Text whizzing by too fast

[utu]

During Knoppix's start-up, I get a fleeting glimpse of about
a half screen-full of text. It goes by so fast I've never been
able to see what it says.

I'm pretty sure its not dmesg or Xorg.o.log or .xsession-errors.

I'd like to know if there is a record after start-up is over
that shows what it said, or failing that, is there a virtual
terminal where it might have been seen for a little longer?

[mecho]

I am not sure if I can give you the right answer, but I can tell you what I think it is and someone can correct me if I am wrong.
All normal logging messages in Knoppix are sent to /dev/tty12 which in turn according to me is connected to /dev/null and this setup is is done by /etc/syslog-knoppix.conf
What you see for a brief second is the screen before /dev/tty12 kicks in
This is just a guess though

[kl522]

On my computer there isn't much things to see. I am not sure if below is what you want to see :-

Press control-Alt-F1 the X window will switch to text mode.
Press control-Alt-F5 will bring me back to the X window again.
( These are probably configurable somewhere because some website says it's control-Alt-F7 )

[krishna.murphy]

On my computer there isn't much things to see. I am not sure if below is what you want to see :-

Press control-Alt-F1 the X window will switch to text mode.
Press control-Alt-F5 will bring me back to the X window again.
( These are probably configurable somewhere because some website says it's control-Alt-F7 )

FWIW - I've not gotten ctrl-Alt-F1 to do anything; I've tried it on 3 or 4 systems, too. I have to use lxterm and then

sudo chvt 1

At that point, I can ctrl-Alt-Fx and it will work fine, but once I'm back in X then it stops working. And Yes - that number (max vterm--X window) is configurable.

Cheers!
Krishna

[kl522]

Yeah it accomplishes the same thing. Anyway, you are not alone in noticing 'ctrl-alt-f1' not working. Many people on the internet make the same observation. I am not offering an answer, I think it can be almost anything from graphic card driver, kernel, or Xwindow configuration. Take your pick.

[utu]

For reference, here's how I portray a 'normal' visual sequence:

A start-up screen initially shows progress in device discovery,
defined by multiple lines of colored text: a 'diary' of sorts.
This is followed by two lines of grey-on-black text and
a brief pause, then a switch to an already begun, different,
grey-on-black diary.
For a brief time then, there is about half a screen of grey-on-black
text which continues to expand by perhaps a few lines; there is
hardly enough time here to recall any particular text or phrase.
This is interrupted by the appearance of a Bavarian scene which fills
the middle 2/3 of my wide screen.
This is shortly replaced by a full-screen background display which
I've defined by settings in Compiz.
This background is finally overlaid with LXDE panels & icons, and
the system is then ready to go. It commences with getting on-line.
On shut-down, the screen reverts to all-black, then shortly resumes
a multiple-line colored text text diary.
At the very last there are two lines of grey-on-black text.


Relative to that normal sequence, I note the following.

My function keys, by themselves don't do anything.
So far, only alt-F12 does anything.
Ive tried a lot of alt-, fn-, ctrl- two & three key combos with
the function keys F1 thru F12, to no avail.
alt-F12 can interrupt the initial colored text diary, sometime
after it has started; this will then show a readable
continuation of the initial grey-on-black diary, until it is
in turn interrupted by the Bavarian scene and what follows.
Now on shutdown, unless alt-F12 is toggled again, the grey-on-black
diary continues until interrupted by a multiple-line colored
text shutdown diary.
At the very last there are two lines of grey-on-black text.

We've had a better look at this ghost, but now it's gone again.

[utu]

If you have suffered thru my post #6, here's what I'm looking for:
I'd like to capture the grey-on-black 'diary' as described.

This 'diary' looks like /var/log/syslog might look, but there isn't one in
my Knoppix 6.2.1. I'd like to study this to see what's going on
behind the scenes.

Also, and embarassing amendment to post #6:
'Fn-F1 thru Fn-F12 on my laptop is 11 toggles.
Fn-F6 is unassigned.
Fn-F2 is wireless. Don't laugh, that's not funny.

[kl522]

Post #6 refered.

Seems that you are complicating it yourself. Knoppix booting is rather straight forward. The messages only come from mainly two locations.

1. 'init' inside 'minirt.gz'
2. after 'init', then all the rest of messages from /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig.

If there are a lot of messages flying on the screen, most likely it's one or more commands in /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig generated them.

Somewhere in the middle of /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig, knoppix started syslog. It's easy to modify /etc/syslog-knoppix.conf to redirect output to somewhere you can see. For my case, it's configured to go to /tmp/syslog.

When I say ctrl-alt-F1, we ask you to do it after have booted into the comfort of LXDE environment. It never worked for knoppix 6.2, but 'chvt 1' thingie inside a lxde terminal does the same thing.

What else you want to see ?

[utu]

@mecho

Thanks, mecho. That's very useful (regarding your post #8

I would like to make a current-session log-file out of
the grey-on-black 'diary'. That's only kilo-bytes,
la few screens at best.

I've modded .xsession-errors to current-session-only,
I still find that useful, except for the repetition,
and un-helpful-ness if 'XID collision'reports due to flash.

After all, I'm allotting 20 Mb to urlclassifier data-base.
What's a few more Kb, here or there?

I'm collecting a few ideas to make better use of the
Log File Viewer, and if this this grey-on-black stuff
has anything interestin in it, I'll add it to my list.

[utu]

@kl522, referring to your post #11

I much appreciate your comments in regard to my question
regarding the puzzling but unstoppable text that greets us
on Knoppix 6.2.1 start-up.

You have also pointed out a number of valuable clues I am
interested in examining further, and will.

You deserve extra credit for this.

As to what else I'd like to see: I'd like to see a good
primer on Policy Kit errors, what causes them and how
to get rid of them. Preferably on another thread.