SSH and Monitor failure

Hi All

Help !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for screaming but I do feel a bit better now.

I have a small network with 3 computers which mostly does not work:

MSI with name of Reality_Check @ 192.168.2.7 with Mandrake 10.1
HP with name Meatloaf_Night @ 192.168.2.9 with Mandrake 9.2
IBM with name Big_Nate @ 192.168.2.2 with Mandrake 10.1

I do not have the ability to install 10.1 on the HP with out replacing the CD
reader with a DVD reader.

From any one box I can ping either [or both at the same time] of the other two
boxes. For example from the IBM box I can ping MSI by using 192.168.2.7
and/or HP by using 192.168.2.9.

I can not ping either of the other boxes by using names. For example I can not
ping MSI or HP by using the names Reality_Check or Meatloaf_Night nor can I
ping the IBM box from either MSI or HP using Big_Nate.

So, numbers work; names do not work. I believe this issue will be solved when
I configure /etc/hosts or my firewall router so for this posting that issue
is not relevant.

I was able to access the MSI box from both the HP box and the IBM box by using
the following:
fish://username@ip_address/path/to/directory
or fish://trunk@192.168.2.7

After performing the above plus actions I departed and returned.

Firing up all 3 computers the 2 which I was not able to access by fish came up
normal and functioned normal.

The MSi box which I was able to access by fish came up with video up to 3/4
way through KDE boot at which time it lost video and maybe key and mouse too
as they did not appear to be functioning either.

I shut the box down by turning power off [bad practice] since I appear to have
no control of box.

I repeated the above several times with identical results.

I attempted to access box by fish and was able to do so.

I placed Mandrake 10.1 disk in DVD drive and did an upgrade.

Booting box after upgrade I still got blank screen and most possible no mouse
and no keyboard.

My personal belief at this point is that the box is confused by my not logging
out of SSH - I saw no way to do such so I just closed Konqueror on the box I
was SSHing from.

Question:

How does one go about establishing why, how issue develops and how does one
repair?

Thanks
Frank







>

>
> /etc/hosts is a system file and can only be edited by root user. If you are
> in KDE hit Alt+F2 and enter 'kdesu konqueror' to get a root copy of
> konqueror file manager.
>
> If your IP address does keep changing, then it may be more convenient to
> use samba instead of fish.
> Samba allows you to join a Windows network, and you can pass files between
> both Windows and Linux computers.
>
> > Since I would imagine part of my ping issue is that hostname is not set
> > and user name may not be [not sure if user name is same as login user or
> > if this is different user name] lets tackle username and host name first.
> > How do I set them up?
>
> The user name is the login name.
>
> > > derek
> >
> > Thanks for the help
> > Frank
>
> HTH
> derek
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Re: SSH and Monitor failure

This is a bit confusing, Frank. Let's see if I'm following you. Comments,
including some questions, interspersed. I suspect you'll have to correct
some misunderstandings on my part ... but if I knew which ones, then I
wouldn't be misunderstanding you.

At 05:47 PM 2/27/2005 -0500, SOTL wrote:
>Hi All
>
>Help !!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>Sorry for screaming but I do feel a bit better now.
>
>I have a small network with 3 computers which mostly does not work:

All the problems you describe below ... other than name resolution ... are
specific to one host. In what sense is it that the *network* "mostly does
not work"?

>MSI with name of Reality_Check @ 192.168.2.7 with Mandrake 10.1
>HP with name Meatloaf_Night @ 192.168.2.9 with Mandrake 9.2
>IBM with name Big_Nate @ 192.168.2.2 with Mandrake 10.1
>
>I do not have the ability to install 10.1 on the HP with out replacing the CD
>reader with a DVD reader.
>
> >From any one box I can ping either [or both at the same time] of the
> other two
>boxes. For example from the IBM box I can ping MSI by using 192.168.2.7
>and/or HP by using 192.168.2.9.
>
>I can not ping either of the other boxes by using names. For example I can
>not
>ping MSI or HP by using the names Reality_Check or Meatloaf_Night nor can I
>ping the IBM box from either MSI or HP using Big_Nate.
>
>So, numbers work; names do not work. I believe this issue will be solved when
>I configure /etc/hosts or my firewall router so for this posting that issue
>is not relevant.

Close. You need to configure either /etc/hosts on all 3 machines, or
provide some sort of DNS server the covers LAN hosts. That second solution
might be implementable on your firewall/router ... but it also could be
done on any host that has a DNS daemon available (meaning any Linux host,
and maybe other OSs).

>I was able to access the MSI box from both the HP box and the IBM box by
>using
>the following:
>fish://username@ip_address/path/to/directory
>or fish://trunk@192.168.2.7
>
>After performing the above plus actions I departed and returned.

I infer from context that fish is an ssh client somehow associated with
KDE, but it is one I am unfamiliar with. Do you have some reason for
preferring it to the more widely used ssh client?

>Firing up all 3 computers the 2 which I was not able to access by fish
>came up
>normal and functioned normal.

What does "firing up" mean? Do you mean you rebooted the systems? Had you
previously shut them down? If so, did you do so properly (using either
"shutdown" or "halt" to do so)?

>The MSi box which I was able to access by fish came up with video up to 3/4
>way through KDE boot at which time it lost video and maybe key and mouse too
>as they did not appear to be functioning either.

"did not appear to be" connotes uncertainty on your part. How did you test
this? In particular, did you try to switch from the X display to a VT (most
likely by pressing CTRL-ALT-F1)?

And "3/4 way through KDE boot" doesn't convey much to me. What is the last
thing the system does before you lose video? If this is happening as part
of boot/init, surely the display is providing some login prompt ... xdm or
gdm or something ... not a KDE desktop. No?

Or are you talking about what happens *after* an X-based login? (If so,
referring to the process as "KDE boot" is a bit confusing.

>I shut the box down by turning power off [bad practice] since I appear to
>have
>no control of box.

Now I'm confused. Were you able to make a connection by fish or not?

If you were able to, then you didn't "have no control of box". You had the
ability to su to root via the ssh session and do a command-line reboot or
shutdown. That would have been better then a power-cycle.

Even more usefully, you can use this ssh session to look at, and save
somewhere safe, information on the status of the machine. Examine (and
save) the dmesg buffer, the output of "ps ax", the output of "top" ... and
maybe some other things I am not thinking of right now, but that's enough
to get you started.

If you were not able to ... never mind, I just read the next 2 paragraphs
of your message.

>I repeated the above several times with identical results.
>
>I attempted to access box by fish and was able to do so.

OK. So you have access for diagnostic purposes. See my suggestions above.

>I placed Mandrake 10.1 disk in DVD drive and did an upgrade.
>
>Booting box after upgrade I still got blank screen and most possible no mouse
>and no keyboard.
>
>My personal belief at this point is that the box is confused by my not
>logging
>out of SSH - I saw no way to do such so I just closed Konqueror on the box I
>was SSHing from.

This is far fetched. TCP stacks normally take care of this problem quite
nicely.

If you have a command-line ssh session, then you log out by typing ... wait
for it ... "logout". If you are tunneling somthing else over an ssh
connection, it would help if you told us what it is and how you are
creating the tunnel.

>Question:
>
>How does one go about establishing why, how issue develops and how does one
>repair?

OK. Let's start with the "why, how" part.

First thing is to supply to us (or think about yourself) the background of
this failure. How long had the system been running properly before it
happened for the first time? Did it ever run properly with Mandrake 10.1?
(I'd guess yes from what you wrote, but I'm not certain.) Did the failures
start coincident with a kernel change?

Second thing is to round up the usual suspects via an ssh connection. Look
at dmesg. Look at syslog logs (probably in /var/log, unless Mandrake does
something unusual). Use "ps ax" to see what processes are running at the
point when the local display (and maybe keyboard and mouse) is hung.

Third thing is to see if this is a problem specific to X. I'm not sure how
Mandrake starts the X display during init, but the usual two ways are (a)
through an entry in /etc/inittab and (b) through an init script (e.g.,
/etc/rc2.d/S99xdm is a symlink to /etc/init.d/xdm). Whichever it is,
disable it and see if the system boots/inits successfully to a command-line
prompt.

Fourth thing is to consder the possibility of a hardware failure of some
sort. You haven't described either the hardware or just where in the init
sequence the system fails, so I can't make specific suggestions ... but the
two obvious sources of hardware problems are the drives and memory (or
swap, which is sort of a combination of the two). Review hardware for
possible problems, and ... if you want more specific help on this part ...
describe the hardware in more details (amount of RAM, sizes and
partitionings of drives, output of "free", output of "df", what video card
you use) and the sapects of software most relevant to hardware (what kernel
version; stock or custom kernel; what version of X; what X display driver).

As to "how does one repair", that of course depends on what the problem is.
First things first; let's stay with diagnosis for now.

Hope this helps.




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Re: SSH and Monitor failure

Please disregard following.

Issue was resolved by reconnecting bad HD connection.

Frank

On Sunday 27 February 2005 17:47, SOTL wrote:
> Hi All
>
> Help !!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Sorry for screaming but I do feel a bit better now.
>
> I have a small network with 3 computers which mostly does not work:
>
> MSI with name of Reality_Check @ 192.168.2.7 with Mandrake 10.1
> HP with name Meatloaf_Night @ 192.168.2.9 with Mandrake 9.2
> IBM with name Big_Nate @ 192.168.2.2 with Mandrake 10.1
>
> I do not have the ability to install 10.1 on the HP with out replacing the
> CD reader with a DVD reader.
>
> From any one box I can ping either [or both at the same time] of the other
> two boxes. For example from the IBM box I can ping MSI by using 192.168.2.7
> and/or HP by using 192.168.2.9.
>
> I can not ping either of the other boxes by using names. For example I can
> not ping MSI or HP by using the names Reality_Check or Meatloaf_Night nor
> can I ping the IBM box from either MSI or HP using Big_Nate.
>
> So, numbers work; names do not work. I believe this issue will be solved
> when I configure /etc/hosts or my firewall router so for this posting that
> issue is not relevant.
>
> I was able to access the MSI box from both the HP box and the IBM box by
> using the following:
> fish://username@ip_address/path/to/directory
> or fish://trunk@192.168.2.7
>
> After performing the above plus actions I departed and returned.
>
> Firing up all 3 computers the 2 which I was not able to access by fish came
> up normal and functioned normal.
>
> The MSi box which I was able to access by fish came up with video up to 3/4
> way through KDE boot at which time it lost video and maybe key and mouse
> too as they did not appear to be functioning either.
>
> I shut the box down by turning power off [bad practice] since I appear to
> have no control of box.
>
> I repeated the above several times with identical results.
>
> I attempted to access box by fish and was able to do so.
>
> I placed Mandrake 10.1 disk in DVD drive and did an upgrade.
>
> Booting box after upgrade I still got blank screen and most possible no
> mouse and no keyboard.
>
> My personal belief at this point is that the box is confused by my not
> logging out of SSH - I saw no way to do such so I just closed Konqueror on
> the box I was SSHing from.
>
> Question:
>
> How does one go about establishing why, how issue develops and how does one
> repair?
>
> Thanks
> Frank
>
> > /etc/hosts is a system file and can only be edited by root user. If you
> > are in KDE hit Alt+F2 and enter 'kdesu konqueror' to get a root copy of
> > konqueror file manager.
> >
> > If your IP address does keep changing, then it may be more convenient to
> > use samba instead of fish.
> > Samba allows you to join a Windows network, and you can pass files
> > between both Windows and Linux computers.
> >
> > > Since I would imagine part of my ping issue is that hostname is not set
> > > and user name may not be [not sure if user name is same as login user
> > > or if this is different user name] lets tackle username and host name
> > > first. How do I set them up?
> >
> > The user name is the login name.
> >
> > > > derek
> > >
> > > Thanks for the help
> > > Frank
> >
> > HTH
> > derek
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
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Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs