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Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Got problems with your B2 or B3? Share and get helped!
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by Gordon »

I was just looking into that. Turns out there is a small error in that script line. Nothing really serious.

Not doing step 5 is something of an issue though. That should not happen. It most likely means that there was some kind of error during step 4. Could you output the result from

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tail /var/log/gentoo_install.log
easy77
Posts: 31
Joined: 01 Mar 2015, 09:40

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by easy77 »

Hello,
i tried it again and i thought it was good. The Problem was, that the light stayed purple again. With your code i can see:
Image
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by Gordon »

You mean the light stays purple when booting from harddisk? That would confirm that the file system copy is incomplete. I did find an annoying feature about the ext4 formatting though, which may be a factor here. When attempting to boot the system from harddisk, does the disk keep rattling? If it does, try to let it finish and then reboot once more. The noise is the result of a postponed formatting procedure that can intervene with services starting. When I retried today, the light on my unit did turn blue but practically none of the other services started. After the noise stopped and I restarted once more, everything worked as expected.

Of course, I did see step 5 of the install logged on screen.
easy77
Posts: 31
Joined: 01 Mar 2015, 09:40

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by easy77 »

Hello,
i tried it again and again. Last time it stops after Step 3. I don´t know what to do. Is there something more i can do before install to HDD? :cry:
I really thank you for helping me. I did not know that it is so complicated.
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by Gordon »

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I suspect your harddisk is bust.

Try this:

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fdisk /dev/sda  -l
Since you say it got up to step 3, the output should show four partitions /dev/sda1 ... /dev/sda4

If yes, make sure the designated root and home partitions are not mounted.

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umount  /dev/sda3
umount  /dev/sda4
Ignore messages stating either one is not mounted

Execute the following extended commands that will try to fully initialize the partitions rather than just prepare them as the install script does (will take some time)

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mkfs.ext4 -E lazy_itable_init=0,lazy_journal_init=0  -F -L "root" /dev/sda3 
mkfs.ext4 -E lazy_itable_init=0,lazy_journal_init=0  -F -L "home" /dev/sda4 
If my suspicion is right, it will bail out on the first command and likely on the second one as well.
easy77
Posts: 31
Joined: 01 Mar 2015, 09:40

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by easy77 »

Hello,
there happens something:
Image

:wink:
There is an error called "had trouble writing out superblocks". I think the process needs the whole night.
What should i doo next? Reboot and than install or install immediately?
Greetings
Isabel
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by Gordon »

Figured as much. Also, initializing the home partition should really not take all night. I tried with a 1TB drive and it took about 15 minutes to complete both format actions. Longer means more retries and consequently more trouble. It also means there will be no sense in changing the disk layout to skip the bad spots, because they will be all over. Your disk is effectively dead, deceased, pushing up the daisies, etcetera.

Luckily changing the disk is a fairly easy job, but of course you will need to spend some money getting a new one. To avoid issues get yourself a WD Red, nothing else. If you look at the back of your B3, do you only see two torx head screws in the outer corners, or do you also have two phillips head screws more on the inside?
easy77
Posts: 31
Joined: 01 Mar 2015, 09:40

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by easy77 »

That´s, what happened in the whole night: Image

I must take a look to the HDD. It´s no problem for me to take the HDD out from excito. Does it make sense to format the outside? Otherwise I buy a new one. :wink:
easy77
Posts: 31
Joined: 01 Mar 2015, 09:40

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by easy77 »

Is there someting i can do to stop the active Process tu shutdown Excito?
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by Gordon »

Ctrl-C (Strg-C) should work. It may take some though before the process picks it up. Or simply shutdown the machine using the button on the back.

Trying to format the drive outside the B3 seems pointless to me. If you like you can do the following to investigate the drive:
  • Install smartmontools (will take approx 4 minutes)

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    emerge -O smartmontools
  • Run the following command (from THIS post)

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    smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda | grep -i -E '(load_cycle|temp|Power_On_Hours|Device Model)'
Here's the return of that on my testing machine
b3 ~ # smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda | grep -i -E '(load_cycle|temp|Power_On_Hours|Device Model)'
Device Model: WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 060 060 000 Old_age Always - 29834
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 003 003 000 Old_age Always - 591503
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 119 093 000 Old_age Always - 31
b3 ~ #
This drive sat in my first B3 when I bought it about five years ago. I replaced it by a WD Red one and a half years ago, which was probably not a day too soon. Look at the ridiculous Load Cycle Count. It's almost double the number what the drive was designed to cope with. The drive also makes some rather noisy clicking sounds every few seconds and I'm kind of wondering whether that sound will increase, become more frequent or just simply stop when it gives up the ghost. For now it still does the job for testing installations though.
easy77
Posts: 31
Joined: 01 Mar 2015, 09:40

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by easy77 »

I used your Codes, but i don´t know, what it means. I show you the pictures. In the last you can see something about the HDD. And there is an entry: IMPORTANT: config file ètc/dnsmasq.d/bubba.conf needs updating."

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by Gordon »

Ah yes.

I should have probably changed the verbosity on the package manager (emerge). I myself like to see something is happening though. Gentoo builds all packages from source and this usually spits out a lot of info.

You can ignore the "Important" message. This is from a last minute fix I did before packaging the image and apparently I forgot to run the config file updater. If you still want to get rid of it, run `etc-update` and select to remove the update. The content is incorrect for the Live USB.

The last screen shows a similar return as the one I quoted in my previous post. And yes that does explain why the disk broke. The LCC on that drive is even higher while you have a lot less power on hours. This likely means that the idle3 timer patch was never executed on your machine and the disk was allowed to continue killing itself.

Do find yourself another disk. As said: get a WD Red if possible. If you do need to use a WD Green please note that the firmware on that disk has to be patched or it will kill itself just like your current one did.
easy77
Posts: 31
Joined: 01 Mar 2015, 09:40

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by easy77 »

Thank you so much for helping me again and again. I have one last question, because i have another WD Green. Which Patch do you mean?
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by Gordon »

Okay. This is a bit special.

Install idle3-tools:

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 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="**" emerge -avO1 idle3-tools
This is from memory, so please forgive me if results are different.

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idle3ctl -g /dev/sda
I think it will respond that Idle3 timer is at 8.3 seconds

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idle3ctl -d /dev/sda
You need to power down after this command. Really do disconnect the power cord for this.

After reboot run this command once more

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idle3ctl -g /dev/sda
If all is good it will state that Idle3 timer is disabled

After installing the system to disk you should be able to verify with smartctl that LCC does not increment while the B3 is up. If you still see it incrementing we'll need to feed the idle3ctl command different parameters.
easy77
Posts: 31
Joined: 01 Mar 2015, 09:40

Re: Excito B3 cannot start after Power failure

Post by easy77 »

I ve bought a WD red with 3 TB space. Is it compatible with Bubbagen and 3 TB?
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