Alpha 400 hang during boot from disc

From: Tom Abrahamsen <tom_at_netup.no>
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 08:47:43 +0200

I had some misuse of ftp on my internet server, so I disabled this
functionality.
24 hours later the system hang and will not reboot the normal way. This may
be a hacker who hits back.
I can boot from CD as single user.

System: Alpha 400 / DU 3.2c.

Symptoms:
When I boot, the normal messages roll over the screen clean without errors.
At the end I got a warning about /sbin/swapdefault, but I managed to get
rid of this message.
After the last boot message cursor is positioned centered at the next line,
and everything is locked.
I compared the boot messages with an old kernel.log and to me it seems as
the boot has finished. The next I expected was the startup of tasks from
rc3.d. Therefore I put in an echo as S00 in rc3.d, but I newer get this
message so rc3 newer starts.
I also tried to disable rc3, but no other reaction occured.

Now I wonder what is going on during a boot after devices is set up and
svapfile initiated but before rc3 is started. I.e. after all normal boot
messages but before startup of tasks from rc3.d

One other possible symptom is that I in single user (maintenance) mode,
after having mounted my normal system in /mnt, are not able to run any
programs from my "normal /bin" (/mnt/bin/...). I am only able to run the
programs from the /bin from the CD. Since I never run in single mode I do
not know if this is normal.

I appreciate very much ideas of what may be wrong and how I can get on the
air again.

SUMMARY:
I got 2 answers from you and appreciate your consern. Unfortunately the
answers was sendt to the mail adress that was down, so I didn't got the
answers in time. Since time was going we had to do something, so we decided
to restore root directory from a tape backup. After the restore we had some
work to do to get back to normal again. We also changed all critical
passwords.
But anyway, a great thanks to the to who responded and showed me that the
database works. Hopefully their answer may be of help to others who search
 the database.

And here is their advices:

Nestor Ruiz [nruiz_at_hermes.bvl.com.pe]
anthony.miller_at_vf.vodafone.co.uk

Well, you must try to check the /sbin/init program and the /etc/inittab
(who
tells to init what to do), probably you have a backup of those files, or
you can use them borrowed from another server...

Check file for dates (modiifcations), permissions and sizes...
Nestor Ruiz

This is only a guess, but it might be worth checking /etc/inittab and
making sure that the 'initdefault' line has not been changed. This is
the default run level to stop at when the system boots. Should be set
to 3.

is:3:initdefault:

Regards - Tony (anthony.miller)


Tom Abrahamsen
tom_at_netup.no / tom.abrahamsen_at_colorline.no
47-22 94 42 17
Received on Tue Aug 18 1998 - 06:45:56 NZST

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