On Sun, 23 Jul 2000 10:06:41 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: > On Sun, 23 Jul 2000, Chris Rodliffe wrote: > > > > > I woulda said a skateboard :) > > > > > > Now - Heelp! I don't know what I screwed up, but I quit from Linux > > (in the proper way) and trying to start Linux up again, it got as far > as > > 'starting service atd' and hung. Three times. > > > > I tried 'interactive login' and skipping atd, but any of the succeeding > > services - crond, pcmcia etc - would hang too. > > > > I tried bypassing them all, but then it wouldn't let me log in but > > hung on password entry (not surprising really, since I guess one of > > those services does passwords). > > I think not. logins get recorded on /var/run/utmp and /var/log/wtmp. > HD problem? Is /var on a separate partition or different HD? It was all on the same 3GB 'new' (second-hand) hard drive. What aroused my suspicion was, after I managed to copy the at package onto the drive again with rpm, I actually got back into Linux, but then Gnome started telling me that things on the menus had gone missing. Now I hadn't deleted _anything_. So, I put my 1.6GB hard drive back and reinstalled Linux on that. Since I'd copied a lot of data onto the 3GB drive, I'll try and add it to the system and copy my stuff off it again, but I won't be trusting it till it's had a good soak test of some sort. (And no, I don't think viruses - I've only been reading stuff off the RH CD-ROM - which I suppose might have one? - and text email.) > > > > I tried running the cdrom in 'rescue' mode, with a view to seeing if > > replacing the files would fix it, the problem then is identifying > > which of the rpm's have the required files > > (rpm -qlp /Redhat/RPMS/*.rpm > fred gives a file showing all file > > destinations but not which rpm they're in, sometimes the place they > > go helps you guess the rpm names) > > rpm -qilp mixes in the package headers so (using less to read the > file) you can back up from the file names to see the package name and > description. I use slackware. Why do I have to answer rpm > questions? :-) Because you're a nice person? ;-) And thanks, that extra attribute on the rpm command is the one I've been needing. I'm learning a lot about Linux, fast :) > > > > What is a bigger problem is that > > rpm -ivh <path>/at-<version>.rpm > > just gives a message > > error: cannot open /var/lib/rpm/packages.rpm > > > > and this is true, because rescue mode gives a list of most > > directories but not /var. > > > I don't know what happened to it, but you need /var. > I thought rescue mounted a ramdisk on /, so it would have its own /var > and you can mount your partitions and inspect/repair them. > > one thing you might try is to make a filesystem on a floppy > (mkfs -t ext2 /dev/fd0, FI) and mount it on /var. Most programs that > need something in /var will make one if it doesn't exist. > > At a lilo prompt, > > <image name> root=/dev/<root partition> rw init=/bin/sh > > might give you a root shell without the need to log in. tab for a list > of <image names> Thanks, but I think I've found a way around the problem. > > > > All I can think of now is a complete reinstall of RH6.2.... > > which may be not without its own problems in persuading it > > to 'replace' the right bits of software. > > > > This has never happened to me before :( > > > > Chris > > > Sometimes my junk pentium 66 refuses to boot at all. I take out the hd, > put it in the fridge for 10 minutes, put it back, and it works. If it > is really humid I have to run the air conditioner for a few minutes with > the hd right in the airstream to dry it out. These measures might not > help you, but they might. > > Lawson > I'll see how my 3GB respnds to being hooked up to the system again - as a slave drive only. If it returns only garbage, I'll try your suggestions. Now I can get back to investigating SMTP. I suppose it's some sort of tribute to the consistency of Linux that kppp and SMTP are now behaving exactly the same way on this brand new installation as they did under the last brand new installation :) Chris .. obsolescence precedes reliability - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
