Mark Marcacci wrote:
Thanks everyone for the input and advice. It sounds like my
"Activating Swap" issue is a bit different than some of the ones
others have encountered, so I've put some info below that led to a
solution for me that maybe someone else can use:
1) The machine is a Dell Inspiron 8600 with a fresh install of Lenny
from the official jigdo DVD image after having DBAN'd the hard drive
(120 gb Western Digital hdd) - so no file remnants possible from old
installations.
2) After the installation, added the b43legacy firmware for the wifi
card via b43-fwcutter, no problem. Also installed libfuse2 and
ntfs-3g. That's it.
3) I have 3 external drives with different data I needed to copy,
described below (I'm calling them Drives A, B, C for reference) <<here
is where the troubleshooting began>>:
-Drive A is a FAT formatted 1 GB usb flash memory drive - Micro
Center brand. I had erased this drive and reformatted to FAT myself a
while back.
-Drive B is an NTFS formatted 120 GB external hard drive. I had
erased this drive and reformatted to NTFS myself a while back.
-Drive C is a new Lexar 1 GB usb memory drive that I have NOT
erased and formatted myself - it's a FAT partition but has a folder on
it called "Dmailer" that appears to hold some firmware or software
info (I believe this is the cause of the issue, read on).
4) Connected and mounted Drives A and B with no problem, copied files,
and unmounted each one (and physically disconnected usb cables), no
issues. Did a reboot since I had installed the b43legacy firmware.
No problem so far (not even a pause at "Activating Swap").
5) Connected and mounted Drive C and copied files. Unmounted and
removed, no problem. It was the only action I had done during that
login session, then I rebooted and it hung at "Activating Swap". When
I say hung I mean for 5 minutes it just sat there doing nothing. Had
to force a power cycle down of the computer.
6) Connected Drive C via usb before booting; this time no "Activating
Swap" issue. However if I removed Drive C, the boot would hang at
"Activating Swap".
So, the bottom line is I'm not using Drive C with my Debian system
anymore. I'm not experienced enough at Linux to know if it corrupted
the swap partition but it doesn't seem like that since it boots fine
when the drive is attached. I've tried reattaching the drive and
unmounting again, but still the same boot hangup issue at "Activating
Swap". So all I can figure is that the firmware/software/crapware on
Drive C caused the problem since Drives A and B I had manually erased
and formatted myself, removing any extra crud that was on them. It's
as if Drive C left a ghost somewhere in swap that Debian was trying to
find during boot.
Mark
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 4:57 AM, David Goodenough
<david.goodeno...@btconnect.com
<mailto:david.goodeno...@btconnect.com>> wrote:
On Thursday 02 July 2009, Mark Marcacci wrote:
> The subject line says it all. Just did a clean install of Lenny
5.0.2,had
> had several successful reboots and shutdowns and then tonight
from a cold
> start it hung at "Activating Swap". Before this happened, I had
connected
> an NTFS drive (using NTFS-3g package) via USB and copied over 60
GB of data
> to my home partition on /dev/hda. Unmounted the drive, shut
down the
> computer with no errors. 10 minutes later went to start cold
and it hung.
>
> Any ideas? Does Lenny still want that
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
I sometimes get the same problem, on a machine which is intermittently
upgraded to unstable. Its an old Acer laptop, and I had always
put it down
to a hardware problem, but perhaps there is another problem and it is
the same one as you have been hitting.
I usually find that rebooting cures the problem, but very
occasionally I
have to do it twice.
David
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interesting, that 's for sure! i wrote a procedure down, 1,5 month ago
confronting the same problem. i gonna repeat that procedure with special
intention for two external drives.
thank you,
steef
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steef van duin
publicist, research-journalist
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