If you want to just look at the messages you can use the scrollback buffer: have the system boot in runlevel 3 and use shift-pgup to scroll up. The buffer is lost if you switch console.Try dmesg | less, or just look in /var/log. But some stuff never gets written there and is inevitably lost. Search the list for the past month or so; this has been mentioned a few times.
If you desperatly need to cut and paste some lines (ex. to produce some documentation) you can use this trick:
- install and configure gpm
- reboot in runlevel 3
- login
- press return a few times to leave some blank lines (a screenfull)
- edit a new text file
vi log_messages
- enter insert mode
- scroll up to the messages you want
- select them with the mouse
- paste them with third mouse button, they should be pasted into the text file
- repeat until you get all messages you need (you can copy just a screen at a time)
since each time yoy paste vi scrolls down it's better to start from the first lines you need
I've done this successfully to get the complete boot sequence of a pc and it works, but it's a real pain ;)
http://www.midhgard.it/docs/lvm/html/appendix.boot.messages.html
Before resorting to this horror I also tried a different approach:
I wrote a script that redirected the output of
the scrollback buffer to file: I think it was something like
cat /dev/vcsa1 >> log_file
and I called it at the end of the boot sequence at regular intervals (a few secs)... but, alas, it didn't work :)
Don't know if there is some package/tool able to get the content of the scrollback buffer.
Massimiliano
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Massimiliano Ferrero
Midhgard s.r.l.
C/so Re Umberto 23
10128 - Torino
tel. +39-0112301400 - fax +39-0112301422
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
sito web: http://www.midhgard.it
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