Forum OpenACS Q&A: Boot process hangs: tcpserver: status: 0/40

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1: Boot process hangs: tcpserver: status: 0/40
Posted by Frank Mannix on 08/07/03 10:09 PM

Software:

  • OpenACS 4.6.3
  • PostGreSQL 7.2.4
  • AOLserver 3.3oacs1
  • Daemontools 0.76
  • Qmail 1.03
  • ucspi-tcp 0.88

Senario:

I recently installed OpenACS 4.6.3. In doing so I pretty much followed the installation guide to the letter. I rebooted the system for the first time since the installation and the boot process is hung after executing something to do with tcpserver. Here's a snipit of what I see at the console: 


   [...many lines omitted...]

   Starting xfs:                                      [OK]
   Starting atd:                                      [OK]
   Starting networker: starting NetWorker daemons:
    nsrexecd
                                                      [OK]
   Starting postgresql:                               [OK]
   tcpserver: status: 0/40

   (...hangs indefinately)

Questions:

  1. How does one break out of a hung boot process and get to some semblance of a terminal session in order to isolate the problem?
  2. Any ideas on what might be causing the boot process to hang?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Frank

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2: More information... (response to 1)
Posted by Frank Mannix on 08/07/03 10:20 PM
Forgot to mention, I'm running RH Linux 8.

Frank

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3: Re: Boot process hangs: tcpserver: status: 0/40 (response to 1)
Posted by C. R. Oldham on 08/07/03 10:39 PM
If you are lucky, sshd starts before tcpserver so you could ssh in from another box.

If you are not as lucky, you can boot the system in single-user mode and that should get you to a shell prompt before tcpserver starts.

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4: Re: Boot process hangs: tcpserver: status: 0/40 (response to 1)
Posted by Joel Aufrecht on 08/08/03 10:09 PM
I think this may be due to a typo in the install instructions. When Red Hat runs rc.local as the last step of the boot process, it chokes on a bad line break.

To get past this on boot, interrupt the boot process (I think by pressing "c") when prompted, and go through the services manually. The problem service is "local" - be sure not to run that. Once you've booted fully, edit /etc/rc.local and take out the qmail lines.

You can fix the problem by finding the typo in rc.local or by running qmail with daemontools. This is the recommended approach and I've documented it in the new version of the Install Guide.

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5: Re: Boot process hangs: tcpserver: status: 0/40 (response to 4)
Posted by Frank Mannix on 08/12/03 05:27 PM
Joel,

Thanks for documenting how to set up qmail so that it is under the control of daemontools.  It's been working great.

Seems that each incremental release of the installation guide for the last year has lead to dramatic improvements in the guide's usefulness.

As for what caused the boot to hang... I don't know.  I wasn't able to break into the boot process in single user mode so I started from scratch.  Given the much improved installation guides, it doesn't take long to build a complete OpenACS system these days.

Frank