httpd and dovecot service start fails

[Bob McClure Jr]

On Sun, Feb 05, 2006 at 01:53:38PM -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, Feb 04, 2006 at 09:43:02PM -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> >> I'm installing FC4 on an old machine after having success on a new
> >> machine. I did a new install (instead of update) and modified the same
> >> configs I modified on the new machine. Here's the latest problem. This
> >> is
> >> getting real close to working correctly!
> >>
> >> If I do /sbin/service httpd restart or /sbin/service dovecot restart,
> >> the
> >> restart fails (the stop fails too since they did not start properly
> >> during
> >> boot). However, if I do /usr/sbin/httpd or /usr/sbin/dovecot , they both
> >> seem to run fine. How can I find out what's going wrong during boot or
> >> restart that's causing these to not run? I've looked in the httpd logs
> >> and
> >> the messages log and found nothing.
> >
> > Look again.  For httpd, look in /var/log/httpd/error_log.  For
> > dovecot, look in /var/log/maillog.  If a service isn't starting
> > properly, there _must_ be some information either on the screen or in
> > a log.
> >
> 
> I left httpd running last night by manually starting it. I then did a
> service httpd restart this afternoon. Here's the restart:
> 
> [root at kauko sbin]# ./service httpd restart
> Stopping httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
> Starting httpd:                                            [FAILED]
> [root at kauko sbin]#
> 
> 
> 
> And here's the error_log:
> 
> [Sun Feb 05 04:02:20 2006] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest
> authentication ...
> [Sun Feb 05 04:02:20 2006] [notice] Digest: done
> [Sun Feb 05 04:02:20 2006] [notice] LDAP: Built with OpenLDAP LDAP SDK
> [Sun Feb 05 04:02:20 2006] [notice] LDAP: SSL support unavailable
> [Sun Feb 05 04:02:22 2006] [notice] mod_python: Creating 4 session mutexes
> based on 150 max processes and 0 max threads.
> [Sun Feb 05 04:02:23 2006] [notice] Apache/2.0.54 (Fedora) configured --
> resuming normal operations
> [Sun Feb 05 13:49:44 2006] [notice] caught SIGTERM, shutting down
> Waiting for data... (interrupt to abort)
> 
> 
> The 13:49:44 appeared when I did the restart. Nothing appeared after that...
> 
> THANKS!
> 
> Harold

Hmm.  This does not compute.  Try to start it again, and very soon
after, do this:

  cd /var/log
  ls -lrt

The last log touched will be at the bottom of the list.  My guess is
it will be messages.  Check that.  Also check
/var/log/httpd/access_log.  It must be leaving a suicide note somewhere.

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
bob at bobcatos.com             http://www.bobcatos.com
The best things in life aren't things.