Re: Log files: location and description
On Sat 07 Oct 2017 at 09:36:37 (-0500), Richard Owlett wrote:
> I'm looking for a comprehensive catalog of log files giving
> location, name, and one line description. I've Googled and found
> bits and pieces that are too narrowly focused. To paraphrase my
> situation, I'm not only not seeing the forest for the trees -- I'm
> also not seeing the forest for the leaves.
>
> My current problem is finding the appropriate logs to document the
> details behind my addendum to Bug 852323.
>
> The BIOS of the test machine can select whether to boot from the
> primary HDD or from a particular flash drive. There are multiple
> instances of Debian installed. Grub was installed to the MBR of that
> drive when Debian was installed to the drive's first partition.
>
> I have a hypothesis, but I need to have facts to back it up.
> Specifically:
> 1. During the installation process I need to inventory when and
> "as what" various USB devices are recognized. The installation
> target is a USB drive and Grub is being installed to its MBR.
It's all in /var/log/installer, specifically syslog.
partman has the partitioning, and hardware-summary gives
both that and related software summaries. That's all after
the event, of course. While the d-i is running, syslog
is under /var/log as normal.
> 2. Under particular circumstances it will fail to boot. I need
> to compare that log to that written when it successfully boots.
With expert install, the splash/menu screen goes away and boot
messages come out on the console in my experience.
> 3. I need to know what happens during update-grub run from the HDD.
> 4. I need to repeat [2] but for the case that the the Grub menu is
> on the HDD.
update-grub runs grub-mkconfig which is a script, so I suppose
you could add set -x to make it print all its expanded commands
(as I do in .xsession).
Without getting into the specifics of that bug, ie UUID stuff,
it might be worth pointing out that it has been reported here that
a USB3 stick inserted at boot can demote the internal disk to
/dev/sdb. No idea if that's relevant here unless you're using
/dev/sdX without actually checking the by-id values that d-i
displays in the relevant places.
Cheers,
David.
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