H/P 9000 console weirdness at start-up

[Brad Marks]

On my rp5470, running HP-UX 11.i, I've recently noticed during reboot, when processes are starting up, the startup message has about 2.5 times the number of periods (.) than are required; instead of getting OK or N/A on the right column of the console, the line wraps twice and the OK is in the middle of the screen. I know that this is cosmetic, but
a) could it indicate that something is wrong?
b) it gives the console's scroll back buffer 1/3 the effectiveness as before.


TIA
Brad

[Michael Tully]

What startup programs are doing this? Are these HP startup scripts that were already setup or are they scripts from vendors or self-written?

I have some customised scripts written by dev teams that do similar things to this, but they all work ok.

[Brad Marks]

Michael,
ALL startup scripts are doing this. I don't know what might have changed but this only started happening a few months ago. (We don't reboot very often).

Thanks,
Brad

[Steven E. Protter]

If the system is functioning normally, I would not say something is wrong. There is a display problem, it looks bad and You'd like to deal with it.

if it happens on every startup script, its problably not any of the indvidual startup scripts. They don't draw on common components.

What is common is the init script/process.

init starts the process of reading through the /sbin/rc0.d and subsequent directories.

I've not got a lot of experience, never having touched or examined this process. But its like a detective story, if it only happens on one step, look at the step. If it happens on every startup step, look for common factors.

Maybe someone with greater knowledge of the init process can suggest what files to look at here.

SEP

[Bill Hassell]

This is actually not that uncommon and it is due to settings for the terminal that are started in /sbin/rc, specfically, the /sbin/rc.utils script. What has happened is that the script's idea of the width and length of the terminal line has changed. The behavior of rc.utils is controlled by /etc/rc.config.d/list_mode and the 'normal' value is LIST_MODE=0. Now LIST_MODE=0 is designed for HP terminals but will usually work for dumb vt100 terminals or fake terminals (ie, PCs). rc.utils uses ttytype to determine the terminal type and works quite well.

Now the tricky part: this file may be OK but someone has been editing files in the /etc/rc.config.d directory and is keeping old versions of the files (xyz.old). That is a very big NO-NO. Everything in /etc/rc.config.d is executed in alphabetical order on bootup.

So sort all the files in /etc/rc.config.d by age:

ll -t /etc/rc.config.d

Then see what is at the top of the list (newest files). If nothing shows up, you'll need to scan all of /etc/rc.config.d for LIST_MODE. And if all fails, you can try setting LIST_MODE

[Brad Marks]

I found two '.orig' files in /etc/rc.config.d. I've removed them and now have to wait until our next reboot.
Hopefully this may be the cause.
I verified that /etc/rc.config.d/list_mode sets LIST_MODE=0.

Thanks for the help.
Brad