What did I do? - Startup Script dots

[Larry Basford]

I copied some files onto the system and now at startup I get DOTTS for every startup script.
How do I get rid of them. I like the other style init startup display.

Configure system crash dumps ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ OK

[Todd McDaniel_1]

That looks normal to me bud.

no points here please.

[Larry Basford]

I use to get one line of dotts like this.

HP-UX Start-up in progress
__________________________

Configure system crash dumps ........................................ OK
Mount file systems .................................................. OK
Update kernel and loadable modules .

[Larry Basford]

Now I get this

HP-UX Start-up in progress
__________________________

Configure system crash dumps ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ OK
Mount file systems .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. OK
Update kernel and loadable modules .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. N/A
Initialize loadable modules ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... OK

[Patrick Wallek]

Well, what files did you copy? Did you do anything to any of the scripts in the /sbin/init.d directory?

[Sanjay_6]

Hi,

Maybe your console terminal settings have gotten messed up. Can you reset the console setting to default. Power off the console and power it back on while keeping the "d" key.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Steven E. Protter]

check the .sh_history file of whatever user/workstation did the file copy.

Identify and restore teh files if they are regular files.

If they are not, get out your trusty vg00 Ignite tape and consider restoring the OS.

SEP

[Sundar_7]

Larry,

Make sure you have a valid /sbin/rc.utils file. If it is not there, copy it from some other system..

If you have a /sbin/list_mode file, rename the file and try booting again.

- Sundar.

[Bill Hassell]

Did you copy any files into /etc/rc.config.d? This is a critical directory and cannot tolerate random files. Every step in startup will execute all the files in this directory, no exceptions. Use this command to list files starting with the most recently created or modified:

ll -t /etc/rc.config.d

The other possibility is that the env value for $COLUMNS has changed. It should be COLUMNS=80 when /etc/rc.utils is run. There is a possibility that the terminal has been set to 7bit odd or even parity. Be sure to set 8bit, no parity. One last possibility is that somone has messed with top level directory permissions. These should be:

# ll -d / /etc /etc/rc.config.d /sbin /sbin/init.d
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 8192 Aug 10 13:24 /
dr-xr-xr-x 29 bin bin 8192 Sep 20 17:19 /etc
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin bin 8192 Sep 14 13:26 /etc/rc.config.d
dr-xr-xr-x 13 bin bin 8192 Dec 17 2003 /sbin
dr-xr-xr-x 2 bin bin 8192 Sep 14 13:48 /sbin/init.d

[Steve Post]

You modified some file in /sbin/init.d (I think).

Why would I say that?? I did the same thing. My guess is that some script you just modded in /sbin/init.d has something slightly interactive in it, like "stty". Because of it the console acted a little buggy. Like the "cols" option in stty got screwed up.

Granted this is just a GUESS. I haven't bothered to fix mine. But after I messed with my script (and /etc/profile to check if it is interactive) it got BETTER, but not solved.

Steve

[Cheryl Griffin]

What files did you copy onto the system?

If there was a script that has some problems in it, 1 buggy script could cause all dotted lines.

[Venkat Bala_2]

Hi! Larry,

Make sure that these files are intact, i.e., not changed. If they were changed then you've to restore those files from the latest backup.

/etc/inittab
/sbin/rc.utils

Was the terminal type of your console changed too? If so change it to terminal type HP.

Hope this helps!!

-Venkat

[Scot Bean]

I have seen this problem before.

The init script looks at all of the startup messages (start_msg) in /sbin/init.d/ and pads the dotted lines to the LARGEST one.

So look for one on your system that is TOO LONG. Edit it so that the dots fit on the screen once more.

Another way to find it: look in /etc/rc.log and look for the longest text startup msg in there.

[Steve Post]

Scott,
Your answer makes the most sense to me. So I tried it. And you are right at least to a point. I tested with a small 180B with a color monitor.

I modified my sshd.rc file to print starting "secure shell goofy goofy goofy....." for about 200 digits.

Then I rebooted and watched the screen. Now this box is has a nice color terminal. So my test is not completely good. It did widen the startup text to about 108 digits, but not 200. For THIS box, it truncated the dots so the screen still looked ok. But it did change the number of dots going across.

I looked at the rc.log file. What was on the screen matched what was in the rc.log file. The appearance might be worse on a normal hp console. I just can't test it at this time.

I'm guessing that lowering the Start Message text size would solve part of the problem. At least it would eliminate that as a potential reason.

I have seen the dots go well over 108 digits on the old green terminals. It was more like 220 digits. Perhaps the console thinks it can handle 220 digits, but it set to 80? Then it would look like a lot of dots. But I can't test it.

Steve
PS: I'm not the author, but I'd give you some points.

[Bill Hassell]

The /sbin/rc.utils script is the one that controls the width of the output. That script in turn reads the config values from /etc/rc.config.d/list_mode. The values in that config file should be:

LIST_MODE=0
LIST_TIMEOUT=0
USE_COLOR=1

However, if you blow away this file, the defaults will probably give you the bizaare behavior. This script was written more than a decade ago when there were mostly 'real' terminals (not PC's pretending to be a terminal) and workstations which have a ROM-based emulator called ITE. The script will ask the terminal to identify itself (ttytype) but only if $LIST_MODE=0. If it is undefined (ie, list_mode script is gone or damaged) then it takes on values in rc.utils ($DEFAULT, etc). Make sure that the 3 files:

/sbin/rc
/sbin/rc.utils
/etc/rc.config.d/list_mode

are intact (compare with another system). Unlike logging in, values for $TERM $COLUMNS and $LINES have not been set yet--rc.utils runs long before anything else is started.

[Steve Post]

I didn't see 80, or 120, or 108, or 200 in there. There isn't anything that sets the width?

[Steve Post]

sorry and nevermind. I see ROW and COL all over that /sbin/rc.util program.

[Bill Hassell]

The setting depends on the configuration script list_mode. Look at the section is_terminal_hp where it tests for $TERM. Technically, $TERM should not be set yet as the system is booting up. Then the command ttytype polls the terminal to identify what kind it is. The width is not hardcoded in the script, it is computed from the ttytype response.

[Steve Post]

Uh Bill, there's not much in /etc/rc.config.d/list_mode. Except for the comments, here is the ENTIRE file.

LIST_MODE=0
LIST_TIMEOUT=0
USE_COLOR=1

[Bill Hassell]

I remembered something like this from a few months ago. The problem is probably caused by a recent change in ttytype behavior that is unexpected in the rc.utils script. The fix is to force line-oriented mode by setting LIST_MODE=1 in
/etc/rc.config.d/list_mode. That should correct the problem.

[Steve Post]

I'm not the author but, I just wanted to say my HP9000 K570 now boots up with the messages looking correct. My problem was one of the "start up messages" was about 300 characters long. I fixed that mistake.