Reading text on entry and exit of Linux

[jeb3121]

Hi All,

If this would be better put in another forum, let me know and I'll move it.

I run a dual-boot system, winxp and had F16-64 but just upgraded to F17-64. Both were installed from a live CD.

I upgraded to 17 due to problems in 16 which were mainly caused by my clumsy additions/deletions of apps. Learning from my mistakes, 17 seems to be OK so far as I personalize it.

With 16 I noticed that on startup, when I clicked on it rather than xp, the screen would go black and there would be lines of text which would flash and disappear before I could read them. Then on Power Off the same thing occurred.

This occurs with 17 as well, but there are fewer lines of text both coming and going.

The leadin being complete, I come to my question

Is there some way to anchor this text so it can be read? For example, as I remember in 16 on closing, I would see many lines of S(I?)RST failure (error 16). The number of this comment seemed proportional to the time I spent in Linux.

I keep thinking that if I could read them it would be helpful in solving issues.

[nsnbm]

Hello jeb,

You can get to see the kernel's messages for the boot with the following command in a terminal after you have booted up:

dmesg | less

and then page through the text to see what the kernel thinks.

And you can have a look at the system's boot log by the following command as root in a terminal:

vim /var/log/boot.log

You can use nano instead of vim or any editor you like. Whether or not the dmesg command above gives an identical output to the screenful of text that you see on boot up, someone else will have to answer because I have never actually stopped that screen, but I have retrieved relevant information from the commands above. Ben.

[jeb3121]

Originally Posted by nsnbm

Hello jeb,

You can get to see the kernel's messages for the boot with the following command in a terminal after you have booted up:

dmesg | less

and then page through the text to see what the kernel thinks.

And you can have a look at the system's boot log by the following command as root in a terminal:

vim /var/log/boot.log

You can use nano instead of vim or any editor you like. Whether or not the dmesg command above gives an identical output to the screenful of text that you see on boot up, someone else will have to answer because I have never actually stopped that screen, but I have retrieved relevant information from the commands above. Ben.

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your response, sorry to be so long in replying.

dmesg | less certainly gave me pages; there were adjustments/corrections but nothing I recognized from my glimpses.

In root, both vim and nano were non-starters. I installed 17-64 from a live CD and I don't know if an editor is included. If there's none in the gnome version which would be a good choice?

jeb

[nsnbm]

Hello Jeb,

Try:

vi /var/log/boot.log

As I understand it, vi is always in linux, whereas vim is an advanced version of vi. vim can give you colored text which can make the structure of files easier to identify. But as far as your dual-boot problem goes, I would search through the forums and the internet on that one which is out of my range. Ben.

[jeb3121]

Originally Posted by nsnbm

Hello Jeb,

Try:

vi /var/log/boot.log

As I understand it, vi is always in linux, whereas vim is an advanced version of vi. vim can give you colored text which can make the structure of files easier to identify. But as far as your dual-boot problem goes, I would search through the forums and the internet on that one which is out of my range. Ben.

Hi Ben,

vi certainly works, giving me as voluminous a list as dmesg, unfortunately with the same drawback.

The text that comes up before the OS boot screen seems just a recap of hardware. The boot menu gives several options for linux and one for xp. The latest version of 17-64 is the default.

What I want to freeze is the text, e.g., SRST failure (error 16), on the black screen after linux starts to boot and after I click to power off at the end of session.

At this point in my build of 17-64 it doesn't seem critical but that may change as I set up apps, etc., the way I want.

I now have two useful new tools for when I'm farther up the learning curve.

Thanks again, I appreciate your help.

jeb

[ocratato]

Search this forum for 'interactive boot'.

HTH

[jeb3121]

Originally Posted by ocratato

Search this forum for 'interactive boot'.

HTH

Hi,

Thanks, there seems to be a number of threads to explore.


jeb