Chris nailed it. This is caused by fsck needing to run. You can disable fsck checking on boot up with the fstab setting (the last 2 numbers in the line get changed to 0 0). <br><br>Since you have a vmware system, it may be prudent to have a known clean copy of the properly shutdown OS that can be used to overwrite the broken one during a failed boot. That will, of course require all data writes to be onto an external, non-vmware storage system.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 12:46 PM, John G. Heim <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jheim@math.wisc.edu">jheim@math.wisc.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I have a problem with a vmware virtual machine. It's running debian/lenny.<br>
After a power failure, it tends to not boot. It ssits at a prompt saying,<br>
"Give root password for maintenance (or type control-D for normal startup."<br>
<br>
I need to be able to get past this prompt if I'm not in the physical<br>
presence of the machine. I can log into the vmware server and hard boot it.<br>
But it comes up the same way. There is a vmware command for answering<br>
console questions. But I don't know if it will work. Other than pulling the<br>
plug, how can I test it? I want to somehow make it come up with that prompt<br>
to see if the vmware answer command will let me get past it.<br>
<br>
<br>
So this is not really a vmware question. It's just a linux question. What<br>
causes a linux machine to come up asking if you want to enter maintenance<br>
mode and can I artificially reproduce those conditions?<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Ale mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>
<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>
<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br>Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness <br><br>