Hello everyone.  I have another bizarre Linux problem.

I've been using CentOS on my Sony notebook for some time without 
problems.  Recently it started hanging on boot, and I can't get past 
it.   I tried using interactive boot mode, and ran it that way one time, 
and verified that the system was hanging where it thought it was.  After 
this I rebooted with the intention of skipping the offending step, and 
though I hit the "i" key several times and it wouldn't go interactive 
ever again, even though I tried it at least three times.  Of course it 
would eventually come to that same place and hang, locking up so hard I 
had to cycle power.

It's apparently hanging in one of two places - I'm not sure which, since 
it jumps from one screen to the other.   It appears to be attempting to 
start smartd, then it jumps to another screen (perhaps it's returning 
from whcnce it came) where it's trying to enable the swap space.  
Anyway, that's the point where it hangs up.

My theory:  I've encountered a similar problem before, and somehow I 
accidentally fixed it.  It seemed to have to do with the peripherals, 
even though the messages would be totally wrong if that's the case (but 
that wouldn't be the first time a program's output has been misleading. 
:-) )  To clarify the problem further:  Most of the time I use it at a 
port replicator which has a PS/2 mouse and keyboard attached.  When 
attached to this, the notebook still boots fine.  But it does _not_ boot 
when I take it off the port replicator, which I assume is because the 
PS/2 keyboard is gone.  Normally after I've moved it to or from the 
replicator, kudzu will inform me that the PS/2 keyboard has either been 
detected or has disappeared.  At this point, I will tell it to remove 
the keyboard if it's off the replicator - but for some bizarre reason, 
if I tell kudzu to add the keyboard (rather than ignoring it) when I've 
put it back on the replicator, it hangs.   (Oddly enough, if I ignored 
it, the keyboard would work anyway.) So I'm thinking I may have 
accidentally told the kudzu to do the wrong thing, and now it's totally 
hosed.  (There seems to be a long standing problem with kudzu in 
relation to peripherals, which I have encountered on more than one 
distro.  If you're unfortunate enough to make the wrong choice when 
kudzu senses a hardware change, it may not see the hardware change next 
time, as if you've unknowingly given it instructions it to ignore that 
particular hardware for all eternity.)

SO - if the problem is actually keyboard-related, how do I clear kudzu's 
configuration information so it'll correctly see the change next time?  
(I also have Mandriva on this notebook; I could boot into that, then 
mount the Centos partition, and hopefully find the offending 
configuration file and edit or delete or move it.)

If not, (and I admit the situation isn't _exactly_ the same) has anybody 
ever encountered a repeatable hang at this point (either when starting 
smartd and/or initializing swap)?  I should probably note that I've been 
having a little flakiness with the drive - occasionally on a cold start 
the drive will appear to be missing - but it's always back after cycling 
power.  I should also note that Mandriva uses the same swap partition as 
Centos and it has _never_ hung when initializing the swap.  (For reasons 
I won't go into here, I prefer to use the Centos installation, and was 
actually thinking of deleting the Mandriva install to make more space.) 

Also, has anyone had trouble getting Linux to go into interactive boot 
mode?  Would anybody have any other suggestions for me to try?

Thanks!

Vaughn

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