Since my last reboot, I haven't been able to login to ssh. I've checked via lish that sshd is running and everything appears fine but whenever I try to ssh in I get a "Network error: Connection timed out" error. I've tried rebooting but it didn't solve anything.

I'm completely at a loss as to what the problem could be.

I'm running Gentoo it it's relevant.

A slightly related problem is that some posts on this forum seem to suggest it is possible to somehow login to my linode via lish which would help in trying to diagnose/fix this problem but I have no idea how to. The only thing I can do in lish is check my bootup messages which is how I found out sshd started properly

Thanks in advance for any help.

Find out what host you're on by checking LPM (the linode management webpage)...then do this:

$ ssh <linode_username>@hostXX.linode.com

You should use the same username and password you use to login to www.linode.com.

Yeah I can login to lish fine but I don't have any way to actually get a shell on the linode. I presume you should get some sort of login prompt in the screen session of the linode but all I get is the last few boot messages.

If your linode is running, you should be able to just hit enter a few times and it'll dump you into your login prompt. At least that's what works for me...

What do you see when you login to lish?

I get the following:

 ...
 * Mounting network filesystems ...                                      [ ok ]
 * Starting oidentd ...                                                            [ ok ]
 * Starting vixie-cron ...                                                         [ ok ]
 * Starting local ...                                                 [ ok ]

I tried hitting enter a few times but no luck.

You know what - I just started having that same problem on one of my linodes. It's looking like the init scripts get hung...I'm going to try and ping caker on this in IRC.

Chat transcript from IRC...

11:01 < anderiv> caker or mikegrb around?
11:01 <@caker> anderiv: hello
11:02 < anderiv> mornin'
11:02 < anderiv> have you seen any other reports of this: http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=9241#9240
11:02 < anderiv> check the second to last post...
11:03 <@caker> ending at Starting Local problem?
11:03 < anderiv> caker: yep.
11:03 <@caker> They need to boot with init=/bin/bash and fix0r their /etc/inittab, methinks
11:04 <@caker> or, ssh in and fix it (if ssh is working)
11:04 < anderiv> ok - I'm actually seeing the same thing on one of my linodes.
11:04 < anderiv> I'll see if the inittab is borked.
11:04 < anderiv> (ssh is working, thankfully)
11:04 <@caker> What do your inittab lines look like?  Something about tty/0 ?
11:04 <@caker> There should be only one. (line uncommented) :)
11:05 < anderiv> ahh yes - there are a bunch there uncommented.
11:06 <@caker> ok, you must have accepted etc-update changes then...
11:06 <@caker> What's one of them look like?
11:06  * anderiv shoots himself in the foot
11:06 < anderiv> #c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux
11:06 <@caker> huh .. gentoo?
11:06 < anderiv> ...after commenting it out obviously
11:07 <@caker> comment the rest, and add: c0:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 vc/0 linux
11:07 <@caker> then run: "init q"
11:07 < OvrLrd-Q> fgetty for the win
11:07 <@caker> a prompt should magically appear in Lish
11:07 < anderiv> no - shooting myself in the foot by accepting etc-updates.
11:07 < anderiv> thanks caker
11:07 < anderiv> I'll give that a try.
11:08 < anderiv> caker: bingo
11:08 <@caker> anderiv: oh, don't forget to add "vc/0" to your /etc/securetty file
11:09 < anderiv> worked like a charm
11:09 < anderiv> caker: it's already there.
11:09 <@caker> goodie

Hope that helps!

Great! Thanks for the help.

One final question:

How do I edit /etc/inittab when I boot using init=/bin/bash since the root filesystem is mounted read only?

Like so:

mount -o remount,rw /

-Chris

Worked a treat - thanks for the help.