Linux Server Anomaly

Post by **b0b** » 14 Dec 2000 8:29 am

If you've been following Feedback, you know that I upgraded the RAM in the server last night. The hardware upgrade went smoothly, but there was a glitch when I brought Linux back up - Apache didn't start!

I traced it down to the fact that there was no /var/log/httpd directory for Apache to write its logs. In fact, the entire /var/log directory disappeared!

I had done an orderly shutdown using 'halt' from Red Hat's XWindows login screen. After the system had totally stopped, I turned it off and pulled the plug to do the upgrade.

It's disturbing to have a directory totally disappear. Can anyone here with Unix/Linux experience tell me what I did wrong?

------------------
<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/Averybob.gif" width=64 height=81>
 -b0b- quasar@b0b.com 
-System Administrator

George Rozak · Post by **George Rozak** » 14 Dec 2000 9:30 am

I don't use the XWindows system, so I always shut down from the command prompt using the following command as root:

shutdown -h now

You might try doing it that way next time & see what happens. You'll get a message telling you it's OK to power the system down. I'm only guessing, but maybe the missing directory was cached to RAM & somehow didn't get written back to the hard drive when you executed the halt command from XWindows.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 14 Dec 2000 11:12 am

b0b;
Try going here: Tech-TV Website
There is a whole bunch of Linux information and links there.
I don't know anything about Linux, but they do.
Good luck!
I just had to edit the link. HTML didn't work. It's now in UBB code. Please double check that the HTML is on. Thanks!

------------------
My best,
Ernie

The Official Buddy Emmons Website
www.buddyemmons.com[This message was edited by Ernie Renn on 14 December 2000 at 11:31 AM.]

ToneJunkie · Post by **ToneJunkie** » 14 Dec 2000 4:24 pm

b0b,

Running

Code: Select all

# halt

[/b] without first syncing the file system can be dangerous. The old school method is -

<BLOCKQUOTE>code:<HR><pre>
# sync
# sync
# halt
</pre><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The two

Code: Select all

# sync

[/b] commands synchronize the file system, but I believe Linux now supports

<BLOCKQUOTE>code:<HR><pre>
# shutdown now
</pre><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

which does your file system synchronization plus a lot of other housekeeping for you. Do a

<BLOCKQUOTE>code:<HR><pre>
# man shutdown
</pre><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

and see what ya get! I hope that helps.

Cheers

------------------
Robert Hicks - Fessenden S12U

Home Page: http://www.members.home.net/tonejunkie
Email: rhhicks@home.com

[This message was edited by ToneJunkie on 14 December 2000 at 04:27 PM][due to some embarrassing spelling issues][This message was edited by ToneJunkie on 14 December 2000 at 04:45 PM.]

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 14 Dec 2000 7:55 pm

I don't know if Linux supports the standard Unix commands, but when I shut down a Sun workstation, I use "sync" then "init 5". "man init" will explain the options.

Post by **b0b** » 15 Dec 2000 12:33 am

I actually can no longer get the system to come up properly in text mode. When I configure it to do that, I can't log in. I have the login prompt, but any user name I enter just clears the screen and redisplays the prompt. At one point I typed 'reboot' at the login prompt and got the following message:
<BLOCKQUOTE>code:<HR><pre>
Unable to load interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2
INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
</pre><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Needless to say, this was pretty disturbing. The server was up and running, though. I connected via the Linuxconf port and changed the boot mode back to Graphics.

Another symptom of this strange state is that I can no longer telnet into the server. I get the ID message and then it immediately terminates the connection.

This is bad, very bad. I don't have a backup system yet (no tape drive), and I'm getting pretty nervous about screwing things up. Maybe I can get a tape drive this weekend, go offline, backup the whole disk, and then try to troubleshoot it.

------------------
<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/Averybob.gif" width=64 height=81>
 -b0b- quasar@b0b.com 
-System Administrator

George Rozak · Post by **George Rozak** » 15 Dec 2000 6:04 pm

Just a thought b0b, but do you have a LILO boot disk that you could try, or can you create one from within XWindows? You might give that a shot. It should automatically mount your partitions & allow you to log in as root from the command prompt.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with Red Hat & XWindows to be of much help, but the symptoms that you're seeing sure sound strange. I agree that it would probably be a pretty good idea to do a backup before you go much further.

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 16 Dec 2000 1:28 pm

b0b, was the forum down this morning for you to do your backup or did it crash? Did you figure out the directory problem and are we back to normal?

ToneJunkie · Post by **ToneJunkie** » 17 Dec 2000 4:32 am

b0b,

If I had to guess, it looks like the shared object file or its filesystem inode was damaged somehow. Can you copy the /lib/ld-linux.so.2 shared object file from CD to your hard drive and reboot? If that doesn't do it for you, you may be looking at reinstalling Linux. You can try

<BLOCKQUOTE>code:<HR><pre>
# fsck
</pre><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

to run a check on the file system. It will identify any damaged inodes and the associated files. Be sure to do a

<BLOCKQUOTE>code:<HR><pre>
# man fsck
</pre><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

before you head down that path; the fsck command is very powerful.

Good luck!

------------------
Robert Hicks - Fessenden S12U

Home Page: http://www.members.home.net/tonejunkie
Email: rhhicks@home.com

Post by **b0b** » 18 Dec 2000 9:30 am

Thanks everyone. Everything seems to be working fine now.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 20 Dec 2000 1:56 pm

b0b, I noticed that in the D/D menu in the search area, you now have to search topics one at a time...was this a change, or just a lost file?