Re: System Hangs on Activating Swap

[Bill Dennen <ieee1014@hotmail.com>]

On Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:40:01 +0100, Tim Nelson scribbled:

> Greetings fellow Debian'ers-
> 
> I've got a system (Lenny, kernel 2.6.26-2-486)that occasionally fails to
> boot fully. The last item noted on the console is 'Activating Swap',
> then nothing.
> 
> I've enabled bootlogd (/etc/default/bootlogd) and verbose mode
> (/etc/default/rcS) but nothing of importance is shown. I've even
> reinstalled Debian from scratch and the issue persists. I've tried
> different hard drives, no change.
> 
> Now, here comes the odd part. If I remove the swap entry from fstab, the
> system will still hang at times! If there is no swap being made
> available to the system, how can it still hang? Do the init scripts look
> for and use any partition with a swap partition type?
> 
> Also, is it possible the problem is soemthing else but it simply
> manifests itself as a hang at the 'activating swap' part of the boot
> process? I've extracted the Debian initrd and looked through the scripts
> there and in /etc/rcS* on the root partition. Nothing is jumping out at
> me for a possible cause.
> 
> How should I proceed to troubleshoot? Any ideas?
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> --Tim

I'd first verify that you are indeed running through the scripts of /etc/
rcS.d and not rc3.d or the like.
Then, since you're seeing the hang whether or not there is a swap, it's 
likely what FOLLOWS checkroot.sh or mountall.sh.  Add console messages to 
the scripts indicating you're exiting one and starting the next.  Once 
you find in which script your hang is located, comment the ^&%^% out of 
it to locate the command.  Then follow your nose ;) 

Regards
-- 
>@<
Bill Dennen			ieee1014@hotmail.com
Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most ...