From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 14 08:27:56 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 487B7106568B for ; Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:27:56 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@sopwith.solgatos.com) Received: from sopwith.solgatos.com (pool-173-50-231-101.ptldor.fios.verizon.net [173.50.231.101]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 935038FC0A for ; Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:27:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@sopwith.solgatos.com) Received: by sopwith.solgatos.com (Postfix, from userid 66) id EDECCB64F; Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:27:34 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost by sopwith.solgatos.com (8.8.8/6.24) id IAA07970; Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:24:16 GMT Message-Id: <200902210824.IAA07970@sopwith.solgatos.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:58:56 CST." <20090214005444.0963.5922242B@shaunc.com> Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:24:16 +0000 From: Dieter Subject: Re: How to interrupt hung boot process? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:27:57 -0000 Shaun writes: > Have you tried ^X or ^Z? Often when my cable modem has lost its link and > I reboot, FreeBSD will hang waiting to start sendmail because it can't > determine the local IP. Sometimes it will hang while processing my ipfw > scripts due to DNS failures. > > I usually try ^C, ^X, and ^Z in that order and in my experience one of > them will abort the hung process. I tried every letter on the keyboard, ^\, a few other keys, and break (RS-232 console). Seems like ^\ used to be a sure kill (SIGKILL maybe?). Tim writes: > If a shell script traps the signals, there is nothing you can do except > by calling a SIGKILL to the PID, which requires the system to be in > Multi-User Mode. The shell script doesn't, but a binary program it calls might. I'll have to look into that. michael writes: > or, boot with rescue cd or anything that will write to the fs and > disable the script I managed to get the boot loader to boot single user, then moved the script to a different filename. Added a symlink from the script name to /bin/true, which turns out to not exist. Someone moved true to /usr/bin. Fortunately the script not existing didn't cause a problem. Thanks, gang. Any other ideas? BTW, softdeps and background fsck are very much appreciated when pressing the reset button!