Date: Sat, 05 Aug 2000 12:40:30 -0500 From: Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com> To: Joe Warner <jswarner@uswest.net> Cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org, freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie Learning Experience Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000805123643.03128a88@127.0.0.1> In-Reply-To: <398C3C21.CAB81AB4@uswest.net> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20000805110010.00b8d348@127.0.0.1>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Me thinks you sell yourself too short. I would touch it up a tad to highlight the process, otherwise the length appears to be OK. Am sure that someone can help with the link. Just my $0.02 Frank At 10:09 AM 8/5/2000 -0600, Joe Warner wrote: >Thanks Frank. Actually, I thought about posting it on Daemon News but it >would probably be too long, since I don't have a URL to link it to. Oh >well....such is the life of a lamer. 8^) > >Joe > > >Frank Pawlak wrote: > > > IMHO this is a great story. Perhaps this deserves a daemon news spot with > > some HOWTO implications. > > > > Regards, > > Frank > > > > At 08:32 AM 8/5/2000 -0600, Joe Warner wrote: > > >Hi all, > > > > > > I've had a real learning experience with my FreeBSD (3.4) system at > > >work over the past couple of days and at the risk of making myself look > > >like an idiot, I felt it important enough to share. Since I'm a newbie > > >and hope to help other newbies when facing similar situations, this > > >email is directed mainly at freebsd-newbies. However, I also felt it > > >important enough to share with freebsd-advocacy because of how amazed I > > >am with the OS. Instead of a little cartoon devil, maybe the mascot > > >should be the Energizer Bunny? FreeBSD keeps going and going and > > >going... 8^) Anyway, please bear with me. This is probably going to be > > >pretty lengthy, so for those of you don't like to read or are > > >uninterested, just close this email and delete it now. For the rest of > > >you, read on... > > > When I came into work last Thursday morning, I noticed that my PC > > >(Compaq Deskpro 2000), running FreeBSD 3.4 was at the login prompt and > > >my WIN NT machine was at the boot up password. I realized then that the > > >inevitable had happened....Power Outage! Thinking that power > > >outages/cold reboots meant death to most UNIX systems, I hurried to > > >prevent this from happening again and hooked up an APC Smart-UPS 1000 > > >that we had sitting in one of our storage closets. Hooking it up to my > > >FreeBSD machine was easy enough. I just plugged the power cord into a > > >receptacle and then plugged the power from the CPU and monitor into the > > >back of the UPS. I finished by attaching the serial cable on the UPS to > > >the serial port on the back of the CPU (COM1) - There is only one serial > > >port available for Compaq Deskpro's. After hooking it up, I realized > > >that I would need to install some software that could communicate with > > >the UPS through the serial line and allow me to do a graceful shutdown > > >in the event of power loss. I went to APC's web site and though they > > >had their Powerchute software available for many commercial versions of > > >UNIX, I didn't see anything that was designed specifically for any of > > >the BSD's. They even had a Linux version and I learned later that at > > >least one person was running this successfully under Linux emulation on > > >his FreeBSD 3.4 system. I didn't want to run this under Linux emulation > > >if I didn't have to. Later, I came across an application in the ports > > >collection called UPSD - 2.0 that seemed to be designed specifically to > > >work with the APC Smart-UPS models. I loaded the 4th CD from the CD ROM > > >set and from /usr/ports/sysutils/upsd/ I typed make install and > > >installed it. I noticed that there wasn't any documentation included > > >with this port, not even a man page. It loaded only 2 files, the upsd > > >executable in /usr/local/sbin and the configuration file (upsd.conf) in > > >/usr/local/etc I su'd to root and attempted to spawn the daemon by > > >cd'ng to /usr/local/sbin and typing # ./upsd At this point, my whole > > >system locked up tighter than a drum! I couldn't kill X and couldn't > > >switch to another terminal. Nothing! I had to cold-reboot my system > > >again! After I booted back up, I looked at my logs and noticed a > > >message indicating there was a permission problem with /dev/cuaa0 This > > >device is owned by uucp and belongs to the dialer group. I su'd to root > > >again and adjusted the permissions so that other users would have access > > >and then tried to execute the program again. Same thing happened, > > >complete lockup! At this point, I was pretty frustrated and none the > > >information I had read in my books or the answers I received from > > >posting to FreeBSD-Questions seemed to help. I cd'd to > > >/usr/ports/sysutils/upsd and typed make deinstall and went home. > > > When I came in Friday morning, I noticed an email from someone who > > >said they were using a port called UPSMON - 2.1.3 with an APC Smart-UPS > > >on their FreeBSD system without any problems. This port wasn't on the > > >CD ROM set, so when I installed it, it had to fetch it from an ftp > > >site. No problem, right? Wrong! I installed this port and decided to > > >reboot. Big mistake! Now, during boot-up, my system would just hang > > >at: > > > > > >local package initialization: Cannot open /dev/cuaa0: Permission denied > > >upsmond<---(this is where it would hang) > > > > > > After hearing the voice of Ralph from the Simpsons in my head, going > > >Ha! Ha!.., I thought, now what do I do! After going through all my > > >books and documentation and trying to boot into single-user mode, fixit > > >mode from the 2nd cd in the cd rom set and even from kernel.GENERIC, I > > >realized I wasn't getting anywhere. My machine would always hang when > > >trying to launch the upsmond daemon during boot up. As a last resort, I > > >posted to FreeBSD-Questions and got the answer I was looking for. I was > > >told to go into single-user mode. At the beginning of the boot-up > > >process, there is a ten second count down that tells you to either hit > > >enter or wait for the count down to finish for system boot-up. Before > > >the counter finishes, you hit the space bar and you're presented with a > > >prompt where you can specify different boot options. I specified "boot > > >-s" for single user mode. In The Complete FreeBSD, it tells you to boot > > >into single-user mode and run fsck on / by issuing: fsck -y / <cr> I > > >ran this on / and /dev/wd0s1a, respectively. Then it tells you to mount > > >/ by typing: mount -u / I did this and it let me mount it. Lastly, it > > >says to mount /usr by typing: mount /usr It would let me mount this but > > >only with read access. I needed write access so that I could go into > > >/usr/local/etc/rc.d/ and either remove or change the upsmond.sh file in > > >there that was causing my system to hang. I got a response from someone > > >telling me to mount /usr by typing the following: mount -rwf /usr This > > >worked and I was able to edit upsmond.sh so that it was pointing to > > >/dev/cuaa1 and not cuaa0. This got my system booting. I found out > > >later that I could have successfully mounted /usr with r/w access if I > > >would have first fsck'd it by issuing: fsck -y /usr (I probably should > > >have done this for /var too) > > > I got my system booting again (Whew!) but still haven't figured out > > >why /dev/cuaa0 causes problems. I seems as if some kind of conflict is > > >going on, maybe something else is using this device? I haven't found > > >the answer to this yet. I got an email response back from APC, saying > > >they did have an application that would work with FreeBSD but I would > > >need to purchase their Simple UNIX Serial cable for $39.00 in order for > > >it to work. So, now I don't know if it's a device conflict or the cable > > >but I doubt I'll shell out the money for a new cable. Maybe my manager > > >will let me order it and reimburse me? > > > I've always thought that cold reboot/shutdowns were death to UNIX > > >systems, especially if you did it more than 5 or 6 times. I've > > >completely trashed my systems this way when I was using Red Hat 6.x and > > >Caldera 2.x in the past. Cold booted more than 5 times and got the > > >dreaded "kernel panic" message and had to reinstall. I ended up cold > > >booting my FreeBSD system more than 12 times the last couple of days and > > >it's still going! 8^) So, the moral of this story? FreeBSD is > > >forgiving, you just need to tell it how to forgive you! And...forgive > > >me for such a long story... 8^} > > > > > >Joe > > > > > > > > >-- > > > > > > FreeBSD = The Power to Serve > > > ..Simply put = FreeBSD Rocks! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > >with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message > >-- > > FreeBSD = The Power to Serve > ..Simply put = FreeBSD Rocks! > > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.3.2.7.2.20000805123643.03128a88>