3.0 kills itself

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3 total messages Started by Mark Adler Mon, 28 Sep 1992 18:34

#1582

Author: Mark Adler
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 18:34

30 lines
1873 bytes

Well, here's a fun one.  I installed my 3.0, and everything was going
honky-dory.  That is, until I decided to back some stuff up to an OD.
Even that went well, but what I've always done in 2.1 was to log off
when I was done, and the OD would automatically be ejected as part of
the log off process.

Well, this time the log off process hung, and the OD didn't come out.
I have to think that these two things were related, since I had had
no problem logging out before.  After waiting some time, seeing nothing
but the dock of applications on the right, I used command-` to get the
"restart or power-down" prompt.   This worked, appeared to power off
the machine correctly, including ejecting the OD.

Then I try to power back on.  The whole process seems to work fine
(the hard disk was clean from the power off), up to it saying "boot
complete" or somesuch.  But no login window.  The messages window
stayed up, and no mouse arrow appeared.  (I have the "verbose" boot
option set on my rom, so I was able to see the boot process get
rather far.)

I did not have the foresight to write down how to boot in single-user
mode, but I just got that from another NeXT (I should have just
guessed--it's a "-s" option on the boot command).  I'll try that
tonight and see if I can figure out what got trashed.

Any ideas?

Mark Adler
madler@cco.caltech.edu

Re: 3.0 kills itself

#1643

Author: David Ross
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 22:34

32 lines
2008 bytes

In article <1a7j72INN6gu@gap.caltech.edu> madler@cco.caltech.edu (Mark  
Adler) writes:
>
..
> but the dock of applications on the right, I used command-` to get the
> "restart or power-down" prompt.   This worked, appeared to power off
> the machine correctly, including ejecting the OD.
> 
> Then I try to power back on.  The whole process seems to work fine
> (the hard disk was clean from the power off), up to it saying "boot
> complete" or somesuch.  But no login window.  The messages window
> stayed up, and no mouse arrow appeared.  (I have the "verbose" boot
> option set on my rom, so I was able to see the boot process get
> rather far.)
> 
> Any ideas?

YES!  This exact thing has now happened on two of the machines we've  
upgraded here.  One was done using Upgrade.app and one was a build.  The  
Upgraded one showed these symptoms right away, but the built one worked  
for a while - and also similar - the machine had to be restarted via  
Cmd-`.  It started behaving exactly the same way - the normal boot process  
finishes (ie. /etc/rc finishes), then when the WindowServer and  
loginwindow are supposed to run, nothing happens (ie. the screen stays  
with the console window) and the machine is hung.

Help NeXT or somebody!
--
David A. Ross, Programmer Analyst  | dave@nakiska.ucs.ualberta.ca
Computing and Network Services     |  (NeXTmail welcome)
352 Gen Serv Bldg, Univ of Alberta | Phone: (403) 492-9339
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada  T6G 2H1 | Fax:   (403) 492-1729

Re: 3.0 kills itself

#1724

Author: Brian Willoughby
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1992 07:23

28 lines
1932 bytes

Mark Adler writes
| Well, this time the log off process hung, and the OD didn't come out.
| I have to think that these two things were related, since I had had
| no problem logging out before.  After waiting some time, seeing nothing
| but the dock of applications on the right, I used command-` to get the
| "restart or power-down" prompt.   This worked, appeared to power off
| the machine correctly, including ejecting the OD.
| 
| madler@cco.caltech.edu

I can't help you repair your unbootable machine, but I have seen similar  
symptoms.

On at least three occasions, my logout sequence has hung my NeXT.  The second  
time, I walked out of the room to see how long it would sit there.  When I came  
back, there was an alert asking me if I wanted to save some edited files in one  
of the active applications.  I clicked on the button to save the files and  
watched the NeXT go back to its hung state - this time for good.

Now, I'm afraid to log out with any processes running (especially that buggy  
Librarian.app) for fear that I might have to resort to Command-` and 15 minutes  
of system disk repair (with its inherent risk of file loss).  So far I've had  
good luck since my machine still boots, but how long before I join Mark crowd  
and have a machine that refuses to boot?
-- 
Brian Willoughby	Software Design Engineer, BSEE NCSU
BrianW@SoundS.WA.com	Sound Signal Processing Software and Consulting
NeXTmail welcome	- NO EMAIL SOLICITATION without prior permission

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