reboot from putty
 

Very strange problem,

I rebooted from putty on a windows machine over a local network with the "reboot" command. Now, upon going to the box I rebooted to see why it wouldn't accept another ssh session, it is in a perpetual (sp?) state of rebooting.

It gets to lilo, loads the kernel, then reboots over and over and over and over .........

????What the heck did I do????

I can boot the Slack cd and mount hda. I have no idea what to check for from there. I've been using Linux/Slack for about a year now and have been able to get myself out of most jambs but this one has me stumped.

Ideas?

It sounds like something else is going on... maybe check /etc/inittab for the default runlevel? I'd also take a look at the files in /var/log. Oh, and you might look through the init scripts in /etc/rc.d also.

Sorry I can't tell you exactly what to look for, but I hope this helps.

mis-read your post...

2 suggestions:

1. Power it down for a minute or 2, then restart.
2. Look in lilo.conf for a lone "6" at the end of the kernel line or an "append=" line of the active/default stanza.

Explanation of #2

Both lilo & GRUB allow the passing of a an run level to init (see man init) from their menus (see man lilo.conf or http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html). Usually we only see "1", "S", or "s" being passed, & that in the context of a failsafe or recovery mode -- all 3 indicate run level 1, single user mode.

Once I added 2 joke stanzas to a GRUB menu.lst: 1 w/ a "6", the other w/ a "0". I'm not sure which is funnier to foist on the unsuspecting.

In any case, the reboot looping you describe could be achieved this way.

before you have had that error, did you try to recompile your kernel or modify your boot config (lilo or grub)?

Thanks for all the replies,
I reinstalled lilo using the cd and it boots but I get:
Kernel Panic -not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,2)

???

I've been using the 2.6.13 kernel from /testing all along without problems.

kernel panic
 

Thanks for all the replies,
I reinstalled lilo using the cd and it boots but I get:
Kernel Panic -not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,2)

???

I've been using the 2.6.13 kernel from /testing all along without problems.

you're simply having problems with your modules. are you using a new kernel? and also are you using an initrd image? check for /boot/initrd* files.

Edit: maybe you missed including your initrd file in your lilo's config

I'm not using a new kernel or an initrd image. I have never had one and it worked just fine. I have another box with the 2.6.13 kernel and no initrd and it doesn't have any problems booting.

OK,

I booted with slack cd #1 and at the boot prompt I used "test26.s root=/dev/hda2 noinitrd ro" as described in another recent post and it booted my system!!!!

Went to /boot and made an initrd using the readme file, changed lilo, ran lilo :), rebooting.................

Yes! all is well.

Thanks for all the help

What I don't understand is why it worked before without an initrd and it needs one now. I have another box that is pretty much a mirror image of this one without an initrd and it works fine.

Because you were using a filesystem type not included in the generic 2.6 kernel (more than likely, Reiserfs), while the other was prob using ext3 or ext2

AS soon as you init 6, close putty immediately and it won't remember your ip and will allow the ssh when the system comes back up.