7.3 Redhat Boot lockup at Setting Hostname

[Barry Brimer]

Quoting Ray Van Dolson <rvandolson at esri.com>:

> On Tue, Jan 08, 2008 at 04:44:10PM -0500, Bruce Meyer wrote:
> > I have been using my Linux server for months and all of a sudden it
> > locks up during the boot startup at "Setting Hostname
> > myConputerName". I had a second kernel installed (smp) and it allowed
> > me to boot and login but on shutdown it hung and on restart had the
> > same problem. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled 7.3 RedHat. It
> > worked for awhile and the same problem happened?
> >
> > Is there anything that could trigger this? Is this a known virus or
> > hack? I can still boot in single user mode. Can I change or disable
> > something to allow the system to continue booting?
>
> Aside from the fact that you're running an incredibly old and
> unsupported version of RH, it sounds like you might have a hardware
> problem.
>
> Maybe a bad fan causing the CPU or system to overheat and behave
> erratically?  Bad memory?
>
> I'd at least pop open the case and take a look around.
>
> Ray

You might also try booting off of a rescue CD / live cd / Knoppix and see if the
problem exists there as well.