Geek Thread - Ubuntu Won't Boot

[crokett]

Ubuntu v9.10, won't boot. I get the grub boot menu, then it starts to boot then it hangs here:

fsck from util-linux-ng 2.16
init: procps main process (355) terminated with status 255
/dev/sdb5 clean, 197434 files, 366782 blocks

I tried booting the Live CD and running fsck -y on that partition, that did not work. It was also apparently hanging trying to load modem-manager. This machine has no modem, so I booted to the live cd, chrooted and uninstalled that package. Still no joy. I could just reinstall but I'd rather try and fix this and learn something. I can't boot to rescue mode either so I am limited to what commands are available in grub or working from the live CD.

[sparkeyjames]

Was it a clean install of Ubuntu or have you been using it awhile?

[just started]

You sure this isn't a camouflaged Microcrook system? Sure sounds like the kind of problem they are known for and Mac/Linux/Unix were not supposed to have.

[phi1l]

I don't know an awful lot about Linux but I would start with the SystemRescueDC bootable distro. That has a whole mess of tools on it for recovering corrupt systems. you can get it through DistroWatch at: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?dis...n=systemrescue


Also if you haven't already check the Ubuntu support forum. I would bet you are not the first to have that problem.

[cgallery]

The ubuntu forums are down for maintenance right now. But in googling I come up w/ the following. Any chance you posted there? If not, someone else is having the same issue and perhaps coming to the same conclusion about the modem manager.


[ubuntu] How To Disable Modem-Manager? - Ubuntu Forums
2 posts - 2 authors - Last post: 16 hours ago
[ubuntu] How To Disable Modem-Manager? General Help. ... This is a desktop with no modem installed. I want to disable it. I can't boot the machine to either ...
ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1355981 - 16 hours ago - [xubuntu] disable a process at boot - 3 posts - Nov 26, 2009
[ubuntu] fsck hangs up before boot - 10 posts - Nov 19, 2009
More results from ubuntuforums.org »

[crokett]

The Ubuntu thread is mine. There wasn't any help after I figured out how to disable the modem driver. The only suggestion I've got so far is to boot to rescue CD and run fsck -y there. I did that, it came back clean but still hangs on boot. I also tried booting to single user mode to run fsck, that also hangs. I am told to run fsck several times and will try that but since the fsck comes back clean, I am assuming it is not an fsck problem but something else is hanging it. I will look into boot logging and see what that tells me.

This was an upgrade from 9.04 that was previously installed. I suppose I could reinstall this from scratch at 9.1 but I'd rather fix it now and know how to fix it for when it is critical in future.

It is not a camouflaged anything. It is an IBM system sitting under my desk at work.

[sd]

I'm not sure what's causing your problem or how to fix it, but this
Upstart Debugging page might be of some use to you. Here's what I guess is going on: at startup, upstart runs jobs in the /etc/init directory when the appropriate signals are received. One of the jobs that runs at startup is mountall, which is supposed to mount filesytems and run fsck if needed. Mountall is supposed to emit the virtual-filesystems signal when the virtual filesystems, such as procfs, are mounted. procps.conf starts when it receives the virtual-filesystems signal. It runs sysctl to set some kernel variables. I suspect that somehow this is starting before the /proc virtual filesystem is ready.

[crokett]

I fixed it by reinstalling. I did some research and found some folks who got around this by redoing the superblock. I created a test partition, dropped some files on it, then ran through the commands to redo the superblock. Afterwards I could still read the files so I did the same procedure on my real partition. Next time it booted I got a 'File Not Found' error so just decided to reinstall. I also discovered this machine is particular about the kernel versions in Ubuntu 9.1. It hangs when it boots 2.6.31.16 but not 2.6.28.15.