 characters)
INIT: /etc/inittab (11): field too long (max 4 characters)

The brackets aren't curved they are square.

At the message below I enter a number,

Enter runlevel: 5
INIT: Entering runlevel:5
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel

Once I have got the message above the keyboard and mouse are again unresponsive, so I have to reset.

I have tried entering various numbers at the enter runlevel:, I have tried 5,0,1,3. I get the same message above ie, INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel and then I have no response from my keyboard or mouse.

I don't want to reinstall as I will lose all the stuff about the modem. I'm not sure what I have done, but is there some way for me to check that it is picking up my keyboard and mouse?

If you have any ideas, please let me know. Also as I am new be precise about what you want me to do and how I get to the place to do it.

Please let me know if I haven't posted this in the right place. If you need further information to help, please let me know.

Thank you very much in advance.

Nappy

legend1079 · 03-24-2004, 10:25 AM

during booting linux
it is written in red color
WELCOME TO REDHAT
then in brakets
(press i to enter interective mode)
then press i
then wait
after entering runlevel
it will ask u few question
i didn't remember but try to
RECONFIGURE YOUR HARDWARE FROM THERE
or when it was searching
ur new hardware
press F12
u will see the kudzu screen again
reconfigure ur keyboard
hope this will help
Second method
is only to rescue your linux installation
by using your redhat cds
boot ur system via RH CD 1
then enter in rescue mode
and proceed
or enter in installation graphically
and
during this donot remove your installation

nappy501 · 03-24-2004, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by legend1079
during booting linux
it is written in red color
WELCOME TO REDHAT
then in brakets
(press i to enter interective mode)
then press i
then wait
after entering runlevel
it will ask u few question
i didn't remember but try to
RECONFIGURE YOUR HARDWARE FROM THERE
or when it was searching
ur new hardware
press F12
u will see the kudzu screen again
reconfigure ur keyboard
hope this will help

Hi

It doesn't actually get that far. The Enter runlevel is before it gets to the Welcome to redhat.

Thanks for your reply.
Nappy

bnice · 03-24-2004, 02:32 PM

your /etc/inittab file has been hosed. If you can get into the system via a boot disk / installation cd you can probably edit it to correct the problem. If you can post the contents, some fine redhat user can probably compare it to their file and spot the difference.

Crazy Travis · 03-24-2004, 02:34 PM

unaltered inittab:

Quote:

#
# inittab This file describes how the INIT process should set up
# the system in a certain run-level.
#
# Author: Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@drinkel.nl.mugnet.org>
# Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes
#

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
# 0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 1 - Single user mode
# 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
# 3 - Full multiuser mode
# 4 - unused
# 5 - X11
# 6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#
id:5:initdefault:

# System initialization.
si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6

# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
# of power left. Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
# UPS connected and working correctly.
pf:

owerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down"

# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
pr:12345

owerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled"

# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

# Run xdm in runlevel 5
x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon

the smily faces are : p without the space

nappy501 · 03-24-2004, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bnice
your /etc/inittab file has been hosed. If you can get into the system via a boot disk / installation cd you can probably edit it to correct the problem. If you can post the contents, some fine redhat user can probably compare it to their file and spot the difference.

Hi
Thanks for your response.

As I am so new I think I need a bit more. I have found on the net how to boot into rescue mode.

Once there I'm not sure what to do next. How do I see the /etc/inittab file and what is 'hosed'?

When I have got to that bit I will quite gladly post the contents.

Regards

Nappy

nappy501 · 03-24-2004, 04:33 PM

Hi Crazy Travis,

Thank you for that, I had seen it on the net. From that I had tried typing 0,1,3 and 5, with no success.

The rest of it didn't make much more sense to me. I feel like someone is in a different country with a different spoken and written language. What is really disconcerting is I understand the words individually, but they make no sense together.

I'm sure I can do this though

Regards

Nappy

legend1079 · 03-24-2004, 07:29 PM

hey nappy
boot your system from Rh boot CD 1
enter in rescue mode
you will promt for login and password
enter as root
then it will be as
root@localhost root>#
then to enter in the /etc dir
write
cd /etc
then to view inittab use
cat inittab
or
pico inittab

nappy501 · 04-13-2004, 05:18 PM

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your replies. I reinstalled in the end as the inittab file through out garbage. Also I decided I wanted to try other distributions and there is probably no way I would beable to get my modem to work.

I have since purchased a second user 3Com U.S. Robotics 56k Message modem (external) and I can't get that to work either.

I've set it up and the lights on the modem flash, but in the Internet configuration wizard when I press activate, it says 'failed to activate ppp0 with error 8.

I have two serial ports and have tried swapping them over. My mouse works in either port so I don't think it is that.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards

Nappy