I have been a KnoppMyth user for about a year and a half and it has been a great adventure. This is a short story of one of the mini-adventures I recently had with KM. Don't worry, there is a happy ending.

About a week and a half ago, I was thrown for a scare when the screen went black after I rebooted the machine. I rebooted because I had put a disc in the drive and I wanted it out, but to do so, I needed to reboot. I had experienced black screens before and the solution in the past has been to do a complete reinstall.

I didn't jump to any big conclusion and my first step was to connect a flat screen monitor to the KM box and see what messages, if any, were appearing. After connecting the monitor, I found out that the system aborted the boot process and there was a blinking cursor at a command prompt waiting for somebody to log in and fix it.

Naturally, I didn't know what to do at first; however, I do know that important boot messags are stored in a log file in the directory /var/logs/. So, I started in looking at the log files beginning with /var/logs/dmesg. I have been using linux for home computing for a number of years, so it was fairly easy to do, but in case anyone is wondering, the command I used was 'nano /var/logs/dmesg'.

I noticed an entry in the log file indicating that a sector on the disc was corrupt and to run fsck without the a or p option. I had used linux disc scanning tools before without much success and I was very hesitant to use them this time. However, I didn't have much of an option with just a black screen.

So, I bit the bullet and did as instructed and executed fsck as root (I simply typed in fsck after logging in as root).

The scan began and after a while (I have over 400 Gb of disc space), it found some errors. I forget the exact line but it had to do with inodes and a long number. With each error it asked me if I wanted to fix it. Naturally, I said yes at all instances. This took a while and when it was done, the system then automatically executed the 'e2fsck' tool. This found a series of conflicts between two files (these were song files) occupying the same sector. Again, the system asked me if I wanted to fix it and I said 'yes' at each one. This second disc tool took about as long as the first.

When both scans were done and confirmation to fix the numerous errors detected, the system prompted to reboot. I was quite nervous because I didn't know what to expect. Would the system remain at a 'black' screen? Would the front end appear as normal? Would a new issue arise that would be far worse?

I had no choice but to reboot and see what happens.

To my amazement, the system did reboot and the frontend appeared as normal.

The system seemed to fix itself. Yes, it did take some intervention on my part, but this is a good thing because I got to learn from the experience.

KM is truely an amazing piece of software. Kudos to all those developers for making KM a reality.

Sincerely,

Dr. Hood

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KnoppMyth: R5B7
Video Output: 27 inch TV (4:3)
Motherboard: Biostar K8NHA Grand mobo w/nForce3 250Gb
CPU: AMD Sempron 3000+ (1.8 Ghz)
RAM: 1024 Mb
Videocard: Radeon 9500 (64 Mb)
TV Tuner Card: PVR-350
Harddisk: WD160 Gb + Max 300 Gb

You're welcome.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Try fixing a windows box like that and have it be happy.

In your dreams Billy boy.

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Girkers

I want to add my thanks. Sure I have had a few problems, but I have gotten support for a free product! And 99.9% of the time the problem was ME! I love this thing and it keeps getting better with every version!


Thank YOU!

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R5F1 : AMD 64 2800 : Nvidia 5200 : 2x PVR- 150

Just wanted to add to the chorus.
I have been obsessed with KM for over two years!
Everytime I log in to the site I look to see if there is an upgrade and if there is one its like finding money in my pocket, I can't wait to spend it.