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.

[mecho]

I wrote my theory in post #2, but I can explain it a bit more. Because Knoppix is a live distro, there is a lot of abnormal operations going on therefore a lot of kernel messages. All this messages a turned off so they will not overwhelm your log files and clutter your system. You want to save space on your flash, if you have all those /var/log files turned on you will soon find yourself having megabytes of useless log files.
The config files that blocks all those log files is /etc/syslog-knoppix.conf. On regular system the system messages are controlled by /etc/syslog.conf
Just open those 2 files and compare them to one another. You will notice that Knoppix only allows emergency messages to the console, all the rest is sent to /dev/tty12 which according to me does not exist or is connected to /dev/null, so they are gone for good.
If you want to allow some of those log files to be created, just modify /etc/syslog-knoppix.conf.
If you want to experiment - rename /etc/syslog-knoppix.conf to /etc/syslog-knoppix.conf-old and /etc/syslog to /etc/syslog-knoppix.conf
This will give your system normal logging setup, boot Knoppix and then look in your /var/log folder.
I did not try it it would be interesting to see the result

[mecho]

@ Utu

Hi Utu,
I have one off topic question for you and I don't want to open a new thread for it.
You mentioned that you are using SD card for Knoppix. Does you system recognize it as USB and you boot the same way as booting USB ?
And what is the read speed of your SD card and what brand and model it is ?
I would like to substitute my USB with SD card. I don't like my USB sticking out of my laptop.
Can you also post the output of:
sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sdb
This measures your access speed

[utu]

@ mecho (regarding your post #9)

My 'system' is a Dell Inspiron 1545; it sees SD cards as USBs.
The Dell has USB ports on the left and right and an SD card slot in front.
I have an old USB on the left that I use to sneaker-net stuff to my other computers.
I have a nano-chip on the right for my laser mouse.
I have a 2 Gb SanDisk in th SD card slot. I leave it there all the time.
I got 2 SanDisks in a set for about twelve dollars at BestBuy. Spare no expense, I say.
You should weigh the pros & cons of 4 and 8 Gb cards before you buy;
2 Gb is a bit edgy, if you're used to 12 or 15 Gb for your systems.

The DELL favors a certain order of things USB, so I have to remember to unplug
the sneakernet USB before boot-up, or quickly interrupt the boot process.
The Dell has its own boot screen which I can both re-order and intercept the boot-up
process to use USB (which includes SD cards), HDD or CDROM.
This is ever-so-much preferable to multi-booting ala Grub or Lilo, IMO.
This boot screen also has a few additional options for diagnosis & testing.

The Dell also has a well-behaved Windows 7, 4GB of ram and 350 Gb of hard drive.
The Win7 system works so well it is no fun at all. No danger. It just works.

The output of sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sdb is as follows:
/dev/sdb:
Timing cached reads: 2146 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1073.60 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 30 MB in 3.20 seconds = 9.37 MB/sec

The only ID on the chips is 8E0924714400, both the same, exactly so.
My only complaint with the chips is I don't know how to keep them apart:
I can't write on them, tape doesn't work.