Notebook hangs on boot (CentOS)

[Eric "Shubes"]

Vaughn Treude wrote:
> 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.)

See man kudzu.

> 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
> 
Is mandrake setup to use smart?
Have you tried disabling smart in the bios (if possible)? I wouldn't
normally leave it disabled, but it might be worth a try.

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'