Operating System - HP-UX
1748062 Members
5697 Online
108758 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

 
SOLVED
Go to solution

Weird issue of x looping at startup

Hi,

I've a C8000 with 11i v1, and installed it yesterday (sept 2005 media).

Now I've an annoying problem...

First time I put the dns, but didn't configure the gateway before.. so the system froze and upon restart not only took a lot to start each service, but x looped before getting the login screen.
Solved it by booting manually and erasing the /etc/resolv.conf

Second time, put the gateway , put the dns servers, downloaded free depots from the hp website using mozilla... after a while didn't manage to open more programs... felt something was wrong so I rebooted.

Upon restart, x looped again before getting the login screen. (just fixed removing again the /etc/resolv.conf)

Any idea what the problem is ? I need to set the dns to manage to use the browser...

The hostname I put during the installation is

hpc8000

(and I remember receiving a warning about it not being compliant to standards)

Thanks,

Alessandro Mazzini
8 REPLIES 8
Bill Hassell
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

Since you are running a workstation, you are stuck with Xwindows to get started properly to show anything and Xwindows is critically dependent on proper network setup. When you specify a DNS server (the resolv.conf file), your machine will follow the rules in /etc/nsswitch.conf (or the bad defaults) without this file. The bad default is to use DNS first, a very poor choice since your workstation's name and address are probably unknown to your DNS server(s), especially true if your DNS servers are on the open Internet (ie, supplied by your service provider).

So start by creating an nameserver directive file, also called the resolver directive file, namely nsswitch.conf. There are several examples in /etc, none of them are very useful. So just copy this text to your /etc/nsswitch.conf file:

passwd: files
group: files
hosts: files [NOTFOUND=continue UNAVAIL=continue] dns
ipnodes: files [NOTFOUND=return UNAVAIL=return TRYAGAIN=return]
services: files
networks: files
protocols: files
rpc: files
publickey: files
netgroup: files
automount: files
aliases: files

> (and I remember receiving a warning about it not being compliant to standards)

There's a reason...your 9 character name is going to cause networking problems. Your hpc8000 will appear to be hpc800 in some circumstances. And the failure modes will vary depending on how your OS has been patched. Change the name to hpc8k and you'll avoid problems.

> after a while didn't manage to open more programs... felt something was wrong so I rebooted.

That's when you need to check dmesg and syslog.log. Type the command:

dmesg

And then look at the bottom of the file:

tail -100 /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log

for clues about parameter limits such as nfile and nproc being hit.


Bill Hassell, sysadmin

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

Thanks,

it indeed solved the issue :)

I guess now I'm left with the elusive missing video drivers warning issue

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

Forgot to ask

So, can the hostname be only 6 characters ?
Bill Hassell
Honored Contributor

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

The limit is 8 characters for hostname -- which is not the same as the Internet name. See the man page for hostname. You can specify long names like myhpc8000computer in /etc/hosts:

192.168.0.5 hpc8k myhpc8000computer hpc8k.mydomain.com myhpc8000computer.mydomain.com

as an example. If you have control over your DNS server, you can setup aliases there for other hosts to use.


Bill Hassell, sysadmin

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

Ehm,

so why is hpc8000 too long ? It's 7 characters...
Bill Hassell
Honored Contributor

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

> so why is hpc8000 too long ? It's 7 characters...

Oops, miscounted. The warning about being non-compliant is not clear. hpc8000 is just fine as a hostname.


Bill Hassell, sysadmin

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

eheheh,

ok, closing :)

Re: Weird issue of x looping at startup

See the first answer