Debugging - Thinstation/thinstation GitHub Wiki

ThinStation is a linux distribution with a large number of application packages, so the task of identifying problems when they occur can be a complex process.

Googling and searching the mailing lists is the first point of call. You'd be surprised how many questions have been asked & answered before.

But, if you can't seem to find the answer, we will try to help you narrow down where a problem occurs and help you to find out what caused it. Information gathered by this process will help you, even if it doesn't 'find the answer', in that your peers on the mailing lists will need some of this information to work with. Once you have gathered some information, don't be afraid to ask for help.

But, some good advice on how to ask smart questions before you post. We will growl, but only when people don't try to help themselves... :-)

Questions on installation & setup (including which drivers to use or settings for applications), should be directed to the 'General' mailing list.

Throughout this section, you may be asked to look at various log files. If you are unable to start your desktop (or don't use one), you won't be able to use any gui tools, so you will need to get to a console.

This is a list of common symptoms that people encounter. It may help you work out what to do, if not you will need to look at ThinStation doesn't start, so how can I see the debug information?.

This error has probably occurred because you haven't got the correct module loaded for your network card

If the workstation can't recognise your network card of find your network (maybe you aren't using one), your workstation will stop with

DHCP server not found! Network not initialized. This error has probably occurred because you haven't got the correct module loaded for your network card. Debug not enabled, boot halted

As the messages indicate, ThinStation stops. Thee easiest fix is to make sure that you included the correct module for your network card, but you may not find it that easy to determine.

To try to work out the module/driver for your network card,

• google for 'linux driver ', if you know the model number, or
• include all of the network cards in your image and if it boots OK, find which module was used by

cat /var/log/messages | grep eth0

it should show the module name of the driver loaded. Include just that one in your next build.

If none of this helps, then you may need to

• Include the debug package and then investigate the issue
• Stop ThinStation from halting too early
• Setup you ThinStation for non-network operation

or any combination of the above :-)

Change processor type to [qemu64] for the guest.

Another of the most common issues is when the X Window system seems to start, but your program doesn't (ie. you see a blank screen with an X in the middle).

You have been trying to start an application that uses the X Window system and this has been unable to start.

As you have AUTOSTART=On, it tries to restart it, so firstly you will need to turn off autostart. In your thinstation.conf file set

`AUTOSTART=Off`
`SESSION_x_AUTOSTART=Off`

then continue as per the next topic...

You have been trying to start an application that uses the X Window system and this has been unable to start.

Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to get a console and look at the var/log/boot.log file.

The first thing to check is your build.conf, make sure these two lines are uncommented

module autofs4

package automount

Boot this newly created image and run the df command, you should see something like:

/dev/sda1 32523532 33467722 3322 1% /mnt/mnt/usbdevice/<label of your usb device>

If you still do not see your USB devices showing up, remove the USB and reinsert it, and run the command dmesg | tail -20 look for any error messages, you may be missing the necessary driver.

If you need USB to work with xfreerdp, add the following to your thinstation.conf.buildtime:

SESSION_X_FREERDP_OPTIONS="<existing options> /drive:USB,\/mnt\/mnt\/usbdevice"

This will pass through any USB devices that show up in /mnt/mnt/usbdevice/ dynamically, and will show up as a System Folder:

By default, ThinStation will halt if you have a major error (and it doesn't know what to do). When halted you can't look at anything... :-(

So, there are a couple of things that you can do to help it continue to a stage where you are able to gather the information that you need to find out what the problem is.

Press F2 whilst the bootsplash is showing and it will disappear.

But, if you want to turn off the bootsplash entirely, so that you can see ALL the messages, and you are using syslinux or pxe booting. On the kernel line of your syslinux.cfg or pxelinux.cfg you will find the parameters

vga=791 splash=silent

Please remove the splash=silent parameter.
If you also have

console=ttyS3

please change this to

console=tty0

and then the kernel messages will be displayed on your console (rather than the bootsplash).

If you are building a new image set

param bootlogo false

will do the same (and this works for the CD/iso image as well).

Rebuild your image with

param bootverbosity 63

or play with the setting to get the level of detail you want.

0 no verbose messages
1 boot
2 network
4 init
8 kernel
16 modules
32 packages
64 email bootlog file to SMTP server & user set in thinstation.conf file. This will only work if networking is working.

Combinations can be used eg. 12 (8+4) does Kernel and Init messages

Rebuild your image with

param haltonerror false in your build.conf
and
NO_SESSION=/bin/sh
NO_XORG_CMD=/bin/sh in your thinstation.conf.buildtime

This is particularly useful when there are network problems and will allow the workstation to start even when the network doesn't.

Rebuild your image with

package debug

Note: with debug included your startup will ALWAYS stop after system initiation, so that you can either look at debug information or press enter to continue into the sessions. Remove the debug package when you have finished.

The main log files for ThinStation are found in the /var/log directory.

• /var/log/boot.log contains the ThinStation specific debug messages
• /var/log/messages contains the kernel information & degug messages (and can be quite big)
• /var/log/XOrg.0.log contains the X Window system log, if you have already started a graphical system. eg. rdesktop, icewm, etc. (also quite big)

What has been picked up from the various thinstation.con can be found in:

• /etc/thinstation.defaults contains the contents of thinstation.conf.buildtime
• /thinstation.buildtime contains the contents of thinstation.conf.buildtime when built via a TSoM
• /etc/thinstation.network contains the contents of thinstation.conf.network (and other associated network files)
• /etc/thinstation.user contains the contents of thinstation.conf.user
• /etc/thinstation.runtime contains the TS calculated settings

To look at these files you will need to get to a console or use a filemanager.

more /var/log/boot.log

space gives the next page, q exits.