Re: Need help recovering Debian that won't boot.

[kenn <kenn@printussery.com>]

Kent West wrote:
> kenn wrote:
> 
>> Kent West wrote:
>>  
>>
>>> kenn wrote:
>>>
>>>   
>>>> Kent West wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>>> kenn wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>  
>>>>>       
>>>>>> Greetings.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have a Debian server that does not complete its boot ... early
>>>>>> on, it
>>>>>>         
>>
>>  
>>
>>> Try mounting the partitions -- "mount -a". You may need to remount / in
>>> rw mode if you need to make changes to the file system; let's see if I
>>> can remember:
>>>   mount -o remount,rw /
>>> should do it.
>>>
>>> Now does "ls" work?
>>>
>>> What's the output of "which ls"?
>>> What's the output of "ldd [path_to]ls"?
>>>
>>> Maybe rename the rc[whatever]. directory so no services/daemons start
>>> up, and reboot normally, and go from there?
>>>
>>>   
>>
>> After mounting, I still get the segmentation fault on "ls" ... "which
>> ls" points to "/bin/ls" and "ldd /bin/ls" results in several lines, none
>> of which contain "rc"  so I may not be understanding you there ...
>>  
>>
> ldd shows you which library files that ls depends on. You should see
> something like this:
> 
> westk[@westek]:/home/westk:> ldd /bin/ls
>        linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0xffffe000)
>        librt.so.1 => /lib/tls/librt.so.1 (0xb7fd0000)
>        libacl.so.1 => /lib/libacl.so.1 (0xb7fc8000)
>        libselinux.so.1 => /lib/libselinux.so.1 (0xb7fb5000)
>        libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0xb7e7d000)
>        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/tls/libpthread.so.0 (0xb7e6b000)
>        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7fea000)
>        libattr.so.1 => /lib/libattr.so.1 (0xb7e66000)
>        libdl.so.2 => /lib/tls/libdl.so.2 (0xb7e62000)
>        libsepol.so.1 => /lib/libsepol.so.1 (0xb7e28000)
> 
> 
> If one of the files says something can't be found, like this:
> westk[@westek]:/home/westk:> ldd /bin/ls
>        linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0xffffe000)
>        librt.so.1 => /lib/tls/librt.so.1 (0xb7fd0000)
>        libacl.so.1 => /lib/libacl.so.1 (0xb7fc8000)
>        libselinux.so.1 => /lib/libselinux.so.1 (0xb7fb5000)
>        libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0xb7e7d000)
>        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/tls/libpthread.so.0 (0xb7e6b000)
>        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7fea000)
>        libattr.so.1 => /lib/libattr.so.1 (0xb7e66000)
>        libdl.so.2 => /lib/tls/libdl.so.2 (0xb7e62000)
>        libsepol.so.1 => not found
> 
> that's the clue you need to start fixing the problem.
> 
Okay, you're right ... I DO need to think of this as a learning
experience.  In this case, I have no line with a "not found" message
....  beyond that, I honestly don't know where to go to get started ...
any advice, including "RTFM"-related advice graciously accepted, if only
 I knew what to read and where ....

That said, i'm going to be in meetings out of the office for the rest of
the afternoon, so I'll take whatever advice you give me and start in
again tomorrow at 10 GST ...

thanks so very much ....