*BSD News Article 94078


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From: Tony Griffiths <tonyg@OntheNet.com.au>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: BSD machine halts during bootup phase
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 10:35:40 +1000
Organization: On the Net (ISP on the Gold Coast, Australia)
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To: Kurt Schafer <kschafer@cyberbeach.net>
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:39475

Kurt Schafer wrote:
> 
> One of my 2.2.1 machines always halts during the bootup phase just after it
> says it's adding in the default gateway.
> 
> Hitting a CTRL-C moves it past that phase and the machine says it's
> clearing /tmp out and it then completes booting to the login prompt.

If you waited long enough, it would eventually proceed under it's own
steam.  Most probably, the system was hung in a gethostbyname() call
which has a VERY long timeout (several minutes) when DNS is not working
properly!

> 
> Can anybody shed some light on what is causing the machine to choke at this
> point ?

As another response pointed out, you have a problem with your setup of
IP and/or DNS.

If you have a proper gateway box (ie. router) then it best to specify it
via it's IP address, rather than by name.

Also, I tend to put ALL critical IP addresses (ie. myself, localhost,
default gateway, DNS server) into the /etc/hosts file and specify the
search order (/etc/host.conf) being hosts then bind!

> 
> TIA
> 
> -Kurt