Debain Not loading

[intelaravind]

I hv installed debian (lenny). My problem is that sometimes it loads perfecly, but on other times it gets stucks at mounted the root. and waiting for the root. wht shd i do?

[Absent Minded]

Without having more idea of your hardware, I would suggest that you check that your hard drive is working properly and that the filesystem is okay. Can you give us more to go on? As an example, your box only acts this way when it is warm booted and not when you have shut it off completely and let it set for a bit then turned it back on.

[craigevil]

What de/wm are you using? For example gnome/kde/xfce/lxde, or openbox, fluxbox etc.

What video card and drivers? what is the output of lspci -nn

How is your drive partitioned? fdisk -l

What kernel are you using? uname -a

The more details you provide the easier it is for people to help you. It also helps if you use complete words and not chat speak.

[intelaravind]

One more thing. I dont know whether this has anything to do with boot but still......

if i run automatic xconf (nvidia-xconfig), then it will say no drivers found, and then i cant get gui. i solved the prob by restoring xorg.conf

[intelaravind]

I normally use, gnome, but i do have kde (which i installed yesterday). But i had the prob from the beginning.

2) this is the output of lspci -nn. Well if u can explain what each line of o/p means, tht would be thank ful

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM Controller [8086:29c0] (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express PCI Express Root Port [8086:29c1] (rev 02)
00:03.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express MEI Controller [8086:29c4] (rev 02)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82566DC-2 Gigabit Network Connection [8086:294c] (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2937] (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2938] (rev 02)
00:1a.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 [8086:2939] (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:293c] (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:293e] (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2940] (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2942] (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [8086:2944] (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 [8086:2946] (rev 02)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 [8086:2948] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2934] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2935] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2936] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:293a] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801IH (ICH9DH) LPC Interface Controller [8086:2912] (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 4 port SATA IDE Controller [8086:2920] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:2930] (rev 02)
00:1f.5 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller [8086:2926] (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS] [10de:0392] (rev a1)
03:00.0 IDE interface [0101]: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6101 single-port PATA133 interface [11ab:6101] (rev b2)
07:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) [104c:8023]


3)o/p of fdisk-l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf9e7e7bc

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2 1378 11060752+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 1379 9733 67111537+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 2 1378 11060721 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x12591258

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 6374 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 6375 55822 397191060 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb3 55823 60801 39993817+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb5 6375 19122 102398278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 19123 31870 102398278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb7 31871 44618 102398278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb8 44619 49840 41943040 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb9 49840 55579 46097408 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb10 55580 55822 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris


4)o/p of uname -a

Linux debian 2.6.26-2-amd64 #1 SMP Tue Mar 9 22:29:32 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[intelaravind]

The prob appears on both cold and warm boot. My hdds are ok and filesystem is in tact. When the debian loads (as i told u it will work sometimes), it works like heaven

[praka123]

may be a badly set grub entry?Do You have grub2? sometimes grub will point to another harddisk(hd0...entries) partition(these days uuid's are used).in /boot/grub/directory ,make sure devices.map exists.edit it to point correct hard disks.then as root ,"update-grub" and grub-install /dev/xyz .
--
If not ,make sure once the system fails to complete boot ,it is not failing;ie ,Kernel Panic? If you're able to boot ,go to this directory: " /var/log/"
check dmeg,kern.log especially for the last boot sequence for anything suspicious.

Good Luck Ji!

[intelaravind]

How can i know, whether i have grub 2?

anyway, the grub entries were wrong i corrected them long b4. that's when i saw the debian 4 the first time. so i dont think its with grub. And it does not result in a kernel panic, it ends in a busybox.

what is this busybox?

[praka123]

@aravind:If you are on stable(lenny) ,then most probably you'll have legacy grub.anyways,leave it since you're sure about grub entries.
Did You Checked /var/log/kern.log ? You can install kerneloops package for more verbose output.
--
As Regarding You end up in busybox( a minimal environment with basic *nix tools) ,this Can be because of problem with the generated initramfs(initrd image) .May be of not loading file system modules or similar?


Once Boot successfully, in a root terminal:

Code: Select all

update-initramfs -c -k `uname -r`

OR

Code: Select all

dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-`uname -r`

[intelaravind]

o/p of update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.26-2-amd64

debian:/home/aravind# update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.26-2-amd64
Cannot create version 2.6.26-2-amd64: already exists

[intelaravind]

do u want the o/p of /var/log/kern.log

its too big

[praka123]

• *When the System Boot Sequence Fails and Falls into Busybox ,Try to note if any error is shown.
  * Try to exit busybox(by typing "exit" or "CTRL+D") to verify that kernel panic is occurring;if else Distro will boot into Login Screen.If it boots successfully,Check
  dmesg.0 ,kern.log files ,the end parts for a self analysis.
  *If grub uses UUID entries ,Verify that the UUID for your distro in Grub is correct(You can verify UUID For your Linux Partition by the command :

  Code: Select all

  ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/  |grep sdb3 

  and recheck.check your grub entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst starts with "(hd0,2)" or "(hd1,2)" and check in /boot/grub/device.map is like this :

  Code: Select all

  (hd0)	/dev/sda
  (hd1)	/dev/sdb

  
  *There can be many Reasons ,if the problem is not because of initramfs failing.Other Reasons too can cause;ie - buggy ACPI,Dying Hard Disk etc
  You can check hard disk condition using tools available(Seatools for eg or Smartmontools-in Linux).

--

o/p of update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.26-2-amd64

debian:/home/aravind# update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.26-2-amd64
Cannot create version 2.6.26-2-amd64: already exists

Try this as root :

Code: Select all

update-initramfs -c -k all

^and check if the process completes without error.
if you've net connection,try this also as root:

Code: Select all

apt-get install --reinstall udev 

do u want the o/p of /var/log/kern.log

its too big

Copy the Contents of /var/log/kern.log AND /var/log/dmesg.0 and paste the contents to http://pastebin.ca and give the link here.
It is great if you can post the date+time when the last boot to Debian Failed(So that We can directly check the messages for that particular boot).
--

[intelaravind]

If it is really the problem of grub, then it should not load at all right? but mine is not like that. it has a 30% success rate. and other times, it will take almost 10min to show the busybox.

if havent noticed a kernel panic. however, when it was stuck (b4 busybox come) i tried alt + ctrl + pause/break. It showed a set of commands. I think i chose kill and then a kernel panic resulted. If i do nothing then busy box will come.

1)o/p of update-initramfs -c -k all

2)apt-get install --reinstall udev


Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
knetwalk kpat kpdf kalzium-data ksokoban kolf xscreensaver-gl
kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data lisa blinken krdc imlib11 krec korn libdb4.6++
krfb hdparm kscd kppp libktnef1 libnet-ssleay-perl kshisen kmoon
kdeartwork-style kmahjongg ksig ksim libkscan1 kcharselect libxml-sax-perl
kcoloredit artsbuilder kdessh kanagram ktip kdeprint cervisia
kdeartwork-theme-window knode kmrml katomic ksvg kruler kdepim-kio-plugins
kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins ktux libio-stringy-perl klettres
libxml-sax-expat-perl gnuift-perl kgoldrunner kbackgammon libxine1-x kpoker
atlantikdesigner libkiten1 kgeography libparse-yapp-perl ksnapshot kpackage
liblockdev1 kooka kenolaba kblackbox libkcal2b konqueror-nsplugins kdebase
libxml-perl libboost-python1.34.1 libnews-nntpclient-perl klatin kfloppy
libopensync0 kstars ttf-dustin libcap1 libjpeg-progs libcrypt-ssleay-perl
ksame kbruch kpager libgnuift0c2a kde-icons-mono libxcb-xv0
kdeaddons-kfile-plugins libestools1.2 kfilereplace kdeadmin-kfile-plugins
libmime-tools-perl kde-core kcalc libpcap0.8 kicker-applets
libdate-manip-perl qca-tls libpoppler-qt2 dosfstools keduca klipper
texlive-fonts-recommended kandy konsolekalendar knewsticker-scripts
libxml-namespacesupport-perl kaudiocreator kaddressbook kdeedu-data
xscreensaver-data kontact kimagemapeditor kwalletmanager kweather kmplot
ttf-kochi-gothic libkpimexchange1 kalzium ksirc ksysguard libxml-libxml-perl
knetworkconf librss1 klinkstatus klickety kpovmodeler ksayit konq-plugins
kdepim-kresources libxml-libxml-common-perl kmouth kalarm talk kworldclock
mpeglib kdewebdev kmenuedit kregexpeditor kdegames festlex-cmu
kdeaccessibility kdict ktouch htdig lilo-config ktnef khexedit ksplash kedit
pinentry-gtk2 xscreensaver-gl-extra kbounce kvoctrain ttf-sazanami-mincho
korganizer kdetoys samba-common kbstate akregator ytalk tidy gettext arts
wireless-tools tipa kwordquiz kcron superkaramba kview noatun-plugins ktalkd
ktron kdegraphics-kfile-plugins ttf-sjfonts kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
libxml-handler-trees-perl libsilc-1.1-2 xscreensaver-data-extra cvs
kdenetwork festvox-kallpc16k libggi2 libxml-writer-perl perl-suid kttsd
dcoprss ksysv kwin4 libgii1 libksieve0 kate-plugins kuser libgsmme1c2a
kdeaddons kreversi kdf kdm kspaceduel libgle3 kig libcvsservice0 gnupg-agent
kpf juk libkdepim1a noatun kdnssd klines kghostview kfaxview kstars-data
poster edict lskat texlive-fonts-recommended-doc libxine1-console knotes
kgamma kviewshell libxml-regexp-perl ocrad kommander kdegames-card-data flac
libarts1-mpeglib kaddressbook-plugins ppp netpbm kgeography-data
kwifimanager kdeutils khelpcenter kjumpingcube kdepim-kfile-plugins
libgii1-target-x kdegraphics khangman libfinance-quote-perl
kdeartwork-theme-icon kdeartwork-misc kmailcvt kscreensaver libindex0
kanjidic imlib-base ksysguardd ksmiletris xli libkmime2 vorbis-tools
kpowersave psutils libxvmc1 libkleopatra1 lockfile-progs kxsldbg quanta
libmimelib1c2a kbattleship libmrml1c2a kiconedit kdeadmin libnetpbm10 kpilot
kasteroids kompare festival kfouleggs libkdeedu3 libxml-xql-perl libkgantt0
knewsticker docbook-defguide kopete festlex-poslex ksnake kdelibs
kdepim-wizards libkpimidentities1 kiten libtiff-tools kappfinder eyesapplet
kdat karm indi kate kmail kdeedu kdewallpapers kdelirc kscreensaver-xsavers
kpercentage libggi-target-x kjots libnet-libidn-perl klettres-data kfax
kdeartwork-emoticons libxcb-shape0 libconvert-binhex-perl gnuift ksirtet
xscreensaver kmines libxcb-shm0 kdvi kuickshow libio-socket-ssl-perl
kdenetwork-filesharing kgpg libxml-dom-perl konquest kolourpaint
fifteenapplet kmousetool kitchensync kmag libxine1-bin libtidy-0.99-0
libhtml-tableextract-perl kmilo ktuberling kturtle ktimer quanta-data kmid
kteatime libxine1-ffmpeg kverbos networkstatus kdepasswd kmix kdeartwork
kodo libarts1-audiofile
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 267kB of archives.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://http.us.debian.org lenny/main udev 0.125-7+lenny3 [267kB]
Fetched 267kB in 29s (9115B/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 147205 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace udev 0.125-7+lenny3 (using .../udev_0.125-7+lenny3_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement udev ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up udev (0.125-7+lenny3) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-amd64


I checked those log files. but i could not find the line which i was looking for.

) is there any file that shows the log of lines, which is displayed on the screen when 'quiet' opt is not used?
) can u tell me wht dmesg.0 and kern.log means? (i think kern.log is kernel log). And what is this '0' in those files

[intelaravind]

No that did not fix it

this is the exact o/p when busy box come


Loading please wait....
Aave up waiting for rrot device. common problems:
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
-chk root delay
chk rott -

-Missing moudles cat /proc/modules

Alert! /dev/sdb3 does not exist. Dropping a shell,


then busy box comes

[intelaravind]

some one pls help

[Absent Minded]

I don't too often suggest to someone needing a stable system that they try testing instead of stable. It might in this case be something worth trying. As you have mentioned to me that Ubuntu didn't have this kind of issue with your system. I am going to step out on a limb here since nothing else is working. Maybe your system needs to have a few newer base files. Squeeze (and Ubuntu) have newer versions of Grub, kernel, udev, acpi, ect. So with the idea that Squeeze will be the new stable soon (still a few months off) and that nothing else is helping, personally, I would give it a shot. If you lived through Ubuntu's bugs okay, then Squeeze's remaining bugs shouldn't pose too much of an issue for you.

Sorry, concidering what you have asserted to me about your hardware being completely "okay" I don't see much for remaining options other than getting your base files upgraded in some fassion. In this case, I think Squeeze is a reasonable thing to try. Obviously, you can't go on forever with your system only working 1/3rd of the time.

[jheaton5]

Go back to the beginning and read Absent Minded and craigevil's posts. Respond to their questions. I suspect that you have a hard drive problem. It certainly is not a grub problem.

[jheaton5]

@Absent Minded. I didn't see your latest post before I posted. Hopefully intelaravind will stay with you until he gets the issue resolved.

@intelaravind be sure to perform all the tests and provide all the information requested. Stay with one helper so you don't get confused or spend a lot of time going down a wrong path. Absent Minded and/or Craigevil have a lot of experience troubleshooting debian systems. Trust them.

[Absent Minded]

Not a problem jheaton5, thanks for your vote of confidence.
****

intelaravind, You stated that you had an Nvidia card/chipset in your computer. I however can not see it listed in your lspci output. Granted, I am not firmilier with what the -nn switch does to the output. I will have to look it up. Either way your video card, I doubt, has anything to do with the boot issue. Unless of course it is taking the resources needed by your hard drive controllers (I have seen this happen and is not extreamly uncommon).

[nadir]

Alert! /dev/sdb3 does not exist. Dropping a shell,

Check your /etc/fstab
I had wrong entries in /etc/fstab, sometimes it booted, sometimes it didn't.
(Once you are at it check /boot/grub/device.map too).
Just an idea, easy to check , then go on with what Absent suggests.