7.3 Redhat Boot lockup at Setting Hostname

[Ray Van Dolson]

On Tue, Jan 08, 2008 at 04:44:10PM -0500, Bruce Meyer wrote:
> I have been using my Linux server for months and all of a sudden it
> locks up during the boot startup at "Setting Hostname
> myConputerName". I had a second kernel installed (smp) and it allowed
> me to boot and login but on shutdown it hung and on restart had the
> same problem. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled 7.3 RedHat. It
> worked for awhile and the same problem happened?
> 
> Is there anything that could trigger this? Is this a known virus or
> hack? I can still boot in single user mode. Can I change or disable
> something to allow the system to continue booting? 

Aside from the fact that you're running an incredibly old and
unsupported version of RH, it sounds like you might have a hardware
problem.

Maybe a bad fan causing the CPU or system to overheat and behave
erratically?  Bad memory?

I'd at least pop open the case and take a look around.

Ray