Cannot open rescue disk
The computer has Debian Jessie installed in it. One day recently after starting it, the BIOS identified the hardware. It went as far as to display the line "Verifying DMI Pool Data ..................." and then stopped. The rest of the monitor was filled up with series of 99s I then tried to use a the Rescue mode on a Stretch net install disk. The opening menu of the disk appeared on the monitor, but it did not respond to input from the keyboard. I consequently could not select the rescue option. I checked the keyboard on another computer where it worked. Using the keyboard from the other computer on the one not working also did not work there. The net install disk can be opened on the other computer. In fact I used it there to install Stretch on it. I did a Google search, but all the references I found assumed ability to open the computer from a rescue disk. Does anybody know why this problem would arise, and what to do about it -- if anything -- by way of fixing it. Regards, Ken Heard
I assume you tried different usb port. It could be USB ports on the motherboard are toast. -- William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca> On Sat, Jul 07, 2018 at 11:09:47PM -0400, Ken Heard via talk wrote:
The computer has Debian Jessie installed in it. One day recently after starting it, the BIOS identified the hardware. It went as far as to display the line "Verifying DMI Pool Data ..................." and then stopped. The rest of the monitor was filled up with series of 99s
I then tried to use a the Rescue mode on a Stretch net install disk. The opening menu of the disk appeared on the monitor, but it did not respond to input from the keyboard. I consequently could not select the rescue option.
I checked the keyboard on another computer where it worked. Using the keyboard from the other computer on the one not working also did not work there.
The net install disk can be opened on the other computer. In fact I used it there to install Stretch on it.
I did a Google search, but all the references I found assumed ability to open the computer from a rescue disk.
Does anybody know why this problem would arise, and what to do about it -- if anything -- by way of fixing it.
Regards, Ken Heard
--- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 7 July 2018 at 23:09, Ken Heard via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
The computer has Debian Jessie installed in it. One day recently after starting it, the BIOS identified the hardware. It went as far as to display the line "Verifying DMI Pool Data ..................." and then stopped. The rest of the monitor was filled up with series of 99s
I then tried to use a the Rescue mode on a Stretch net install disk. The opening menu of the disk appeared on the monitor, but it did not respond to input from the keyboard. I consequently could not select the rescue option.
I checked the keyboard on another computer where it worked. Using the keyboard from the other computer on the one not working also did not work there.
The net install disk can be opened on the other computer. In fact I used it there to install Stretch on it.
I did a Google search, but all the references I found assumed ability to open the computer from a rescue disk.
Does anybody know why this problem would arise, and what to do about it -- if anything -- by way of fixing it.
Regards, Ken Heard
This link: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm suggests the problem is lower level than I thought (BIOS rather than OS, which may negate what I've written below). You could take a look and see if their suggestions help. Doesn't look like a fun problem to tackle, sorry. As they suggest, start reseating or better, disconnecting internal components one at a time in the hope the problem goes away on one of them. I use Knoppix ( http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html ) almost exclusively for rescue - I would give it a try. I'm inclined to suspect a hardware problem, and if you get the same error after burning Knoppix to a USB stick and booting, that would be ... well, a partial confirmation. Only partial because Knoppix is still, at its core (I think ...), Debian. If it does boot, you have a much friendlier and better equipped interface for system exploration and recovery than the pure Debian rescue package. -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
On 2018-07-09 12:45, Giles Orr wrote:
This link: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm suggests the problem is lower level than I thought (BIOS rather than OS, which may negate what I've written below). You could take a look and see if their suggestions help. Doesn't look like a fun problem to tackle, sorry. As they suggest, start reseating or better, disconnecting internal components one at a time in the hope the problem goes away on one of them.
This link was useful to me because it explains the problem better than I did in my original post. In addition, I see why I could not find it using a google search. I searched using the same words as the title of this thread plus 'linux'. If I had used as my search text 'Verifying DMI Pool Data ...' I would have found the link. It shows that when using search engines you have to choose the right search words -- often difficult to do.
I use Knoppix ( http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html ) almost exclusively for rescue - I would give it a try. I'm inclined to suspect a hardware problem, and if you get the same error after burning Knoppix to a USB stick and booting, that would be ... well, a partial confirmation. Only partial because Knoppix is still, at its core (I think ...), Debian.
So I downloaded Knoppix 8.2, burned it to a DVD. It did indeed boot the offending computer. I was able to access my /home directory. I then tried again to boot the computer from the hard drives which have Jessie installed. (There are two hard drives which form a RAID1 device.) This time the boot completed, no more 99s! During subsequent bootings from these drives however, using both the installed Jessie and the Knoppix, after the message 'Verifying DMI Pool Data ...' was displayed it was a long time before they were detected. So it is possible that those drives, or perhaps one of them, are close to failing. They have been in use since 2011. Testing them is consequently next on my troubleshooting my agenda. Thanks for the info. Regards, Ken
On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 11:49:05AM -0400, Ken Heard via talk wrote:
So I downloaded Knoppix 8.2, burned it to a DVD. It did indeed boot the offending computer. I was able to access my /home directory.
I then tried again to boot the computer from the hard drives which have Jessie installed. (There are two hard drives which form a RAID1 device.) This time the boot completed, no more 99s!
During subsequent bootings from these drives however, using both the installed Jessie and the Knoppix, after the message 'Verifying DMI Pool Data ...' was displayed it was a long time before they were detected. So it is possible that those drives, or perhaps one of them, are close to failing. They have been in use since 2011. Testing them is consequently next on my troubleshooting my agenda.
A delay after the DMI pool data message is usually a case of a dying disk or corrupt boot sector. -- Len Sorensen
participants (4)
-
Giles Orr -
Ken Heard -
lsorense＠csclub.uwaterloo.ca -
William Park