Re: Debian error: INIT: respawning too fast

["David Hocking" <davidh@student.unsw.edu.au>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Rudolph Pereira <rop@cse.unsw.edu.au>
To: David Hocking <davidh@student.unsw.edu.au>
Cc: multia users <multia-users@explode.unsw.edu.au>
Sent: Friday, November 26, 1999 10:13 PM
Subject: Re: Debian error: INIT: respawning too fast


> On Fri, 26 Nov 1999, David Hocking wrote:
>
> > INIT: id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for five minutes
> > INIT: id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for five minutes
> > INIT: id "6" respawning too fast: disabled for five minutes
> > INIT: id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for five minutes
> > INIT: id "4" respawning too fast: disabled for five minutes
> > INIT: id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for five minutes
> >
> >  ...etc            (this is the real problem)
> Init's looking at /etc/inittab and trying to start whatever's supposed to
be
> started at this runlevel. Unfortunately whatever's being started is dying.
> Most linux boxes have something in inittab like
>
> # Run gettys in standard runlevels
> 1:12345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
> 2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
> 3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
> 4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
> 5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
> 6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
>
> The best thing to do it try to find out why getty (as init's most probably
> trying to start) keeps dying - or perhaps doesn't exist?
> Bring the system up single user and you should be able to check logs, make
sure
> /etc/inittab is sane, and make sure *getty exists/can be run.

I logged in as single user and ran the following:

    getty 38400 tty8

Immediately it returned with the words "Alarm clock" on a new line. And
that's it. When i press ALT-F8 there is a blank screen with a cursor in the
top right corner.

I'm not sure what "Alarm clock" means. There might have been a line that
referred to a clock (and maybe an error) in the boot procedure. I'll check
this when i get a chance.

Any ideas ??

Regards,
Dave.