[ltp] Help! Long boot times!

[Atul Chitnis]

Help!

Last night, I had to boot into Windows to clear up some space on my T30, 
to allow me to create a hardware hibernation file (using IBM's program to 
do so, as discussed in the past on this list). My earlier file got knocked 
off when I had to reinstall the Windows side after I messed it up.

After doing so, and booting off the IBM hibernation file creation program 
as usual, and creating the file, I rebooted - and the machine hung. And 
when I say hung, I mean not even able to go into BIOS! I get the 
Thinkpad splashscreen, enter my bootup password, and that's it - the 
machine freezes.

Investigating it, I removed the hard disk from the system - and the 
machine powers on fine, am able to go into BIOS setup, boot of a Knoppix 
CD, etc. Put hard disk back in, and freeze. The HDD light on the panel 
above the keyboard goes on and stays on.

I tried everything (reset BIOS defaults, change boot orders, etc.) no go. 
Then, as I was looking at another hung screen, I got a phone call, which 
kept me busy for about 5 minutes. About 3 minutes into the call, my 
machine suddenly beeped, and booted as it normally would (grub, etc.). I 
was able to boot into Linux on the hard disk as I normally would (and I 
immediately burnt all my important data to CD using the built-in CD 
writer). I checked dmesg and /var/log/messages - no error messages at all.

Then I rebooted again - freeze. This time I let it sit there for a few 
minuts. 3 minutes later the machine beeped, and booted. This time I went 
into Windows, and checked it out - no problems there either! I did a 
scandisk, and no problems detected.

Booted again off Linux (after a 3 minute wait) into single user mode, and 
fsck'd the system's partitions - no problems found.

The system acts perfectly normal after the 3 minute wait.

Seemed that it had something to do with the hibernation file, so knocked 
off save2dsk.bin from the Windows partition, and things started behaving 
normally again. Put the file back, or recreate it, and the problem is 
back.

This is weird, because I have had a hibernation file before that worked 
just fine. Has anyone faced this problem before, or maybe have a clue 
about what is going on?

Atul

-- 
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Atul Chitnis       | achitnis@exocore.com
Exocore Consulting | http://www.exocore.com
Bangalore, India   | +91 (80) 344-0397
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