INIT: open(/dev/console): Input/output error

nykey · 07-25-2006, 07:06 AM

Hi. All of a sudden, after a quick install of Slackware and I did everything like always, this error appears at boot time

Code:

Using /etc/random-seed to initialize /dev/urandom.
INIT: open(/dev/console): Input/output error

It stays like that for a couple of minutes, then I see activity at my harddisk and after the login prompt appears and all works fine. Any idea how to fix this, cause instead of that error it should be showing me rc.hotplug's message, ldconfig, etc... Cheers.

osor · 07-25-2006, 10:14 AM

Maybe you need to change the permissions on /dev/console?

nykey · 07-25-2006, 11:28 AM

What would the permissions for /dev/console be ? This is what I've got

Code:

root@nykey:~# ls -al /dev/console
crw-------  1 root tty 5, 1 2006-07-25 12:14 /dev/console

SeekingWisdom · 07-26-2006, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nykey

What would the permissions for /dev/console be ? This is what I've got

Code:

root@nykey:~# ls -al /dev/console
crw-------  1 root tty 5, 1 2006-07-25 12:14 /dev/console

Comparing my permissions to yours, "chmod +w /dev/console" should do the trick.

raska · 07-26-2006, 07:29 PM

that could not be the proper solution...

I've the same permissions as nykey's ...

Code:

$ ls -l /dev/console
crw-------  1 root tty 5, 1 2006-07-21 12:10 /dev/console

how do you have these?

Code:

$ ls -l /dev/urandom /etc/random-seed
crw-rw-r--  1 root root 1, 9 2006-07-21 12:10 /dev/urandom
-rw-------  1 root root 4096 2006-07-21 12:10 /etc/random-seed

SeekingWisdom · 07-26-2006, 07:38 PM

Very interesting - my /dev/console is somehow not owned by root, and has differing permissions. Odd considering I just installed Slack on this machine a few days ago, and have never touched that file.

drkstr · 07-26-2006, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Hi. All of a sudden, after a quick install of Slackware and I did everything like always, this error appears at boot time

Which Slackware did you install, and how/how much did you install? This might be unrelated, but I got the same error after installing a base Slackware-current (a/ and a few from l/). I did it the same way I have many times before with slack 10.2 and had installed the packages on another partition from an allready running Slackware. I noticed that when I installed the secondary system, none of my library links were created (libtermcap.so.2 -> libtermcap.so.2.0.8 for instance). I had to create enough of the links manually to be able to chroot into the secondary system then run 'ldconfig' to update the rest of the libraries.

Can you boot to another system (Live CD?) and try to chroot into your broken install? Might give you an indication of the problem.

regards,
...drkstr

**edit**

Quote:

Very interesting - my /dev/console is somehow not owned by root, and has differing permissions. Odd considering I just installed Slack on this machine a few days ago, and have never touched that file.

Slackware uses a variety of users/groups for various files that need special permissions for non-root users. It is not uncommon to see files owned by groups such as tty,bin,utmp and so forth.

SeekingWisdom · 07-27-2006, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drkstr

Slackware uses a variety of users/groups for various files that need special permissions for non-root users. It is not uncommon to see files owned by groups such as tty,bin,utmp and so forth.

Of course, but why are my permissions different from theirs if I've never altered /dev/console?

Code:

oblique ~/bin $ ls -l /dev/console
crw--w--w-  1 oblique tty 5, 1 2006-07-26 16:45 /dev/console

Randux · 09-20-2006, 11:52 AM

I am also now (suddenly) getting this error as mentioned by nykey with same permissions as in his #3 post in this thread. I don't run current, I run 10.2. The only things I've done lately were to play around with sshd.

Did anybody ever figure out what's causing this? Now I'm missing some messages I used to get during init like the output from dhcpcd and later sshd.

Randux · 09-20-2006, 04:02 PM

I changed my vga mode in lilo and I rebooted 5 or six times without getting this error anymore. I have no idea if this is really fixed or not and I hate mysteries. The reason I changed the mode was that a search showed that somebody suggested that the error can be caused by a framebuffer problem. I chose a mode with higher resolution because I have a new screen (although it had worked fine without this error happening for a few weeks already

) and for now it's coming up without the error message and I can see the stuff I used to get before on the console.

nykey · 09-21-2006, 02:29 PM

I've tried many fixes which I got on forums, by googling, etc... and none worked for me so I just reinstalled the system because I had nothing to loose, just some free time.... and I didn't get the error anymore. I was and still am courios about it too... hopefully you'll get it solved.... Good luck.

gilead · 09-21-2006, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Randux

Now I'm missing some messages I used to get during init like the output from dhcpcd and later sshd.

What is the last application to log during boot? Or it might be better to ask what is the first one that doesn't log and is it consistent?

Randux · 09-21-2006, 04:30 PM

nykey, if you get it again try checking your video card to see what native modes it supports and choose a LILO vga mode (or use the default by not specifying anything) and see if that fixes it. It worked both ways for me but since I use console sometimes I needed a high resolution mode. I'm using 795 with my new screen.

Gilead, it hasn't happened again since I reinstalled LILO with the new vga mode (maybe 10 boots). Good question though, next time I boot I'll try to look at the messages and answer you.

Thanks guys,
Rand