Linux Server Anomaly

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

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?

------------------

-b0b- quasar@b0b.com
-System Administrator

George Rozak · From: Braidwood, Illinois USA

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 · From: Brainerd, Minnesota USA

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 · From: Columbia, MD, USA

b0b,

Running

Code:

# halt

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

code:

# sync
# sync
# halt

The two

Code:

# sync

commands synchronize the file system, but I believe Linux now supports

code:

# shutdown now

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

code:

# man shutdown

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 · From: San Jose, CA

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.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

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:

code:



Unable to load interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2


INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

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.

------------------

-b0b- quasar@b0b.com
-System Administrator

George Rozak · From: Braidwood, Illinois USA

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 · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

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 · From: Columbia, MD, USA

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

code:




# fsck

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

code:




# man fsck

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

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Thanks everyone. Everything seems to be working fine now.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

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?

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