29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

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RHEL stuck at boot screen

by SN

on Jul 26, 2013 at 12:36 UTC

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RHEL is getting stuck at the boot up process (screenshot attached), I can SSH in to the server though!

Is the GUI crashing or where do I start debugging this please?

(Please bear in mind, I am a windows admin but happened to be in charge of solving this:))

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29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

23 Replies
···

Thai Pepper
OP
A-Spice Jul 26, 2013 at 13:01 UTC

if you hit the "esc" key it will show you where it's stuck. This commonly happens if a NFS mount point is
offline. You have to boot into single user mode, and make change to whatever service is stuck

4
···

Pimiento
OP
canz Jul 26, 2013 at 13:39 UTC
1st Post

If you could provide the start-up log we can tell you exactly what's getting hung up.

0
···

Datil
OP
Marcin Ozga
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Jul 26, 2013 at 13:41 UTC

If you can log in with SSH, check /var/log/boot.log file. Additionally /var/log/messages might contain some
additional info.

What's the output of dmesg?

2
···
···

Pure Capsaicin
OP
We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY.
Scott Alan Miller Jul 26, 2013 at 16:29 UTC ×
SN wrote:

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/363098-rhel-stuck-at-boot-screen 2/11
29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

(Please bear in mind, I am a windows admin but happened to be in charge of solving this:))

Maybe this is the problem ;)

j/k

2
···

Pure Capsaicin
OP
Scott Alan Miller Jul 26, 2013 at 16:30 UTC

If you go into /etc/rc5.d and do an

ls -lh

That output will help tell what is wrong.  It doesn't tell a ton, but it will help in pinpointing the issue.

1
···

Thai Pepper
OP
dehcbad25 Jul 26, 2013 at 18:17 UTC

since it is a RHEL why not call Red Hat support. They are pretty awesome, mainly if you are windows
admin

I had a problem with Red Hat 3, and they were awesome to fix it (I would have never been able to fix it
myself)

In my case it was similar, it would not look like it finished booting but I could access with ssh.

The system was stopping at the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) because the video card would not finish
booting on time. So a quick fix, is we changed the boot level to 3 (only console) and then we would run
startx to load the GUI if we needed.

I would totally contact Red Hat directly

2
···

Datil
OP
MarcinWeOzga
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Jul 26, 2013 at 18:27 UTC

dehcbad25 wrote:
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/363098-rhel-stuck-at-boot-screen 3/11
29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

since it is a RHEL why not call Red Hat support. They are pretty awesome, mainly if you are
windows admin

I had a problem with Red Hat 3, and they were awesome to fix it (I would have never been able
to fix it myself)

In my case it was similar, it would not look like it finished booting but I could access with ssh.

The system was stopping at the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) because the video card
would not finish booting on time. So a quick fix, is we changed the boot level to 3 (only
console) and then we would run startx to load the GUI if we needed.

I would totally contact Red Hat directly

Red Hat recommended that as a fix? That is a mere workaround, not a problem resolution.

1
···

Thai Pepper
OP
dehcbad25 Jul 26, 2013 at 18:46 UTC

Marcin Ozga wrote:

dehcbad25 wrote:

since it is a RHEL why not call Red Hat support. They are pretty awesome, mainly
if you are windows admin

I had a problem with Red Hat 3, and they were awesome to fix it (I would have
never been able to fix it myself)

In my case it was similar, it would not look like it finished booting but I could
access with ssh.

The system was stopping at the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) because the
video card would not finish booting on time. So a quick fix, is we changed the boot
level to 3 (only console) and then we would run startx to load the GUI if we needed.

I would totally contact Red Hat directly

Red Hat recommended that as a fix? That is a mere workaround, not a problem resolution.

No, Red Hat did not recommend that as a fix. That is what we did so we could continue with the install in the
other 3 servers (we were installing Oracle with huge databases so time was of the essence)

Red Hat what did was, first the person that answered the phone was the person that took care of the issue,
and he was a level 3 engineer. So we never got transferred. Kudos for Red Hat.

I explained the problem, read directly from the screen and then sent the technician an email with the log
attached. He called us back about 30 minutes later to let us know what was the problem and that they were
We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY.
working on the fix (by that time we had already switched to level 3). ×
said that the problem was that the video card (a Matrox 16 MB) was not ready when the system finished
booting, and that the system was booting in 43 seconds according to the log. YES!!!!!! 43 seconds with a
server in 2006 :) and it was a 5U beast of a server.
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/363098-rhel-stuck-at-boot-screen 4/11
29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

They sent us later (about 1 hour after the call) a kernel patch to compile, which basically added a wait time
for the video card. This patch was added to the actual kernel tree (we got an email about a month later that it
was submitted and accepted by the penguin lover Linus), so our problem helped identify the issue and Red
Hat submitted it to the official kernel tree.

And that is why I love Red Hat support :)

We decided to keep the systems in level 3, because technically we did not need the GUI. We installed it,
because there was only 2 out of 7 people that knew how to use ssh (don't laugh) and even then I was a
newbie in Linux (I still consider myself a newbie and I use it daily). So this way the server booted faster, it
did not wasted resources in a GUI which was not needed 95% of the time (Oracle DB server), but still could
start the GUI if one of the other programmers needed it

5
···

Datil
OP
Marcin Ozga
This person is a verified professional.
Verify your account to enable IT peers to see that you are a professional.
Jul 26, 2013 at 19:13 UTC

dehcbad25 wrote:

Marcin Ozga wrote:

dehcbad25 wrote:

since it is a RHEL why not call Red Hat support. They are pretty
awesome, mainly if you are windows admin

I had a problem with Red Hat 3, and they were awesome to fix it (I
would have never been able to fix it myself)

In my case it was similar, it would not look like it finished booting but I
could access with ssh.

The system was stopping at the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer)

because the video card would not finish booting on time. So a quick fix,
is we changed the boot level to 3 (only console) and then we would run
startx to load the GUI if we needed.

I would totally contact Red Hat directly

Red Hat recommended that as a fix? That is a mere workaround, not a problem
resolution.

No, Red Hat did not recommend that as a fix. That is what we did so we could continue with the
install in the other 3 servers (we were installing Oracle with huge databases so time was of the
essence)
We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. ×
Red Hat what did was, first the person that answered the phone was the person that took care of
the issue, and he was a level 3 engineer. So we never got transferred. Kudos for Red Hat.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/363098-rhel-stuck-at-boot-screen 5/11
29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

I explained the problem, read directly from the screen and then sent the technician an email with
the log attached. He called us back about 30 minutes later to let us know what was the problem
and that they were working on the fix (by that time we had already switched to level 3).

said that the problem was that the video card (a Matrox 16 MB) was not ready when the system
finished booting, and that the system was booting in 43 seconds according to the log. YES!!!!!!
43 seconds with a server in 2006 :) and it was a 5U beast of a server.

They sent us later (about 1 hour after the call) a kernel patch to compile, which basically added a
wait time for the video card. This patch was added to the actual kernel tree (we got an email
about a month later that it was submitted and accepted by the penguin lover Linus), so our
problem helped identify the issue and Red Hat submitted it to the official kernel tree.

And that is why I love Red Hat support :)

We decided to keep the systems in level 3, because technically we did not need the GUI. We
installed it, because there was only 2 out of 7 people that knew how to use ssh (don't laugh) and
even then I was a newbie in Linux (I still consider myself a newbie and I use it daily). So this
way the server booted faster, it did not wasted resources in a GUI which was not needed 95% of
the time (Oracle DB server), but still could start the GUI if one of the other programmers needed
it

Now that sounds like Red Hat support :) 

1
···

Jalapeno
OP
SN Jul 29, 2013 at 09:17 UTC

Wow! thanks for the clues..

Let me go through the logs and come back to you!

0
···

Tabasco
OP
UF IT - Mike Jul 30, 2013 at 13:35 UTC

Ive seen RedHat hang on boots when you do kernel updates (that go wrong of course). Did you maybe do an
update here lately?

1
···

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Jalapeno
OP
SN Aug 1, 2013 at 03:23 UTC
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/363098-rhel-stuck-at-boot-screen 6/11
29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

I went through the logs without any success finding the cause.

So I have placed my logs here (6.5 MB) http://sdrv.ms/14FqYeM if someone could have a look please.

@dehcbad25 - I had contacted Red Hat, but they said I should contact Dell (it is a Dell server and Red Hat
was installed by Dell)

@UF IT - Mike - No, I have not done any upgrade

0
···

Jalapeno
OP
SN Aug 1, 2013 at 03:38 UTC

Scott Alan Miller wrote:

If you go into /etc/rc5.d and do an

ls -lh

That output will help tell what is wrong.  It doesn't tell a ton, but it will help in pinpointing the
issue.

I did that, what am I supposed to look specifically for, in that list?

0
···

Jalapeno
OP
james1052 Aug 1, 2013 at 13:50 UTC

It would help in sorting through the logs you provided if you can remember at least an approximate date and
time that the last failed boot took place.

0
···

Jalapeno
OP
james1052 Aug 1, 2013 at 14:14 UTC

According to messages-20130728 you keep having call traces (crashes) of this nature:

Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005

We encourage kernel:
you to read INFO: task wrf.MPI.limited:29447
our updated PRIVACY POLICY blocked for more
and COOKIE than 120 seconds.
POLICY.
Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005 kernel: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this
×
message.
Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005 kernel: wrf.MPI.limit D 0000000000000001     0 29447  29417 0x00000080
Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005 kernel:  ffff8807da9859c8 0000000000000086 0000000000000000
ffffc90003023058
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29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005 kernel:  ffffc90003023020 ffffea000554e400 ffff8807d679a0c0

000000016c9fda3e
Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005 kernel:  ffff8807d679a678 ffff8807da985fd8 000000000000f598
ffff8807d679a678
Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005 kernel: Call Trace:
Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005 kernel:  [<ffffffffa04a4f30>] ? nfs_wait_bit_uninterruptible+0x0/0x20 [nfs]
Jul 25 21:03:31 compute005 kernel:  [<ffffffff814dbad3>] io_schedule+0x73/0xc0

That appears to be similar symptoms to what I see here regarding large file size transfers, though this is not
Ubuntu:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/585657

Tell us what this server does? Do you need NFS? How is it being utilized?

Can you take it offline, backup fstab (don't forget!!!!), edit out the NFS mounts in fstab and see if it boots?
Also, maybe the call traces/NFS are not the reason X will not start. Maybe they are the reason you are
rebooting it...? Is your server crashing all the time?

1
···

Jalapeno
OP
SN Aug 2, 2013 at 02:05 UTC

This server is the master node of a 12 node blade cluster, which we used for MPI calculations.

Server used to boot up correctly in the past after a crash but not happening this time.

Most of the time, server crashes when we are copying files to this server (using SSH).

In fact, compute005 is one of the client node, not the master node which is getting stuck at boot up.

Home directory from the master node is mapped to all client nodes  -  This was setup at the time cluster setup
and I do not  have much idea if that is a requirement for the functioning of the cluster ( sorry, entire system
was designed by Dell).

0
···

Jalapeno
OP
james1052 Aug 2, 2013 at 02:43 UTC

And your Dell support contract is?....

0
···
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Jalapeno

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29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

OP
SN Aug 2, 2013 at 03:21 UTC

I do not think they will resolve this issue from the OS level...

They have been blaming hardware, changing motherboards, upgrading various firmwares...etc.

Never bothered looking in to OS even though these servers have been crashing for more than 6 months (1'st
crash reported to Dell 13 months back!).

Edited Aug 2, 2013 at 03:50 UTC

0
···

Jalapeno
OP
james1052 Aug 6, 2013 at 18:51 UTC

It is going to be next to impossible for us to guess how Dell set up this complex cluster environment and
troubleshoot it via a forum. You need to get really aggressive with the Dell support people. Stay on them. Let
them follow their support flow chart and change whatever hardware they want to change. Once they have
ruled out all hardware and firmware, then hold their feet to the fire and make them troubleshoot the operating
system.

0
···

Pimiento
OP
virendramishra Feb 21, 2017 at 05:02 UTC
1st Post

I am getting the same issue :"RHEL is getting stuck at the boot up process " ,in your conversation there is no
solution mention.

please help me out my email id virendrabit@gmail.com.

0
···

Pimiento
OP
virendramishra Feb 22, 2017 at 09:21 UTC

I am getting the same issue :"RHEL is getting stuck at the boot up process " ,in your conversation there is no
solution mention.
We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY.
×
please help me out my email id virendrabit@gmail.com.

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29/06/2020 RHEL stuck at boot screen - Linux Forum - Spiceworks

···

Pure Capsaicin
OP
Scott Alan Miller Feb 22, 2017 at 09:24 UTC

virendramishra wrote:

I am getting the same issue :"RHEL is getting stuck at the boot up process " ,in your
conversation there is no solution mention.

please help me out my email id virendrabit@gmail.com.

First step, make a thread to ask a question.  This thread is someone else's question and issue from four years
ago.  Just ask your own question and people will help you.  The chances that his issue is your issue or that
info from four years ago is applicable today or that anyone will see this ancient thread are very low.
0
···

Pimiento
OP
virendramishra Feb 22, 2017 at 10:36 UTC

sorry for that sir, but i am new in linux i am facing the same issue with screen shot attached please suggest

RH_boot_preview.jpg (1.94 KB)

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