Unable to shut down B2

[stu_rat]

My B2 has developed a problem. The web interface and SSH server have stopped working. I have tried to shut down the unit by depressing the power button for five seconds, but this has no effect and the HDD continues to spin and the LED continues to blink. I am reluctant to disconnect the power since the user manual gives a warning never to remove the power cord whist the LED is lit or blinking. Are there any other actions I can do before I take the step of switching off the power?

[DanielM]

If the power button doesn't work and you can't reach it over the network then there is not much left to do than pull the plug I'm afraid. With any luck it's just something temporary and it boots up again.

/Daniel

[stu_rat]

I disconnected the power, waited 30 seconds and re-connected it. All was well at first, but then the original problem returned. After disconnecting the power the second time, the unit would not boot up. Since then I've tried the rescue stick and tried to re-install the software, both without success. The unit just sits there with the LED blinking. I guess the next step is to remove the HDD and test it in another machine. Is there anything else I can try before I take that step?

Thank you.

[DanielM]

Is there anything else I can try before I take that step?

I guess not. If rescue stick installation completely fails then either it's something wrong with the HDD och with the mainboard, so I'd suggest check the HDD in another computer.

Anyone understands what's happening lately? Is there some kind of broken B2/B3 epidemic here? I've never seen as many posts with people whose servers have these strange kind of problems. Is it a bad batch of drives being used?

/Daniel

[nobody]

I think randomusernames unit is rather old, which makes me think crappy drivers in the recent update. Except i dont think there were drivers in that update... A proper test would be to downgrade and see if magically stuff starts working.

[stu_rat]

I've removed the HDD from the B2 and installed it in my PC. I can see the drive and mount the root partition, but it appears to be empty:

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~ # ls /mnt/bubba/
lost+found

fsck does not reveal any problems:

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~ # fsck /dev/sdb1
fsck from util-linux 2.21.2
e2fsck 1.42 (29-Nov-2011)
Bubba_root: clean, 11/1224000 files, 76590/2443880 blocks
~ # 

I'm unable to mount the storage volume however:

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root@sysresccd /root % mount -t ext3 /dev/mapper/bubba-storage /mnt/bubba_storage
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/mapper/bubba-storage,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

So it looks as though my HDD has a fault, but one thing still puzzles me - even if the HDD is dead, should I still be able to boot into the rescue stick?

[nobody]

Did you activate the lv before you mounted the partition?

[stu_rat]

Did you activate the lv before you mounted the partition?

I used a SystemRescueCD for the test. I thought the SystemRescueCD automatically activated the LV, but now that you've asked the question I'm not so sure. I'll re-attach the drive to my PC and check again. Thanks for the question.

[stu_rat]

Did you activate the lv before you mounted the partition?

I found that the SysRescue CD automatically activates the LV.

[stu_rat]

I've used fdisk to delete and re-create the partitions. The disk identifier is now 0x00000000. I don't understand what this means but I guess it's not a good thing.

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~ # fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *        2048    20973567    10485760   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2        20973568    25167871     2097152   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3        25167872  1953525167   964178648   8e  Linux LVM

I get an error when I try to write the file system:

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~ # mke2fs -j /dev/sdb1
mke2fs 1.42 (29-Nov-2011)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
61054976 inodes, 244190390 blocks
12209519 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
7453 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
	32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
	4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968, 
	102400000, 214990848

Allocating group tables: done                            
Writing inode tables: done                            
ext2fs_mkdir: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while creating root dir

So it seems that my disk is faulty.

Before I go ahead and buy a new disk, I want to try to confirm that the board in my B2 is good (I opened a support ticket with Excito and they said that the board or the HDD could be faulty). I've tried to boot into a rescue stick both with and without the HDD installed. In both cases I can see the B2 request an IP address, and my DHCP server makes an offer, but nothing else happens. Should I be able to boot into a rescue stick without the HDD installed?

Thanks.

[SnoWhat]

Hi!

I am having the exact same problem on my B2 Wifi 2TB, it appeared two days ago and I'm a little frustrated... I haven't tried reinstalling yet as I figured someone else might have solved this problem.

My story:
The B2 stopped responding and the WLAN stopped working. I tried shutting down using the button but the LED just kept blinking for a long time.
I finally unplugged the B2 and plugged it in again after about half a minute. Result: the LED kept on blinking, power button had no effect.
I unplugged the B2 again and left it for about a day and started it up again.
Now everything worked fine, for about 20 minutes. I noticed a couple of error messages on the start page regarding "Input/output error in /usr/share/codeigniter/system/libraries/Exceptions.php".
I went to the update page and initiated an update, it ran the whole 100% and reported "nothing to update (which has been the case for a long time, is that really correct?). I think I saw the version running was 2.0.5.
Then, in the middle of doing stuff in the web interface I got a "500 Internal Server Error" and the WLAN stopped working again.
I then plugged in an ethernet cable and tried ssh'ing in, but all I got was first "Connection closed by remote host" and then lots of "connection refused".
Pinging worked fine, as did accessing the internet via the B2.
Trying the power button again, the LED started blinking and kept on going, meanwhile I could still access the internet via the B2.

Now, I'm sitting here groping in the dark. Is there anyone who could shed some light on this nightmare before christmas?

Regards,
Stefan

[edit] It seems unlikely that two identical problems should arise so close together, don't you think? Could it be that the drives are past their prime already (and that they have such a narrowly defined lifespan? [/edit]