Floppy problem (& multiple boots)

[DoN Nichols]

In article <1991Mar4.130902.24392 at ims.alaska.edu> floyd at ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) writes:
>zaft at suned1.nswses.navy.mil (Gordon C Zaft) writes:
>[...]
>>	As if that wasn't bad enough, at the same time (I THINK) as I
>>changed the floppy drive, the machine starting to do the double-boot
>>thing on powerup; it would boot, get to "checking stored files", then
>>reboot and be fine.  If I rebooted once the machine had been up,
>>it was fine.  Is this a power supply problem or is it related to the
>>floppy thing?
>>
>
>Maybe neither.  Once you have the machine up try running "/etc/fsck -D"

	[...]

>/dev/fp002 will cause a reboot if anything is "fixed".
>
>That is where your reboot is coming from, most likely.  It seems
>that something is getting fixed everytime, but you can't see what
>it is because of the way the script is arranged.

	Are you using /etc/shutdown, or the shutdown entry from the
'install' login?  If not, or if you are not waiting for it to complete, you
are PRODUCING problems for it to fix.  Just shuting down a unix computer is
about the worst thing you can do for file system sanity.  (Except in some
strange beasties, such as the Textronix 6130, and maybe its brethren, which
have what is called a 'soft power switch'.)  When you turn it off, the led in
it changes from steady to flashing, and the system starts a shutdown
sequence.  It runs fsck before the shutdown completes, and sets a file as a
flag that the fsck has been done.  Once this is all complete, it then pulls
the rug out from under itself, and the led on the switch finally goes out.
Boot time is reduced, since it already has a certified filesystem.  (Of
course no one is going to drop-kick the cpu box between the shutdown and the
re-boot, are they :-)

	Sorry if I've pointed out something which you already were fully
cognizant of.  Sometimes I forget simple things, and feel quite stupid when
I discover them.  (Especially if someone else points them out to me :-)

	Good luck with your floppies.
		DoN.

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Donald Nichols (DoN.)		| Voice (Days):	(703) 664-1585
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