[K12OSN] odd reboot issue

[Angus Carr]

This one sounds like a failing drive - you mentioned something about a 
IO error (ok, I've responded to a message where that's been trimmed. 
Drat.) on some drive or another.

At a guess, it's blocking on reading a file which is partially on a 
failed sector of the disk. gdm is probably waiting for it, and 
eventually gives up and authenticates (that's why logging in would be 
slow). I would book a weekend to baby your server, or an evening, or 
something.

Boot off a livecd of some sort, and see what you can do. Perhaps 
replacing the drive is in order. That usually works for me.

Of course, you have your important data all backed up somehow, as all of 
us always do...:-)

If not, then make that your first priority off a livecd boot. Back it 
all up. Especially /home.

Angus Carr.

Calvin Park wrote:

>Alrighty. I just found something interesting. I was checking top and noticed
>one particular gdm-binary taking up 95% CPU. I joyfully said "Aha!" and
>pkilled the sucker. Which promptly locked my system until. The terminals
>upstairs went down and SSH no longer works. My server is now in the midst of
>a cold reboot. Ick, ick. But, that is a bit more information.
>
>Also, I'm including below the body of another one of my messages. I attached
>an image that was a bit too large (a screenshot) and so it's sitting waiting
>for moderation. Anyway, below is the body...if anyone wants the screenshot
>I'll send it to you privately.
>
>
>--------
>dmesg didn't tell me too much (though it is possible I'm missing something.
>I plan to go through it again). I took a look at /var/log/messages, and I've
>attached a screenshot (I beg forgiveness for using XP) of the last minute or
>so before it died last night. No problem that I could see.
>
>I've checked the KVM, and that particular port is working with our other
>Linux servers. :(
>
>-Calvin
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: k12osn-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com]On
>Behalf Of Les Mikesell
>Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 8:48 AM
>To: Support list for opensource software in schools.
>Subject: RE: [K12OSN] odd reboot issue
>
>
>On Wed, 2005-10-05 at 07:46, Calvin Park wrote:
>  
>
>>As an addendum to this, I'm in the process of rebooting all terminals, and
>>I've noticed that it waits quite a while at
>>
>>loading 192.168.0.254:/lts/vmzlinux.ltsp
>>
>>After that it boots like normal, but runs fairly slow...and still no luck
>>getting the monitor hooked to the server to display anything.
>>    
>>
>
>Ssh in and run 'dmesg |less'.  Do a 'G' to go to the end and
>scroll backwards with the page-up or control-b keys.  You
>might see something to explain what went wrong.  If not,
>look in /var/log/messages for anything unusual. The display
>problem could be the KVM, too.
>
>--
>  Les Mikesell
>     les at futuresource.com
>
>
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>  
>