[svlug] the continuing saga of the supercheap eMachines box;-)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Alex Martelli (aleaxit at gmail.com):

> No doubt a useful transition helper for old-time users, but since I'm
> starting off with etch today I should probably stick with the new
> convention anyway.

Well, sure.

At the time I wrote my first post to you last night, I had noticed that
the kernel-image-2.6-* packages were (now) designated as "transitional",
but actually didn't know what the replacement convention was until you
told me.  (My production servers still use 2.4, which some days seems
like still a really good idea:
http://zgp.org/pipermail/linux-elitists/2006-July/011593.html)
 
> Yeah, that's what I'll try as the last resort if the need/urge to use
> USB keyboard and mouse becomes a big deal -- "compile a tweaked
> kernel" is apparently still the Linux panacea in much the same way as
> "reboot the box" is for Windows or "fix privileges" for MacOSX (of
> course, kernel compilation is so much faster today that it lacks the
> charismatic, sin-purging virtues it used to have a dozen years ago,
> but still...:-).

Honestly, I think you were extremely unlucky.  I've gotten so spoiled by
modular vendor kernels that I seldom bother to compile my own, and
haven't had to do so to work around hardware-related hangs in many, many
years.

> But, not before checking exactly what's going on at
> that "Detecting hardware" step... one thing that would be useful for
> the purpose: how do I save the dmesg from boot-time when I know the
> boot process is going to hang midway through, so I can later stare at
> every detail at leisure?

Er, well, if you either boot single-user or from a maintenance disk
(e.g., Knoppix), everything up to the switch to multiuser should still
be in the console log, retrievable using dmesg.


> The only suggestion about that that came at the installfest was to
> boot from a "serial console"

Huh?  {scratches head}  Maybe I'm missing something, here.

When you say "the Detecting hardware step, you mean this, right?  (Note
arrow on right.  Example startup stream is taken from someone's posting
about startup of an IBM Power box.)


[whole bunch of early kernel messages]
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
INIT: version 2.86 booting
Activating swap.
Adding 2099176k swap on /dev/sda7.  Priority:-1 extents:1
Checking root file system...
fsck 1.37 (21-Mar-2005)
/: clean, 6684/513072 files, 302437/1026048 blocks
EXT3 FS on sda2, internal journal
System time was Wed Jun 22 07:53:23 UTC 2005.
Setting the System Clock using the Hardware Clock as reference...
System Clock set. System local time is now Wed Jun 22 07:53:25 UTC 2005.
Cleaning up ifupdown...done.
Calculating module dependencies... done.
Loading modules...
     atkbd
     i8042
(/lib/modules/2.6.11-pseries/kernel/drivers/input/serio/i8042.ko): 
Device or resource busy
     ide-cd
     ide-generic
     psmouse
All modules loaded.
Checking all file systems...
fsck 1.37 (21-Mar-2005)
/tmp: clean, 15/1026088 files, 141445/2050032 blocks
/usr: clean, 51502/2101248 files, 328110/4194304 blocks
/var: clean, 4165/513024 files, 260263/1024508 blocks
Setting kernel variables ...
... done.
Mounting local filesystems...
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sda6, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sda3, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sda5, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
/dev/sda6 on /tmp type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda3 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda5 on /var type ext3 (rw)
Cleaning /tmp /var/run /var/lock.
Detecting hardware: e1000 ipr usb_ohci ehci_hcd            <=== HERE
Skipping already loaded module e1000.
Skipping already loaded module ipr.
Skipping already loaded module ohci_hcd.
Skipping already loaded module ehci_hcd.
Running 0dns-down to make sure resolv.conf is ok...done.
Setting up networking...done.
Starting hotplug subsystem:
[...]



I'm guessing that message is generated right around
/etc/rcS.d/S20modutils , in the Debian startup sequence.  (You might
want to verify that, though.)

However, disabling the modutils script seems more than a little drastic:
Maybe you should put "modulename off" in /etc/module , for some suitable
value of "modulename" whose autoloading by the booting kernel you want
to avert (pending debugging).