🚀 go-pugleaf

The Natural Philosopher <a@b.c> writes:

> Must have had some power surges in last nights storm because the
> computers were all haywire this morning.,.well the WEIN 98 PC
> rebooted, but it shoudln't as its NOT set to autoreboot on power
> loss..
>
> The linux server was dead tho - that shouldn't have rebooted EITHER
> but was stuck saying 'floppy drive error (40)' or somesuch..
>
> Hitting a key (F1) to get it to restart worked fine..but a forced
> reboot still shows the same error..anyone got any clues? power surge
> striped the flash BIOS settings maybe?
>
> The linux normally runs headless and its a pain to have plug a monitor
> in to reboot.


Well - if it really is just that the floppy drive is dead you can
presumably disable the attempt to boot from it in bios and the problem
should go away.

-- 
                         Now Playing: U2 - The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Brian Morrison <scrapspam@fenrir.org.uk> writes:

> Paul Rudin wrote:
>> The Natural Philosopher <a@b.c> writes:
>> 
>>> Must have had some power surges in last nights storm because the
>>> computers were all haywire this morning.,.well the WEIN 98 PC
>>> rebooted, but it shoudln't as its NOT set to autoreboot on power
>>> loss..
>>>
>>> The linux server was dead tho - that shouldn't have rebooted EITHER
>>> but was stuck saying 'floppy drive error (40)' or somesuch..
>>>
>>> Hitting a key (F1) to get it to restart worked fine..but a forced
>>> reboot still shows the same error..anyone got any clues? power surge
>>> striped the flash BIOS settings maybe?
>>>
>>> The linux normally runs headless and its a pain to have plug a monitor
>>> in to reboot.
>> 
>> 
>> Well - if it really is just that the floppy drive is dead you can
>> presumably disable the attempt to boot from it in bios and the problem
>> should go away.
>> 
>
> Still needs a monitor connected to do that...

Yes - but it's a one-time operation.

Brian Morrison wrote:
> Paul Rudin wrote:
>> The Natural Philosopher <a@b.c> writes:
>>
>>> Must have had some power surges in last nights storm because the
>>> computers were all haywire this morning.,.well the WEIN 98 PC
>>> rebooted, but it shoudln't as its NOT set to autoreboot on power
>>> loss..
>>>
>>> The linux server was dead tho - that shouldn't have rebooted EITHER
>>> but was stuck saying 'floppy drive error (40)' or somesuch..
>>>
>>> Hitting a key (F1) to get it to restart worked fine..but a forced
>>> reboot still shows the same error..anyone got any clues? power surge
>>> striped the flash BIOS settings maybe?
>>>
>>> The linux normally runs headless and its a pain to have plug a monitor
>>> in to reboot.
>>
>> Well - if it really is just that the floppy drive is dead you can
>> presumably disable the attempt to boot from it in bios and the problem
>> should go away.
>>
> 
> Still needs a monitor connected to do that, I presume the OP doesn't
> have a KVM switch to hand?
> 
no..got a monitor plugged in at the mo tho..

In <874ps7d8hy.fsf@rudin.co.uk> Paul Rudin:

[Snip...]

> Yes - but it's a one-time operation.

In hindsight, and FWIW...

When I ran remote servers, I left a cheap monitor connected but powered off
until/if needed locally. I also disabled checking for keyboard and mouse at
POST, and made sure the BIOS boot order went to the root device first. Also
(as mentioned in another post), after a couple of power surges, I made darn
sure my servers always had (working) UPS, too.

It was better to have a cheap monitor immediately available to walk someone
through a repair reboot by phone, than buying same-day airfare for me to do
it myself in person.

JMO; YMMV...

-- 
Regards, Weird (Harold Stevens) * IMPORTANT EMAIL INFO FOLLOWS *
Pardon any bogus email addresses (wookie) in place for spambots.
Really, it's (wyrd) at airmail, dotted with net. DO NOT SPAM IT.
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Harold Stevens wrote:
> In <874ps7d8hy.fsf@rudin.co.uk> Paul Rudin:
> 
> [Snip...]
> 
>> Yes - but it's a one-time operation.
> 
> In hindsight, and FWIW...
> 
> When I ran remote servers, I left a cheap monitor connected but powered off
> until/if needed locally. I also disabled checking for keyboard and mouse at
> POST, and made sure the BIOS boot order went to the root device first. Also
> (as mentioned in another post), after a couple of power surges, I made darn
> sure my servers always had (working) UPS, too.
> 
Yeah.,.me too..though I am not sure if I can disable keyboard on this one.

The point on this one its not remote..its by my knee, tucked under the 
desk..telnet and a web browser are all it needs to do the routine stiff.


> It was better to have a cheap monitor immediately available to walk someone
> through a repair reboot by phone, than buying same-day airfare for me to do
> it myself in person.
> 

Space..I haven't the space..when I reorganise my workshop though the 
windoze may go in there, and the Linux become a desktop..

Right now I am developing server side PHP/SQL web code on it using the 
Windoze to do the editing
> JMO; YMMV...
> 

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> Must have had some power surges in last nights storm because the
> computers were all haywire this morning.,.well the WEIN 98 PC rebooted,
> but it shoudln't as its NOT set to autoreboot on power loss..
>
> The linux server was dead tho - that shouldn't have rebooted EITHER but
> was stuck saying 'floppy drive error (40)' or somesuch..
>
> Hitting a key (F1) to get it to restart worked fine..but a forced reboot
> still shows the same error..anyone got any clues? power surge striped
> the flash BIOS settings maybe?

I can think of three possibilities here, starting with the most likely:

1) The BIOS has got a bit zonked, and is expecting a different sort of
floppy drive to the one you have connected.
2) The FDD itself has been fried
3) More serious frying to the motherboard or similar that's manifesting
itself in this way.

Check your BIOS settings for 1), do a save all settings, and reboot. If
it's still doing it, you could look at replacing the FDD. Or just
remove it entirely (do you ever need FDDs these days?). Either way, you
can tell the BIOS to ignore the check for the drive. This is a one-time
job, so you'll have to rustle up a keyboard and monitor and then you
should be OK again.

Good luck,
Sam

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> Must have had some power surges in last nights storm because the
> computers were all haywire this morning.,.well the WEIN 98 PC rebooted,
> but it shoudln't as its NOT set to autoreboot on power loss..

A power glitch doesn't count as power loss, but can trip up the micro,
and cause a reboot.

J

On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:33:05 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> The point on this one its not remote..its by my knee, tucked under the 
> desk..telnet and a web browser are all it needs to do the routine stiff.

That's the one thing I hate the most about the PC - the fact that you
can't have a serial console until *after* the OS has started booting. It's
bloody annoying as a serial console's so useful for servers in order to
save space (and for convenience!), but you're screwed when the BIOS
decides to have a bad day :(  (I've run a few linux boxes with serial
console only in my time)

I'm not sure if anyone's ever built a 'serial video card' for these sorts
of situations. Technically it should be possible as a PC should still boot
up in a text mode and should still support text-only display adapters for
legacy reasons (not that I've tried one for years), but I don't know if
it's ever been done. 

Niche market, I suppose, because real servers were never PCs anyway, and
so manufacturers could assume that their machines were on a desktop and
hence had some form of display card and monitor anyway..

cheers

Jules

-- 
we've fallen off the silly boat into a sea of ridiculousness!

Jules wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:33:05 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> The point on this one its not remote..its by my knee, tucked under the 
>> desk..telnet and a web browser are all it needs to do the routine stiff.
> 
> That's the one thing I hate the most about the PC - the fact that you
> can't have a serial console until *after* the OS has started booting. It's
> bloody annoying as a serial console's so useful for servers in order to
> save space (and for convenience!), but you're screwed when the BIOS
> decides to have a bad day :(  (I've run a few linux boxes with serial
> console only in my time)
> 
> I'm not sure if anyone's ever built a 'serial video card' for these sorts
> of situations. 

http://www.realweasel.com/

Serial consoles are standard on server-grade PC hardware (Dell, IBM, HP, 
SuperMicro, etc.).  Even network access is possible with add-in cards 
for some of their systems, enabling you to remotely power-cycle the 
machine and access everything else through the management interface.

Have a look at Dell's "RAC" stuff or SuperMicro's IPMI cards.  (Note 
that this hardware is specific to their systems and cannot be added to 
any old PC like the Real Weasel cards can.)

The Natural Philosopher <a@b.c> writes:

> Harold Stevens wrote:

> > It was better to have a cheap monitor immediately available to walk someone
> > through a repair reboot by phone, than buying same-day airfare for me to do
> > it myself in person.
> >
> 
> Space..I haven't the space..when I reorganise my workshop though the
> windoze may go in there, and the Linux become a desktop..
> 
> Right now I am developing server side PHP/SQL web code on it using the
> Windoze to do the editing

What I do is keep a spare long VGA cable lying around.  I've always
got a monitor somewhere in the room within a few metres of a normally
headless system.  Ok, so the ghosting can be ghastly but it can be
endured in an emergency.  Keyboards and mice are so cheap and so small
that spares are invariably available for emergency use.


Paul
-- 
Paul Leyland <pcl23@gen.cam.ac.uk>        | Hanging on in quiet desperation is
Dept. of Genetics, Cambridge University   |     the English way.
Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EH, UK    | The time is gone, the song is over.
Tel: +44-1223-333963 Fax: +44-1223-333992 | Thought I'd something more to say.