Re: After a few weeks of almost no issues, Wheezy doesn't boot anymore
copy /var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog (and send to list, of course)? Also /etc/fstab plus result of sfdisk -lxuM /dev/sd command (or pvs --all lvs --all, if you use LVM)... -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-amd64-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/518c932e.4090...@yandex.ru
Re: After a few weeks of almost no issues, Wheezy doesn't boot anymore
On Thu, May 09, 2013 at 09:04:47PM -0400, Harry Prevor wrote: So a few weeks ago, I decided to install Debian Wheezy (then unstable) on a computer I built for my brother. The normal images didn't work for some reason now forgotten, so I had to use the unofficial installation images that included nonfree drivers. I had some problem (also now unforgotten) that made the computer take ~20 minutes to boot up for the first time, but after that Gnome 3 was working fine. Because my younger brother uses this computer and the free software drivers didn't do the graphics card in it (NVidia GTX 660) justice, I had to install the nvidia proprietary drivers as well a few days later if it matters. I pretty much followed the instructions verbatim from http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers (the Debian way), and the drivers were working fine for a few weeks. I can't remember how many times I rebooted the system during the time when it worked, but it was a few times. I had sometimes gotten similar messages upon boot, but I had always assumed it would be like my first boot in that I would just have to wait thirty minutes for the boot, so rather than waiting I typically did a hard reboot (upon which I did not get the message and the system booted immediately). However, recently I did a hard reboot and I kept getting the same messages, over and over, and they didn't just stop after twenty minutes, making my system essentially bricked. OK. It looks like you're getting general protection faults. It's hard to tell exactly, because we don't see the top of the oops message (pressing shift+pgup should allow you to scroll back). I would suggest, though, that you've possibly got a corrupt disk. Probably during one of those hard reboots. Because it would be rather tedious to type all these messages out manually, I have compiled a video for you all to demonstrate the problem (please mute the audio): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReYNd5p5TvA Sorry for the shaky camera; I could not find a suitable place to rest the camera. Any ideas as to how to debug this? I could probably burn a live Debian USB to debug the issue but I suspect that the live system would not work without the proprietary drivers included in the system. If the only proprietary driver you need is the Nvidia X driver, then a rescue disc will work fine for you. You're likely to be pottering about at the command line anyway. I would start by checking SMART logs on both drives (in case they've failed badly), then try fscking the filesystems. Then try something like debsums -c to search for changed files. With luck, you may just need to re-install the kernel. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: After a few weeks of almost no issues, Wheezy doesn't boot anymore
Thanks a lot for your helpful responses guys. I'm at a public computer right now and haven't had a chance to try your ideas yet, but I've noticed a few things that I'd like to clarify: On 5/9/13, Chris Swenson ch...@cswenson.com wrote: Given that these problems were occurring before, I'm guessing you have bad hardware that just decided to coincidentally die with your new install of the OS. Perhaps all the writes to the disk did it when you upgraded. I installed Wheezy from the get-go on this machine; I had done a few apt-get upgrades but no major distribution upgrades. Oddly enough, the hardware didn't seem to die in conjunction with anything important; just a reboot. On 5/10/13, Артём Н. artio...@yandex.ru wrote: 10.05.2013 05:04, Harry Prevor пишет: The normal images didn't work for some reason now forgotten, so I had to use the unofficial installation images that included nonfree drivers. What are the drivers? I've forgotten by now, but all I remember is that the official USB installation images didn't work because they thought my USB was a CD drive or something along those lines, and then tried to look for CD drives and failed (because I have none on this machine). I asked #debian about it and they said to try the unofficial images, so I did and they worked fine. How did you install the system? From DVD or from network? Or in some other way? I installed it via the unofficial USB installation images with included proprietary drivers. - Two HDDs connected and set via /etc/fstab to mount on boot (this configuration worked in previous boots so I doubt that is the issue) SSD? No; they are HDDs unfortunately. On 5/10/13, vi...@tiensuu.eu vi...@tiensuu.eu wrote: Have you installed/upgraded any drivers or installed a new kernel just before you rebooted the system and it started to crash on boot like this? Nvidia's proprietary drivers have always been a pain. No, or at least, not that I know of. I might have done an apt-get upgrade or something, but nothing major. I had already booted successfully directly after installing the nvidia driver before. On 5/10/13, Darac Marjal mailingl...@darac.org.uk wrote: If the only proprietary driver you need is the Nvidia X driver, then a rescue disc will work fine for you. You're likely to be pottering about at the command line anyway. I don't *need* the nvidia driver at all; everything works in the installation without the drivers AFAIK -- But because my brother uses this machine for gaming he needs the better 3D performance, so I installed it after installing the system. I had to use the installation image with drivers for other reasons -- See above. When I get home, here is a list of the things I'll try, in order: - Make sure the RAM is securely in place - Try to boot into single-user mode via GRUB; if that doesn't work, I'll try going in via a LiveUSB and chroot into the system - Pastebin /var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog - Pastebin partition / filesystem information - Pastebin /etc/fstab plus result of sfdisk -lxuM /dev/sd - Pastebin debsums -c - Run fsck on my hard drives - Include SMART logs (will look that up later) - Install and try out the memory checking package If any of this is wrong, please let me know. Thanks again. -- Harry Prevor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-amd64-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/cabafzd2de-61csvhkonbahpjxuhw4r+rva4xonr1koe85f-...@mail.gmail.com
Re: After a few weeks of almost no issues, Wheezy doesn't boot anymore
On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 01:23:09PM -0400, Harry Prevor wrote: Thanks a lot for your helpful responses guys. I'm at a public computer right now and haven't had a chance to try your ideas yet, but I've noticed a few things that I'd like to clarify: On 5/9/13, Chris Swenson ch...@cswenson.com wrote: Given that these problems were occurring before, I'm guessing you have bad hardware that just decided to coincidentally die with your new install of the OS. Perhaps all the writes to the disk did it when you upgraded. I installed Wheezy from the get-go on this machine; I had done a few apt-get upgrades but no major distribution upgrades. Oddly enough, the hardware didn't seem to die in conjunction with anything important; just a reboot. On 5/10/13, Артём Н. artio...@yandex.ru wrote: 10.05.2013 05:04, Harry Prevor пишет: The normal images didn't work for some reason now forgotten, so I had to use the unofficial installation images that included nonfree drivers. What are the drivers? I've forgotten by now, but all I remember is that the official USB installation images didn't work because they thought my USB was a CD drive or something along those lines, and then tried to look for CD drives and failed (because I have none on this machine). I asked #debian about it and they said to try the unofficial images, so I did and they worked fine. How did you install the system? From DVD or from network? Or in some other way? I installed it via the unofficial USB installation images with included proprietary drivers. - Two HDDs connected and set via /etc/fstab to mount on boot (this configuration worked in previous boots so I doubt that is the issue) SSD? No; they are HDDs unfortunately. On 5/10/13, vi...@tiensuu.eu vi...@tiensuu.eu wrote: Have you installed/upgraded any drivers or installed a new kernel just before you rebooted the system and it started to crash on boot like this? Nvidia's proprietary drivers have always been a pain. No, or at least, not that I know of. I might have done an apt-get upgrade or something, but nothing major. I had already booted successfully directly after installing the nvidia driver before. On 5/10/13, Darac Marjal mailingl...@darac.org.uk wrote: If the only proprietary driver you need is the Nvidia X driver, then a rescue disc will work fine for you. You're likely to be pottering about at the command line anyway. I don't *need* the nvidia driver at all; everything works in the installation without the drivers AFAIK -- But because my brother uses this machine for gaming he needs the better 3D performance, so I installed it after installing the system. I had to use the installation image with drivers for other reasons -- See above. When I get home, here is a list of the things I'll try, in order: - Make sure the RAM is securely in place - Try to boot into single-user mode via GRUB; if that doesn't work, I'll try going in via a LiveUSB and chroot into the system - Pastebin /var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog - Pastebin partition / filesystem information - Pastebin /etc/fstab plus result of sfdisk -lxuM /dev/sd - Pastebin debsums -c - Run fsck on my hard drives - Include SMART logs (will look that up later) - Install and try out the memory checking package If any of this is wrong, please let me know. Thanks again. I would say that either very corrupt disk, bad ram or bad cpu seems most likely. Of course a bad power supply can also make everything not work reliably. -- Len Sorensen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-amd64-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20130510182245.ga14...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
