[olug] My console has fallen and it can't get up

[Phil Brutsche]

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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way, someone said...

> So, I’ve got this linux server that is basically only a firewall
> / IP Masquerade. There are no ports listening for connections on
> telnet, ssh, rlogin or otherwise.  The box has been running for a
> couple months now without restart and or incident.  (uptime approx.
> 65 days)  The distribution is Redhat and the kernel is 2.2.16 (or
> in that neighborhood).
>
> The box was running in Xwindows, the screensaver on, and after a
> keystroke the screensaver password prompt appeared. I attempted to
> enter my password so I could access the environment and do some work.
> I typed in my password and hit the ENTER key...
>
> The console is frozen, no keyboard or mouse response.  I cannot change
> consoles, I cannot even change the caps lock state on the box.  No
> keyboard response, yet the caps lock and scroll lock lights are lit,
> and the keyboard connection is fine.  The keyboard works on other
> computers also, so this is not a keyboard hardware problem.

I think a better title is "X11 fell down and can't bet back up".  When
this happens, the console is dead; you can't get back to character mode
with ctrl-alt-f1, you can't kill the X server with ctrl-alt-backspace, nor
can you reboot with ctrl-alt-delete.

Your only recourse is to force a reboot - it shouldn't matter if it's done
via the power button or the reset button.  You may be able to restart X11
and regain control of the display server, but that depends on your video
hardware, and requires that you have another way of logging in.

Cut your losses and force a reboot.  You've also learned a valuable
lesson: *always* have a back door into the system.  If you can't have sshd
running, put a getty on one of the serial ports on the back of the unit.

Ask the group if you need help doing that (putting a getty on one of the
serial ports).

- -- 
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Phil Brutsche					pbrutsch at creighton.edu

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