Re: [cobalt-users] GUI/Bash errors on new raq4i

[flash22@xxxxxxx]

On Wed, 19 Dec 2001, Bas Hendriks wrote:

> Hi There,
> 
> Does anyone what couses this problem(logged in whith telnet on local LAN,
> raq is behind firewall):
> 
> [admin admin]$ top
> bash: /usr/bin/top: Input/output error

Input/output error is almost always a DISK error, EG it's failing to read
data from some spot on the disk, given that the machine is brand new, the
disk may have been damaged in shipping...

[In rare cases, it's possible for other causes to be at fault tho, like a
corrupted filesystem]

> This error comes whith (what seems)all external commands.
> The GUI gives lots of errors to(Forbidden, *after* logging in, witch could

If the web server can't read a directory to determine the access allowed,
it defaults to denying access, so in fact, it is probably also due to a
disk error...

> meen a lot).
> I can't login as root(never dit on this raq, btw) so i can't check
> /var/messages.

Try the http server logs, i think admin can read them, maybe, dunno about
Raq4, you just wanna see if it's logging IO errors there too, but it
probably doesn't matter

> 
> The raq4i (512MB 40 GB) is brand new.
> I tried searching the archives but i could find anything, anyone knows the
> problem?
> 
> Output ps seems fine to me:

be carefull dumping 'ps' output to the list, you gave interesting things
away ;P

Nothing weird, but that doesn't mean anything

You could run badblocks on the hard disk to check if there are bad spots,
(assuming it will run) It will just read all the blocks on the disk to see
that they work, and spew errors if they can't be read, that will narrow it
down to the disk, or something else. Of course, If you just bought it, it
should be still in warrenty, so i'd be making phone calls before long here
:)

Lessee, it's a 4i so it's not raid, so i'm *guessing* you want

badblocks /dev/hda1

then the same for 1,2,3

also, run 'df' if it works, see if you get screwy numbers, it will also
tell you what disk names the machine is using (one of the missing ones is
the swap partition, you can scan that too, you just can't fix it)

Allthough it's possiblt to map out small bad spots on a disk, the fact
it's got bad spots when it's brand new(assuming that turns out to be the
case) would kind of bother me a little, it hints at shipping damage that
went undetected, it may get worse if there is physical damage to the disk,
these machines don't like being thrown from trucks much ;)

gsh