Re: boot log

[Massimiliano Ferrero <m.ferrero@midhgard.it>]

> Try dmesg | less, or just look in /var/log. But some stuff never gets
> written there and is inevitably lost. Search the list for the past
> month or so; this has been mentioned a few times.

If you want to just look at the messages you can use the scrollback 
buffer: have the system boot in runlevel 3 and use shift-pgup to scroll 
up. The buffer is lost if you switch console.

If you desperatly need to cut and paste some lines (ex. to produce some 
documentation) you can use this trick:

- install and configure gpm
- reboot in runlevel 3
- login
- press return a few times to leave some blank lines (a screenfull)
- edit a new text file
  vi log_messages
- enter insert mode
- scroll up to the messages you want
- select them with the mouse
- paste them with third mouse button, they should be pasted into the 
text file
- repeat until you get all messages you need (you can copy just a screen 
at a time)
since each time yoy paste vi scrolls down it's better to start from the 
first lines you need

I've done this successfully to get the complete boot sequence of a pc 
and it works, but it's a real pain ;)
http://www.midhgard.it/docs/lvm/html/appendix.boot.messages.html

Before resorting to this horror I also tried a different approach:
I wrote a script that redirected the output of
the scrollback buffer to file: I think it was something like
cat /dev/vcsa1 >> log_file
and I called it at the end of the boot sequence at regular intervals (a 
few secs)... but, alas, it didn't work :)
Don't know if there is some package/tool able to get the content of the 
scrollback buffer.

Massimiliano

--

Massimiliano Ferrero
Midhgard s.r.l.
C/so Re Umberto 23
10128 - Torino
tel. +39-0112301400 - fax +39-0112301422
e-mail: m.ferrero@midhgard.it
sito web: http://www.midhgard.it