[CentOS] No entry in /var/log/boot.log

Sun Nov 1 16:13:28 UTC 2009
Robert <kerplop at sbcglobal.net>


Rod Rook wrote:

<snip>

> Hi, Lee,
> The problem mentioned in the thread you referred to is usually caused 
> by Network Manager, which has nothing to do with boot.log.
> Thanks to you anyway.
Perhaps he meant the thread beginning at 
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2009-October/084836.html

My boot log looks like this:

        [root at mavis log]# pwd
        /var/log
        [root at mavis log]# ls -l | grep boot
        -rw------- 1 root    root          0 Nov  1 04:02 boot.log
        -rw------- 1 root    root          0 Oct 25 04:02 boot.log.1
        -rw------- 1 root    root          0 Oct 18 04:02 boot.log.2
        -rw------- 1 root    root          0 Oct 11 04:02 boot.log.3
        -rw------- 1 root    root          0 Oct  4 04:02 boot.log.4
        [root at mavis log]# 

The zero length most like indicates that there are no entries :-;  yet 
we can see that the machine has been rebooted:

         [root at mavis log]# grep boot messages*
        messages.2:Oct 22 11:39:13 mavis shutdown[26207]: shutting down
        for system reboot
        messages.4:Oct  5 16:17:33 mavis shutdown[19739]: shutting down
        for system reboot
        messages.4:Oct  5 16:27:07 mavis shutdown[4979]: shutting down
        for system reboot
        messages.4:Oct  5 16:33:25 mavis shutdown[4738]: shutting down
        for system reboot
        messages.4:Oct 10 15:01:46 mavis shutdown[11680]: shutting down
        for system reboot
        [root at mavis log]#                     

Frankly, I can do very well without have boot.log at all but it seems 
that if we have it, it really should work!
Mounting an old CentOS-4 disk, we see that it worked in CentOS 4:

        [root at mavis log]# pwd
        /old-sys/var/log
        [root at mavis log]# ls -l | grep boot
        -rw------- 1 root          root     107353 May 21  2007 boot.log
        -rw------- 1 root          root       8867 May 20  2007 boot.log.1
        -rw------- 1 root          root      17265 May 13  2007 boot.log.2
        -rw------- 1 root          root       2224 May  6  2007 boot.log.3
        -rw------- 1 root          root        105 Apr 29  2007 boot.log.4
        [root at mavis log]# 

It's interesting to note that my current /etc/syslog.conf  and the one 
in the older version both contain the entry:

          # Save boot messages also to boot.log
        local7.*                              /var/log/boot.log

Beyond ferreting out those details, I am LOST.