9/24/2014

Cool Solutions: Troubleshooting the SLES10 Boot Process

Troubleshooting the SLES10 Boot Process

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By Jason Record
Digg This - Slashdot This
Posted: 21 Jun 2007

Overview
When a server fails to boot, a critical situation is at hand. The purpose of this document is to provide a quick reference guide to
narrow down the cause of a failed boot and get the server back up as quickly as possible. It is based on SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 10 (SLES10).

Troubleshooting Procedure
1. The primary troubleshooting objective is to narrow down where in the boot process the failure occurred.
2. The boot process is summarized below. For more details, refer to the Troubleshooting Table below.

BIOS -> MBR/stage1 -> stage2 -> kernel/initrd -> init -> boot -> rc -> login
3. Look at the failed server's screen for the last on-screen landmark that matches the troubleshooting table's "On-Screen
Landmarks".
4. Once you determine how far in the boot process the failure occurred, look at the troubleshooting table's associated
files and troubleshooting/potential fixes.
5. The two most identifiable on-screen landmarks are:
1. The grub boot menu screen (Troubleshooting Table, Line 3)
2. Seeing the word "done" scrolling across the screen (Troubleshooting Table, Lines 8 and 11)
6. The purpose of boot installed system, run level 1 and chroot installed system is to get the server in an operational
maintenance state, so further problem resolution can be completed.
7. Boot Installed System (BIS) Procedure
1. If this procedure works, then the problem is most likely on lines 1-6 of the troubleshooting table.
2. Boot from CD1
3. Select "Installation"
4. Select your Language
5. Accept the License Agreement
6. Click "Other"
7. Select "Boot Installed System"
8. Click "OK"
8. Boot to Run Level 1
1. Run level 1 is very similar to chroot installed system (CIS), but the kernel does it for you. You also have
access to yast and the proc filesystem. So, run level 1 is preferred over CIS.
2. Append "init 1" to the boot options line of the default boot kernel (ie SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10)
3. Type root's password
4. If you need network access, just use yast to configure it

yast lan > Next > Edit > Next > Next/Finish
9. chroot Installed System (CIS) Procedure
1. Used mostly in lines 7-14 of the troubleshooting table.
2. Boot from CD1
3. Select "Rescue System", Rescue login: root
4. Your first goal is to find and mount the root "/" partition, so we can see /etc/fstab
1. Run cat /proc/partitions to find the disk devices the OS sees
2. For each device, display the partition table

ls-boot:~ # parted -s /dev/sda print

Disk geometry for /dev/sda: 0kB - 2147MB
Disk label type: msdos
Number Start
End
Size
Type
1
32kB
214MB
214MB
primary
2
214MB
535MB
321MB
primary
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File system
ext2
linux-swap

Flags
boot, type=83
type=82
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9/24/2014

Cool Solutions: Troubleshooting the SLES10 Boot Process

3
5
6
7

535MB
535MB
1012MB
1596MB

2147MB
1012MB
1596MB
2147MB

1612MB
477MB
584MB
551MB

extended
logical
logical
logical

reiserfs
reiserfs
reiserfs

lba, type=0f
type=83
type=83
type=83

3. You can ignore type 82 swap and type 0f extended partitions

4. To find the root partition, you may need to just guess. For example,
1. mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
2. ls -l /mnt
3. If the /mnt directory listing shows /etc and /root, then its the root partition
4. Repeat these steps for each device until you find root. In this case, the root device is
/dev/sda6
5. mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
5. Mount all additional file systems relative to /mnt
1. Run cat /mnt/etc/fstab

Rescue# cat /mnt/etc/fstab

/dev/sda6
/
/dev/sda1
/boot
/dev/sda7
/usr
/dev/sda5
/var
/dev/sda2
swap
proc
/proc
sysfs
/sys
debugfs
/sys/kernel/debug
devpts
/dev/pts
/dev/fd0
/media/floppy

reiserfs
ext2
reiserfs
reiserfs
swap
proc
sysfs
debugfs
devpts
auto

acl,user_xattr
acl,user_xattr
acl,user_xattr
acl,user_xattr
defaults
defaults
noauto
noauto
mode=0620,gid=5
noauto,user,sync

1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0

1
2
2
2
0
0
0
0
0
0

2. This shows the system devices and their mount points.

3. Mount all additional file systems, for example.

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/var
mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/usr
6. chroot to the mounted installed system. The chroot command remaps /mnt as root "/".

chroot /mnt
1. If this command fails, then you need to confirm that /mnt/bin/bash and glibc on the installed system
are valid.
2. To return to the rescue system, type exit.

Troubleshooting Table
BIS = Boot Installed System Procedure
CIS = chroot Installed System Procedure
Boot Process

Associated File(s)

On-Screen Landmarks

Troubleshooting/Potential Fixes

BIOS

N/A

BIOS Messages

Update the firmware

Make sure a disk device is marked
bootable

MBR

/boot/grub/stage1

GRUB
loading stage2...

BIS
grub-install /dev/<disk> or lilo -v

GRUB

/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst

GRUB menu or grub> prompt

BIS
grub-install /dev/<disk> or lilo -v
Check /boot/grub/menu.lst

kernel

/boot/vmlinuz

Hardware info scrolling

RAMDISK driver initialized:

BIS
Reinstall kernel rpm

initrd

/boot/initrd
/etc/sysconfig/kernel

RAMDISK: <relevant
message>

BIS
mkdir -p /tmp/ramdisk; cd /tmp/ramdisk;
zcat /boot/initrd | cpio-ivd
mkinitrd
lilo -v

ramdisk:init

/init in /boot/initrd
/etc/sysconfig/kernel

Starting udevd
Creating devices
Loading <module_name>

BIS
mkinitrd creates the ramdisk:init file.

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Cool Solutions: Troubleshooting the SLES10 Boot Process

There will be a "Loading"
statement for each module
defined in the
/etc/sysconfig/kernel
INITRD_MODULES variable.

sbin:init

sbin:init:boot

/sbin/init
/etc/inittab

INIT: version 2.85 booting

/bin/bash
/etc/init.d/boot
/etc/init.d/boot.d/*

System Boot Control: Running

/etc/init.d/boot
Each service
shows:done,failed or skipped
System Boot Control: The
system has been setup

init 1, then CIS

Use boot options init=/bin/bash or
init=/bin/sash to bypass running
/sbin/init.
init s or init 1 starts the minimum
services
CIS start no services
To step through or stop the boot
process from this point on, edit
/etc/sysconfig/boot and change to:
PROMPT_FOR_CONFIRM="yes"
RUN_PARALLEL="no"
FLOW_CONTROL="yes"
(Ctrl-S stops, Ctrl-Q resumes)

sbin:init:boot

/etc/init.d/boot.local

System Boot Control: Running

/etc/init.d/boot.local

init 1, then CIS

10 sbin:init

/etc/inittab

INIT: Entering runlevel: 3

init 1, then CIS

11 sbin:init:rc

/bin/bash
/etc/init.d/rc
/etc/init.d/rc?.d/*

Master Resource Control:

init s or init 1, then CIS
previous runlevel:N, switching
to runlevel: 3
Each service
shows: done,failed or skipped
Master Resource Control:
runlevel 3 has been reached
Skipped services in runlevel 3:

12 sbin:init

/etc/inittab

N/A

init 1, then CIS

init uses /etc/inittab to know how to run
the login programs.

13 sbin:init:mingetty

/etc/issue
/sbin/mingetty

Welcome to SUSE LINUX...

login:

init 1 bypasses mingetty

CIS

Graphical login screen

init 1 bypasses X login

CIS

14 sbin:init:X

If you don't know what to do next, and BIS or CIS work, you can always run

rpm -Vf </path/to/file>

for each file listed in the "Associated File(s)" column.

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