IVLInfo
asked on
Fedora 12 freezes after bootup
Last night I locked the screen on my Fedora 12 workstation. When I came in this AM, I only had a blue screen. The mouse worked but I couldn't unlock or access anything. In other words, just a blank blue screen. I rebooted. The machine goes through boot up ok until just after the Fedora logo appears. Then the system seems to freeze up. No keyboard input works, no mouse either. For a short while after boot up, the num lock key works and then stops responding. This happens every time I reboot now. The workstation does not seem to be overheating and the fans all work. Other than a nagios installation, there's nothing special about the config. Ideas?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Google did not find any Liniux LiveCD for me. (?)
I recommend the Live SystemRescueCD - http://www.sysresccd.org/Download
Its iso is about 250MB. Burn it to CD (there are many free ISO burning utils) and boot from it. Choose a resolution at the first screen... the default is OK; I usually choose the high-resolution (3rd one down) if the hardware can do at least 1280x1024. Hit Enter when it stops at the keymap prompt or it will time out and use the US keymap after 20 seconds anyway.
When it drops you at the $ prompt, if you want a GUI, type "wizard" (sans quotes) and hit Enter. Then you can choose among a few different desktops (I don't recall gnome being one of them though)... I usually pick the default XFCE if I want a GUI.
You could also use the fc12 install DVD in rescue mode, or CD#1 if you have the CD set. I've never tried 'rescue' mode with either iso on a bootable USB stick, but I don't know why that wouldn't work too. 'Rescue' is usually the 4th option on the initial boot menu. Then just follow the prompts and at the end note the instructions to chroot to where it mounts the fedora it finds (/mnt/sysimag or something like that). Tell it to mount it read-only the first time if you just want to look around... you can always reboot and mount it r/w later. Seems like those all had memtest on them too (I believe memtest was dropped from the fc13 packages).
Assuming you don't have a current backup, there's also Clonezilla Live (http://clonezilla.org/download/sourceforge/ ). A drive on the verge of going bad might not have the time left that it takes some recovery cloning programs to get down to the byte level... clonezilla's 'recovery' mode skips the sector if the controller tells it 'read error' and goes on to the next one.
I recommend the Live SystemRescueCD - http://www.sysresccd.org/Download
Its iso is about 250MB. Burn it to CD (there are many free ISO burning utils) and boot from it. Choose a resolution at the first screen... the default is OK; I usually choose the high-resolution (3rd one down) if the hardware can do at least 1280x1024. Hit Enter when it stops at the keymap prompt or it will time out and use the US keymap after 20 seconds anyway.
When it drops you at the $ prompt, if you want a GUI, type "wizard" (sans quotes) and hit Enter. Then you can choose among a few different desktops (I don't recall gnome being one of them though)... I usually pick the default XFCE if I want a GUI.
You could also use the fc12 install DVD in rescue mode, or CD#1 if you have the CD set. I've never tried 'rescue' mode with either iso on a bootable USB stick, but I don't know why that wouldn't work too. 'Rescue' is usually the 4th option on the initial boot menu. Then just follow the prompts and at the end note the instructions to chroot to where it mounts the fedora it finds (/mnt/sysimag or something like that). Tell it to mount it read-only the first time if you just want to look around... you can always reboot and mount it r/w later. Seems like those all had memtest on them too (I believe memtest was dropped from the fc13 packages).
Assuming you don't have a current backup, there's also Clonezilla Live (http://clonezilla.org/download/sourceforge/ ). A drive on the verge of going bad might not have the time left that it takes some recovery cloning programs to get down to the byte level... clonezilla's 'recovery' mode skips the sector if the controller tells it 'read error' and goes on to the next one.
You don't need a rescue CD unless your system has gone completely belly up. I think this is a video problem.
Follow these steps to the letter to boot into single user mode --if it's a video problem this will get you in.
At the GRUB menu press any key to stop the timer.
Use the arrow keys to highlight the kernel you're boot.
Press "e" to edit.
Use the arrow keys to highlight the line with "kernel" in it, second line?
Press "e" to edit.
Type a blank space with the space bar.
Type the word "single"
Press enter.
Press "b" to boot.
At the root prompt:
# vi /etc/inittab
Find the line that reads initdefault and change the "3" to a "5". With this you'll boot into text mode. Now you can dig for error messages in /var/log/messages and such.
To revert back to video, change the "5" to "3".
----
Follow these steps to the letter to boot into single user mode --if it's a video problem this will get you in.
At the GRUB menu press any key to stop the timer.
Use the arrow keys to highlight the kernel you're boot.
Press "e" to edit.
Use the arrow keys to highlight the line with "kernel" in it, second line?
Press "e" to edit.
Type a blank space with the space bar.
Type the word "single"
Press enter.
Press "b" to boot.
At the root prompt:
# vi /etc/inittab
Find the line that reads initdefault and change the "3" to a "5". With this you'll boot into text mode. Now you can dig for error messages in /var/log/messages and such.
To revert back to video, change the "5" to "3".
----
Digit "1" should work instead of "single" - you might like to try that.
The world "single" does work just like "1" does. I've used them both a number of times.
"single" is more descriptive to someone not familiar with what the run-level numbers mean.
When in doubt and if you want to find out in what run-level you are enter at the command line: "who -r"
----
"single" is more descriptive to someone not familiar with what the run-level numbers mean.
When in doubt and if you want to find out in what run-level you are enter at the command line: "who -r"
----
ASKER
Sorry about the delay. I forgot that I had posted this here. Anyway, with a Live CD of Centos Iwas able to grab the cfg files for my Nagios setup. In the end I had to reinstall. Thanks.
ASKER