File which causes scrolling commands durning boot-up

[irlandes]

Several years ago, my laptop stopped booting Mandriva LE 2005. I found a file, by memory a script file of some sort, which had the call-outs which cause things to scroll on the screen during boot-up. I believe this included loading drivers and things like that.

I used Puppy to edit that file, and put in echo commands at various points until I found the line which crashed. I commented that line, and to this day Mandriva LE 2005 boots and runs fine, so whatever that line did wasn't important.

Alas, I have forgotten which file it is which lists the lines scrolled on the screen.

Any ideas?

I still want to know what Mepis does when it boots. I thought it was initrd, but that is an image on Mepis.

It's pretty bad when I can't even remember what I knew in the past.

[dr_te_z]

I'm afraid you're referrring to "/etc/inittab". Do not edit this unless you know what you are doing! Normally it aint broke, so do not start "fixing" it.
When you want to see what the boot-process did, use the command "dmesg".

[stumbles]

I think the terminal command you want is "dmesg".

[ph34r]

dmesg will dump the messages after login. You can redirect ti to a text file, grep it for a string, etc.

Most of your init scripts will be in /etc/init.d, and be called from your runlevel directory which is probably /etc/rc2.d - you'll see links in there pointing to the scripts in /etc/init.d - the names for the links will be S## or K## - links with S start, with K kills, and the numbers control what order they are done in.

[irlandes]

I'm afraid you're referrring to "/etc/inittab". Do not edit this unless you know what you are doing! Normally it aint broke, so do not start "fixing" it.
When you want to see what the boot-process did, use the command "dmesg".

Are you saying I should not have fixed it several years ago so it still works? Whichever file it was, was straight forward call-outs of what was scrolling on the screen until it froze. It was not some tricky script file with magical call-outs that are not immediately apparent as to what they do. When I remarked that line that froze, it has worked correctly ever since.

I am across town for the evening. When I get home, I will look at /etc/inittab and see if that is what it was. I am on Kubuntu 7.04 which does not have such a file. The laptop with Mandriva LE 2005 on it got hit by lightning; the computer works, but the NIC and CD don't. I use it to print on my old parallel port printers by moving files with Flash.

Also. on the files mentioned on rc5.d and so forth, those tend to be scripts which need to be studied, rather than read. Maybe that is the current trend, I don't know.

I think I need to do a project to learn how the new boot sequence works on the newer distros, it seems what I learned before is obsolete.

My problem is, I have been using Linux since 1999. I tend to enter what I do of importance in notebooks, and now I have a pile of notebooks, so when I need something from the past, it has become a nearly impossible task to find my original notes.

Also, those notebooks are in Mexico. But, if /etc/inittab isn't it, I will need to do some serious digging when I get home to Mexico.

To tell people, Don't touch it, the programmers know what they are doing, brings Microsoft windows to mind.

In this case, I am trying to find out why Mepis 7.0 live CD changed UUID for my swap partition. I asked on the Mepis forum. I was called ugly names, accused of being a troll, and a smart-aleck from NZ told me later I was banned, since "live CD's can't write to HD". Like they think I didn't see what I saw, which was a scrolling statement that the UUID for swap was set, with the new UUID number plainly stated. Being attacked like that for reporting exactly what happened has created a strong hostility for anything named Mepis. But, I'd still like to see where it is called out to set the UUID of swap from the live CD.

Which brings up questions. If live CD does not write to HD, how can swap be used by a live CD?????????????

Also, why are such things being hidden from users, in the MS manner?

I remember the first time I realized the Linux programmers were making our decisions for us, ala MS. One distro, I forget if it was SuSe or Mandriva, put in a configuration script, which if you as owner of your computer, changed permissions on files, they, without telling you, automatically changed them back.

[irlandes]

I got lucky. Via Google, for Kubuntu:

From /etc/init.d README FILE: Most Unix versions have a file here that describes how the scripts in this directory work, and how the links in the /etc/rc?.d/ directories influence system startup/shutdown.

For Debian, this information is contained in the policy manual, chapter
"System run levels and init.d scripts". The Debian Policy Manual is
available at:

http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/#contents

The Debian Policy Manual is also available in the Debian package
"debian-policy". When this package is installed, the policy manual can be
found in directory /usr/share/doc/debian-policy. If you have a browser
installed you can probably read it at

file://localhost/usr/share/doc/debian-policy/

Cool! Doesn't help me with Mepis, but it is what I have been wanting to know.

[irlandes]

A good summary is at:

http://oldfield.wattle.id.au/luv/boot.html

It is amazing how I can get totally stuck at times, then with a small clue, it breaks open. I think adding inittab to the google search is what broke the dike. Thanks.

[irlandes]

I am still amazed at how easily I found that file before, and fixed it. And, now it seems to be hiding. I am wondering if maybe it wasn't LE 2005 but older 10.2, but I am not sure.

For sure it is not inittab. That is merely an invoking file, calling other scripts.

My memory has opened up a notch. It was a plain English file, with a number of call outs and every so often an ECHO command which printed something on the bootscreen. Perhaps Bash, but not sure now, but it was rather plain English and straight forward.

It was in the area of: "Activating Swap partitions" but I can't remember if it was before or after.

I simply added ECHO statements with Puppy and re-booted to see again where it froze. When it became apparent which line froze, I commented it out and it worked perfectly. So that driver or utility wasn't needed.

I am going to stop this project and next week after I get home and take care of our irrigation cycle, I am going to do the horrid task of digging through my old notebooks. This is plaguing me a lot.

[folkert]

I assume you do not mean /etc/rc.local? In my system (debian) it didn't do anyting until i modified it.

[ph34r]

Maybe a Slackware based distro,which uses BSD init. /etc/rc.S I think? Simply checks to see if other scripts are executable (for networking, file system, etc) and runs them if they are...

I am still amazed at how easily I found that file before, and fixed it. And, now it seems to be hiding. I am wondering if maybe it wasn't LE 2005 but older 10.2, but I am not sure.

For sure it is not inittab. That is merely an invoking file, calling other scripts.

My memory has opened up a notch. It was a plain English file, with a number of call outs and every so often an ECHO command which printed something on the bootscreen. Perhaps Bash, but not sure now, but it was rather plain English and straight forward.

It was in the area of: "Activating Swap partitions" but I can't remember if it was before or after.

I simply added ECHO statements with Puppy and re-booted to see again where it froze. When it became apparent which line froze, I commented it out and it worked perfectly. So that driver or utility wasn't needed.

I am going to stop this project and next week after I get home and take care of our irrigation cycle, I am going to do the horrid task of digging through my old notebooks. This is plaguing me a lot.