No logging to /var/log/messages or /var/log/secure

[Paul Kloves]

redhatdude at bellsouth.net wrote:
> Hi,
> After a few days of not checking the logs, I did today and to my 
> surprise messages and secure are not getting anything.
> I've updated my FC5 many times and I can't really tell when this started 
> to happen. I check other logs like /var/log/audit/audit.log and it 
> works, but secure and messages don't.
> Why is this happening and how can I fix it?
> EJ

I've had the same problem. but on a CentOS 4.3 system.  In my case, it's 
something to do with selinux... If I force a relabel, the problem goes 
away.  Since it's easy enough to do that (by starting 
system-config-securitylevel, selecting the selinux tab, and checking the 
"force relabel on reboot"), I just do that rather than find out what the 
real problem is.  After I reboot and selinux relabels all the files to 
the correct security context, /var/log/messages starts getting messages 
again.

BTW, I think you can force a relabel by creating a file called 
/.autorelabel.  I think selinux uses that file to signal a relabel, but 
I usually use the system-config-securitylevel widget to do it.

HTH

-- 
Paul Kloves