I've had many problems with getting some services to start (see http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-477595.html for more info) and after much debugging with a friend we found that the reason for it dying was the line if is_runlevel_start && service_failed "${SVCNAME}" in the function svc_start in the file runscript.sh. By looking at is_runlevel_start function we concluded that I could remove the directory /var/lib/init.d/softscripts.old/ and it would work. This was a real pain in the a** to find because of the lack of any error/debug messages from the init scripts (runscript). Please add some warning about that directory (if it exists) so that this won't happen to other people. I'm not sure what that directory is used for but it sure made me go crazy about services not starting for no abvious reasons. System info: Portage 2.1-r1 (default-linux/x86/2006.0, gcc-3.4.6, glibc-2.3.6-r4, 2.6.15-gentoo-r1 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.15-gentoo-r1 i686 AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2800+ Gentoo Base System version 1.12.1 dev-lang/python: 2.2.3-r1, 2.3.5-r2, 2.4.3-r1 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5 dev-util/ccache: [Not Present] dev-util/confcache: [Not Present] sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.12 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r7 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2 sys-devel/binutils: 2.16.1-r3 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.13-r3 sys-devel/libtool: 1.4.3-r4, 1.5.22 virtual/os-headers: 2.4.19-r1, 2.6.11-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /etc/tomcat" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/gconf /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.gentoo.se" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude='/distfiles' --exclude='/local' --exclude='/packages'" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://localhost/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 apache2 apm avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cli crypt dlloader dri eds emboss encode esd foomaticdb fortran gd gdbm gif gstreamer hardenedphp imap imlib ipv6 isdnlog jpeg libg++ libwww mad maildir mikmod mmx motif mp3 mpeg mysql ncurses nptl ogg opengl oss pam pcre pdflib perl png pppd python qt3 qt4 quicktime readline reflection sasl session spell spl sse ssl tcpd truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev vhosts vorbis xml xmms xorg zlib elibc_glibc input_devices_keyboard input_devices_mouse input_devices_evdev kernel_linux userland_GNU" Unset: CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, MAKEOPTS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
/var/lib/init.d/softscripts.old/ is created when a runlevel stops. It is essential to the rc system. It should be removed and the failed services clean when each runlevel ends - so at want point do you see this error? Is it during system boot or when the system has loaded and you're trying from the command line. If during boot, please attach the output of the runlevel starting, if the latter then the output of the commandline
Sorry for the late reply (vacation) It is after a while. The system had been running for a few months when this started to happen. What output exactly are you interested in?
Attach the output of this commands when your system is in this state. Also, how do you use the rc command if at all - have you done an "rc single"? ls -R /var/lib/init.d/
(In reply to comment #3) > Attach the output of this commands when your system is in this state. The system is currently functioning as expected and i cannot reproduce this on another machine. The affected machine is a production machine so i do not want to test that much on it > Also, how do you use the rc command if at all - have you done an "rc single"? I don't. The only rc stuff done are through the rc-scripts (rc-update, rc-status). > ls -R /var/lib/init.d/ [root@blackadder] ~ # ls -R /var/lib/init.d/ /var/lib/init.d/: coldplugged depcache envcache exitcodes inactive scheduled softlevel started stopping daemons deptree exclusive failed options snapshot softscripts starting wasinactive /var/lib/init.d/coldplugged: /var/lib/init.d/daemons: amavisd metalog vixie-cron /var/lib/init.d/exclusive: /var/lib/init.d/exitcodes: amavisd vixie-cron /var/lib/init.d/failed: /var/lib/init.d/inactive: /var/lib/init.d/options: /var/lib/init.d/scheduled: /var/lib/init.d/snapshot: /var/lib/init.d/softscripts: amavisd checkfs clock courier-imapd keymaps metalog net.eth0 oidentd rsyncd snmpd tomcat apache2 checkroot coldplug courier-imapd-ssl local modules net.lo postfix saslauthd spamd urandom bootmisc clamd consolefont hostname localmount mysql netmount rmnologin serial sshd vixie-cron /var/lib/init.d/started: amavisd checkfs clock courier-authlib hostname localmount mysql netmount rmnologin serial sshd vixie-cron apache2 checkroot coldplug courier-imapd keymaps metalog net.eth0 oidentd rsyncd snmpd tomcat bootmisc clamd consolefont courier-imapd-ssl local modules net.lo postfix saslauthd spamd urandom /var/lib/init.d/starting: /var/lib/init.d/stopping: /var/lib/init.d/wasinactive:
