Cant get ppp connection anymore - ttyS0 lock file problem

Hello,

I've got a curious problem. After my machine lost power I believe (I
wasn't here to see what happened), I can't get into my ISP with pppd
anymore. (I am running Red Hat 7.3.)

Here is what happens:

[root@babbage dev]# wvdial earthlink
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.41
--> Cannot open /dev/ttyS0: Device or resource busy

/dev/ttyS0 seems to be correct; here is an excerpt from what "ls -l ttyS?"
produces:

crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 4, 64 Sep 5 04:51 ttyS0
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 4, 65 Apr 11 2002 ttyS1
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 4, 66 Apr 11 2002 ttyS2

(The different modification time of ttyS0 compared to the others is
very suspicious, since it appears to coincide with when the trouble
started. So I just reinstalled the dev package, but the problem remains,
even after I rebooted.)

Here is what is curious, and what I haven't seen mentioned in a news
group. My problem can be produced by a lock file, so it is recommended to
check for one. Here is what happens when I do that:

[root@babbage dev]# ls -l /var/lock
ls: /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0: Input/output error
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Sep 8 2002 samba
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Sep 20 03:13 subsys

I have no idea what this means. I've never seen ls produce this error
message before.

I also tried the following, with the following result:

[root@babbage dev]# rm -f /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0
rm: cannot remove `/var/lock/LCK..ttyS0': Input/output error

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Alex Viskovatoff wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've got a curious problem. After my machine lost power I believe (I
> wasn't here to see what happened), I can't get into my ISP with pppd
> anymore. [snip]
>
> Here is what is curious, and what I haven't seen mentioned in a news
> group. My problem can be produced by a lock file, so it is recommended to
> check for one. Here is what happens when I do that:
>
> [root@babbage dev]# ls -l /var/lock
> ls: /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0: Input/output error
> total 2
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Sep 8 2002 samba
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Sep 20 03:13 subsys
>
> I have no idea what this means. I've never seen ls produce this error
> message before.
>
> I also tried the following, with the following result:
>
> [root@babbage dev]# rm -f /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0
> rm: cannot remove `/var/lock/LCK..ttyS0': Input/output error
>
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Did you run 'fsck' on your hard disk after the power failure? If not,
you should do so ASAP, e.g.,

[root]# shutdown -F -r now

--
Jim

To reply by email, remove "link" and change "now.here" to "yahoo"
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On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 18:37:06 -0400, Jim Fischer wrote:

> Alex Viskovatoff wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I've got a curious problem. After my machine lost power I believe (I
>> wasn't here to see what happened), I can't get into my ISP with pppd
>> anymore. [snip]
>>
>> Here is what is curious, and what I haven't seen mentioned in a news
>> group. My problem can be produced by a lock file, so it is recommended
>> to check for one. Here is what happens when I do that:
>>
>> [root@babbage dev]# ls -l /var/lock
>> ls: /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0: Input/output error total 2 drwxr-xr-x 2
> [snip]
> Did you run 'fsck' on your hard disk after the power failure? If not,
> you should do so ASAP, e.g.,
>
> [root]# shutdown -F -r now

Thanks much, Jim. That solved the problem. LCK..ttyS0 had a
deleted/unused inoode. I guess I was too blasé in my (unconscious)
assumption that journaling file systems make file system checks redundant.