[CentOS] INIT 5 and system is gone

[Robert Moskowitz]

Michel van Deventer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Mon, 2008-06-30 at 10:33 -0400, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>   
>> I had been running a system on Centos 5.1 at INIT 3.  I did the upgrade 
>> to Centos 5.2 with the aid of the powernowk8 patch.
>>
>> Previously I would VNC into the unit when I needed to do admin stuff 
>> with a GUI.  Well I noticed that I was NOT getting GNOME via VNC since 
>> the upgrade (worked before just fine with 5.1).  So I tried an INIT 5 
>> from the command line (always worked before), but the system seemed to 
>> hang.  Video was off.
>>
>> I rebooted, went to INITTAB and changed init to 5 and rebooted.  
>> Probably a tragic mistake.
>>
>> Now on boot, right after UDEV gets an OK, the screen goes blank and the 
>> drive stops turning.
>>
>> I tried booting with the 5.1 kernel, and same behaviour with the system 
>> blanking out and all load activity stopping after UDEV loads.
>>
>> So I am quite stuck at this point.
>>
>> Is there an option that I can edit into the kernel command at boot time 
>> to init in 3?  And then what do I try?
>>     
> Reboot your system, when you see the grub menu, press a key. Select the
> kernel you wish to boot and press 'e', select the kernel line, press 'e'
> again and add '3' at the end of the line (or '1' if you wish to boot in
> single user mode). Then press <enter> and 'b' to boot. Your system
> should now boot up in level 3. You can log in as root at the login
> prompt. If that even doesn't work, the reboot in single user mode.
>   
Thanks that got me back in.
> For the rest, we first need
> logfiles, /var/log/messages /var/log/boot.log 
Nothing.  boot.log is completely empty no-one home.

For messages, the boot with init 5 had NO entries.  As if the crash 
occured before the first entry would be written.  And running startx did 
not result in anything in messages either.
> and
> maybe /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Now here we might have something.  There is only one likely entry in 
Xorg.0.log from friday, it seems.  It looks like from the time I tried 
init 5 from the command line:

X Window System Version 7.1.1
Release Date: 12 May 2006
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 7.1.1
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.18-53.1.14.el5PAE i686 Red Hat, Inc.
Current Operating System: Linux decTOP1.htt-consult.com 
2.6.18-92.1.6.el5.bz_pre53 #1 SMP Thu Jun 26 12:08:44 EDT 2008 i586
Build Date: 21 June 2008
Build ID: xorg-x11-server 1.1.1-48.41.el5_2.1
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Jun 27 14:47:28 2008
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) ServerLayout "single head configuration"
(**) |-->Screen "Screen0" (0)
(**) |   |-->Monitor "Monitor0"
(**) |   |-->Device "Videocard0"
(**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard0"
(==) |-->Input Device "<default pointer>"
(==) The core pointer device wasn't specified explicitly in the layout.
        Using the default mouse configuration.
(==) No FontPath specified.  Using compiled-in default.
(==) FontPath set to:
        unix/:7100,
        built-ins
(==) RgbPath set to "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
(WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
(II) No APM support in BIOS or kernel
(II) Module ABI versions:
        X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.3
        X.Org Video Driver: 1.0
        X.Org XInput driver : 0.6
        X.Org Server Extension : 0.3
        X.Org Font Renderer : 0.5
(II) Loader running on linux
(II) LoadModule: "bitmap"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/fonts/libbitmap.so

Perhaps I should try this again and see if I get another update in this 
log file....

Anyway, something is really wrong here!  Help, please?