RedHat 7.2 on ES40 AlphaServer - Boot Problem - Help Solving

Sat Dec 12 18:53:53 UTC 2009

Hi Bill --

The error message

> /etc/aboot.conf:  file not found

is certainly not a good sign, and suggests the "upgrade installation"
somehow corrupted the contents of the /boot folder contents of your old
system disk.

I just sent you a private message with step-by-step instructions for getting
the old system disk mounted on your machine alongside the new system disk,
and copying the new (working) /boot folder contents from the new system disk
back over to the old system disk, in hopes that this will allow you to boot
successfully off the old disk again (where your Mathematica installation
resides).

But sitting here now I wonder if the RH7.2 Linux for Alpha installation CDs
also had a "repair" option separate from the "upgrade" option that might
address problems with corrupted contents of /boot ?   This would certainly
be easier than restoring /boot on the old system disk manually (copying
content from the new system disk), but I don't know if that is what the
"restore" option is for, nor whether there is any risk of making matters
worse instead of better.

Others on the axp-list may know more about this than me ....

Good luck --

        -- Jim McCarthy

  -----Original Message-----
  From: axp-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:axp-list-bounces at redhat.com]On
Behalf Of William E Bohrer
  Sent: Friday, 11 December, 2009 10:32 PM
  To: 'Linux on Alpha processors'
  Subject: RE: RedHat 7.2 on ES40 AlphaServer - Boot Problem - Help Solving

  Good Evening Will!

  Thank you for your interest.

  After obtaining the ES40 (from eBay), I installed the RedHat 7.2 Operating
System for the purpose of running the application named Mathematica.  The
commands are all Plot commands inside of Mathematica.  The only other thing
I have ever run on the machine is the GnuChess program.  For most of the
first two years of using the machine, I didn't utilize any of the Plot
commands because everything I did was numerical in nature.  Recently I did
some work that involved plotting elliptical figures.  Incidentally, the
video card is a Radeon 7900.  The initial installation of the operating
system was made by following the book Learning RED HAT LINUX, 2nd Edition,
which covers Red Hat 7.2 for Intel, Alpha and AMD based machines.  The
author is Bill McCarty.

  Working by reading the book while sitting in front of the keyboard and
monitor, resulted in a working system, although as I recall, getting the
aboot> feature of the AlphaServer set up was the single most difficult task.

  Now, moving forward in time to the last six weeks, on the day when the
ES40 would not boot, I returned to the book Learning RED HAT LINUX, 2nd
Edition, looking in the index for "troubleshooting" or "boot problems" and
anything else that might be helpful.  My reading brought to light the
concept of an "upgrade installation" and in the heat-of-the moment, that
seemed to promise a quick fix.  The words about nothing being erased during
an upgrade installation seemed seductive to me.  I located the original
package of RedHat7.2 and performed the "upgrade."  The system will still not
boot from  the set of SCSI disks containing the original installation with
the "upgrade."  The machine progresses to aboot>, where I used to enter 0
(zero) to boot the system and all that happens is "/etc/aboot.conf:  file
not found" appears on the screen after I enter the 0 and that is followed by
another aboot>.

  When the machine first malfunctioned, it did not start the boot, it just
sat with a black screen, however, I don't know if the "upgrade" installation
was a good idea or not?  Is this situation a step in the right direction or
the wrong direction?  Was the decision to attempt the "upgrade" install a
bad decision?

  Your thoughts greatly appreciated.

  Bill

  From: axp-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:axp-list-bounces at redhat.com] On
Behalf Of Will L Givens
  Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 12:26 AM
  To: 'Linux on Alpha processors'
  Subject: RE: RedHat 7.2 on ES40 AlphaServer - Boot Problem - Help Solving

  Hate to say it but you gave us PLENTY of general information. What
commands did you run? What kind of 'fancy' graphix did you try to create and
how (aka using what program)?  Will L G

  From: axp-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:axp-list-bounces at redhat.com] On
Behalf Of William E Bohrer
  Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 10:30
  To: axp-list at redhat.com
  Subject: RedHat 7.2 on ES40 AlphaServer - Boot Problem - Help Solving

  Hello!

  Problem Description:  a previously stable installation of RedHat 7.2 on an
ES40 AlphaServer supporting the application Mathematica 5.0 (which runs
under Linux).  This computer has been in routine weekly use by me for the
purpose of solving various math problems of interest to me as a hobby and
also sometimes to support consulting work performed by me (business has been
poor of late).  This system has been operating successfully for at least
three years.

  About 6 weeks ago I attempted the generation of some fancy graphics
displays to the screen, something I had not attempted previously.  Strange
things, with minor impact seemed to happen after that, slower booting is one
symptom and some commands that worked before did not seem to work as they
had in the past, but nothing of a work stopping nature.

  Then, one day the system simply would not boot.

  As a starting point I removed all the disks; installed spare disks and
reinstalled RedHat 7.2.  The system runs well with the reinstalled operating
system.  By "runs well" I mean that you can play games on it with flawless
and quick performance.  I have not attempted to reinstall the Mathematica
application yet.  Clearly not a hardware problem.  Somehow, I have damaged
the software while attempting the fancy plotting (color plots, lots of
curves, etc.) or at least so it appears.

  The problem:  reinstalling Mathematica requires a payment to Wolfram
Research (not excessive, but I would just as soon avoid it if possible) and
I will lose electronic copies of the Notebooks developed on this system.

  There are paper copies of the work performed to date, however, it would be
nice to skip retyping those .nb files if possible.

  The question is how to troubleshoot the damaged installation?
Philosophical guidance at this point, please.  Please keep in mind that
while I had sufficient competence to follow directions and successfully
install RedHat 7.2 on the ES40; that is not particularly a strong point with
my computer expertise.

  Any and all suggestion gratefully accepted!

  Thanks,

  Bill
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