Delayed booting problem on F7

[David Timms]

Gordon Messmer wrote:
> Karl Larsen wrote:
>>    This morning I started the computer and it stopped for 10 minutes 
>> because it could not find cups. It talked about applying iptables but 
>> had "never matched protocal" and when it finally came up Thunderbird 
>> was broken.
> 
...
> After checking your SELinux settings, you should have checked resolution 
> of your hostname.  To do this, start by establishing what your hostname is:
> 
> # hostname
> herald.private.dragonsdawn.net
> 
> Then make sure that hostname can be resolved, either by the hosts file 
> or DNS:
> 
> # getent hosts `hostname `
> 192.168.1.6     herald.private.dragonsdawn.net
> 
> If you get an error from "getent", then you need to make sure that your 
> hostname can be resolved.  You can do this by listing it in /etc/hosts, 
> or by setting up the name in DNS.
This is my suspicion for Karl's issue as well. Even though it isn't my 
issue, I would like to confirm the root cause of the problem.
A final test is does ping `hostname` actually get "reply"s ?
ie: ping k5di

Even if it the hostname is pingable now, I think it would not have been 
pingable at the time when Karl had the initial problem. His contents of 
/etc/resolv.conf showed the comment from dhclient. I'll put down some 
further possibilities that may have led to this issue {that seemed to 
resolve itself}.

Since likely a DSL connection to the internet:
- Network cable faulty or partially plugged in {wired} ?

- Assuming a DSL router does the pppoe login:
   - powered off
   - rebooting at the inopportune moment {check the uptime of the router}
   - relogging on due to inactivity timeout {check the router logs - and 
that it time marks are correct time}
   - failed to give out an dhcp address ?
   - isp dns server down at the time the pc is trying to resolve its 
hostname {instead of an instant ~"does not exist", PC's dns gets no 
answer, timing out after 1 minute, then trying again a couple of 
times...} {check the ISPs service status - decent ones tell you when 
they have had issues} {also causes slow startup for thunderbird since it 
can't resolve the mail server name}.
   - the received dhcp address has a domain that does not exist {if I 
set domain in my router's dhcp server as "zzz", then for eg sendmail 
needs to be able to resolve `hostname`.zzz - it will timeout after 1 
minute, try again, time out after the second minute, then sm-client will 
also timeout - leads to a 3 minute boot delay}.

- A change to a PC setting:
   - hostname changed {and not updated in /etc/hosts} ?
   - firewall config change ?
   - package update {less /var/log/yum.log} ?
eg: Sep 28 22:47:50 Updated: iptables-ipv6 - 1.3.8-2.1.fc7.i386
eg: Oct 11 22:54:16 Updated: dbus-glib - 0.73-3.fc7.i386
{it might help us to see the most recent 50 entries from yum.log}

- An issue in a package
   - network manager, dbus, dhclient, iptables ?

- "fail to find cups and then sendmail":
   - The description is poor. A better one might be "the system shows: 
Starting cups ...  and then sits there for some minutes. This also 
occurred at the starting sendmail / sm-client ... part". It is not that 
the system can't find either of these programs, but that they are taking 
more than normal time to startup.

- "Thunderbird was broken"
   - There was no further mention of the nature of the issue with 
thunderbird. Was it delay in getting email ? Were there any error 
messages ? what exactly was the issue ? Was it delay in starting 
thunderbird at all ?

I have found it useful to have a pen/paper near my computer so that I 
can catch any weirdness as close to the letter as possible. I also have 
an old digital watch there, so that I can time {in seconds} something 
that seems to be taking to long - sometimes that is enough to indicate 
the type of fault to others.

I am sure there are more possibilities that can lead to the symptoms 
described by Karl.

DaveT.