How to provide good information in your posts

anika200 · 11 May 2020 15:06

When asking questions in the forum, it would be most helpful to all members if you provide some basic information.

When you provide info from the terminal, usually from your logs, you have to format it so the content is easy to read.
First copy and paste your text/terminal/code into the post
Then select the text/code and click the post edit toolbar button </> .
Another handy way is to use 3 backticks ` at the start and 3 more at the end of the text like this:

```

Paste text or code here

```

Please open a terminal and type the commands as below. (Do Not type the $)

First no matter what the problem, provide the hardware and software with inxi --full --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host

$ inxi --full --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host

System:    Kernel: 5.6.8-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Gnome 3.36.2 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM 3.34.1 
           Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Vmware System: VMware product: VMware7,1 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: No Enclosure type: 1 
           serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Intel model: 440BX Desktop Reference Platform serial: <filter> UEFI: VMware 
           v: VMW71.00V.14410784.B64.1908150010 date: 08/15/2019 
Memory:    RAM: total: 2.89 GiB used: 1.35 GiB (46.7%) 
           RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:       Topology: 2x Single Core model: Intel Core i7-7700K bits: 64 type: SMP arch: Kaby Lake rev: 9 L2 cache: 16.0 MiB 
           bogomips: 16804 
           Speed: 4200 MHz min/max: N/A Core speeds (MHz): 1: 4200 2: 4200 
           Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes apic arat arch_capabilities arch_perfmon avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 clflush clflushopt 
           cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de f16c flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr hypervisor ibpb ibrs invpcid 
           invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pcid pclmulqdq pdpe1gb 
           pge pni popcnt pse pse36 pti rdrand rdseed rdtscp sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall 
           tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer tsc_reliable vme x2apic xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves xtopology 
Graphics:  Device-1: VMware SVGA II Adapter driver: vmwgfx v: 2.17.0.0 bus ID: 00:0f.0 chip ID: 15ad:0405 
           Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.8 driver: vmwgfx compositor: gnome-shell resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 10.0.0 256 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 20.0.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Ensoniq ES1371/ES1373 / Creative Labs CT2518 driver: snd_ens1371 v: kernel bus ID: 02:02.0 
           chip ID: 1274:1371 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.6.8-1-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI vendor: VMware Virtual Machine type: network bridge driver: N/A port: 2150 
           bus ID: 00:07.3 chip ID: 8086:7113 
           Device-2: Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet vendor: VMware PRO/1000 MT Single Port driver: e1000 v: 7.3.21-k8-NAPI 
           port: 1040 bus ID: 02:01.0 chip ID: 8086:100f 
           IF: ens33 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter> 
           IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
           WAN IP: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 25.00 GiB used: 271.49 GiB (1086.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: VMware model: Virtual S size: 25.00 GiB serial: N/A rev: 1.0 scheme: GPT 
           Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: NECVMWar model: VMware IDE CDR10 rev: 1.00 dev-links: cdrom 
           Features: speed: 1 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running 
RAID:      Message: No RAID data was found. 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 24.19 GiB used: 10.15 GiB (42.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 label: N/A 
           uuid: 84ef5c14-5b87-41fa-b405-b9b5988c56dd 
           ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 280 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 label: N/A uuid: D3E4-4CF2 
           ID-3: /home/<filter>/Shares size: 465.63 GiB used: 261.34 GiB (56.1%) fs: fuse.vmhgfs-fuse source: ERR-102 
           label: N/A uuid: N/A 
Unmounted: Message: No unmounted partitions found. 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Device-1: 1-1:2 info: VMware VMware Virtual USB Video Device type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 
           speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 0e0f:000b 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Device-2: 2-1:2 info: VMware Virtual Mouse type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 1.1 
           speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 0e0f:0003 
           Hub: 2-2:3 info: VMware Virtual USB Hub ports: 7 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 0e0f:0002 
           Device-3: 2-2.1:4 info: VMware VMware Virtual USB Mouse type: Bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 
           speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 0e0f:0008 serial: <filter> 
Sensors:   Message: No sensors data was found. Is sensors configured? 
Info:      Processes: 200 Uptime: 3m Init: systemd v: 244 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.16 
           running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.37

Two basic commands used to find errors

$ dmesg

This command is used to get hardware boot stopping errors and some other things.

$ journalctl

This command is used for all kinds of errors and for trouble shooting.

Non-booting sort of errors , this means the user never gets to a login prompt or a prompt of any kind.
** If this is not your situation then skip this and start with Trouble Shooting below. **

If you end up in a non boot situation you still need to get to a command prompt and do some trouble shooting.
Here are three things to try.

First try to get to another TTY (command terminal) with the key combination. CTLALT+F2. You can try any of several combinations from F1 to F6. If you get a login prompt then good for you and you can start to troubleshoot your situation, login with your user name and password.
You can also use the Grub prompt to try to get to a TTY, see my General Notes at the bottom.
If the above does not work then >> Using the chroot method.
For this method, You can use chroot from a live Manjaro usb stick.
Boot Manjaro with live usb and then open a terminal and type
manjaro-chroot -a

You have just logged into your Manjaro install and can now change or repair anything within your Manjaro system.

With all of these methods of logging in you are now in control of your Manjaro install.
You can now copy or look at logs as they exist on your normal Manjaro system and do other rescue type things.

Trouble Shooting and finding Errors comands

First dmesg

$ dmesg will show any hardware problems and should be run first, look for the words Error, Failed or sometimes even different color lines. Look the whole thing over to get a sense of how it works, basically all your hardware gets checked by the linux kernel from most primitive like your CPU (important) to other things like your sound card etc...
To make dmesg more convenient use
$ dmesg | less
and then the arrow keys to move up and down (if you are chroot in GUI you do not need this).
To get hardware info use some of these examples:

$ dmesg | grep sd

get info on sata drives

$ dmesg | grep usb

get info on usb devices

$ dmesg | grep eth

I think you get the idea.

This one is not tested >>> $ dmesg | grep -E '\b(wl|e(th|n([osp]?[0-9]|x)))\w+'

Now journalctl.

$ journalctl will show all kinds of stuff as documented here Link
The most useful in a no boot situation is the previous boot or current boot so use the command as below.
$ journalctl -p3 -b -1
the numbers in the command are important as you have read on the linked wiki .
p3 picks up all non-critical errors from the boot probably not what we want in a non-boot, so use p2 and then p1 and finally p0 is used to pick up emergency errors like a kernel dump.
-b -1 conveys the boot log that is being searched, in this case the boot previous to our current boot.
So to get critical boot errors from current boot use
$ journalctl -p2 -b -0

It may also be important to look at the xserver logs in a non-booting situation (not on Wayland). Use the cat command to have a look, just enter the commands as below. Obviously Do not include > the current session etc... in the command line.

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log > the current session
$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old > or the previous successful session
$ cat /var/log/Xorg.1.log > after the last suspend

No GUI errors , this means the boot completes but you are left with a non-starting desktop environment sometimes with just a mouse cursor. In these situations you are already booted but the GUI is not working and you can almost always use CTLALT+F2 to get to a prompt.
You can use almost the same commands as above to track down the problems.
With journalctl just look for errors with $ journalctl -p3

What to do with the error you find?

Now that you have this information post the critical things using the code tags in the forum software depicted with the </> symbol in the post editor toolbar.

General Notes

Booting to command prompt from Grub

At Manjaro Grub menu use the keyboard to hit E to edit the kernel boot line.
In the grub editor look for the line beginning with linux, it should look like this.
linux /boot/vmlinuz-4.11-x86_64 root=UUID=0a01099a-1e33-489a-a2de-10104e8492f5 rw quiet
Go to the end of the line and backspace (delete) the word quiet and add systemd.unit=multi-user.target like below.
linux /boot/vmlinuz-4.11-x86_64 root=UUID=0a01099a-1e33-489a-a2de-10104e8492f5 rw systemd.unit=multi-user.target
Or you can also just add "3" in place of the "systemd.unit=multi-user.target"

Now boot the system with F10 key
You should be offered to login. Login with your user account.
At this point you should have a working system with an Internet connection.

Find Sleep errors in journalctl
journalctl -b0 | grep Suspend
journalctl -b0 | grep Resume

Follow journalctl live
journalctl -f
The above command is really pretty useful so lets use it. For example, open a terminal and type the command and then plug in a usb device or close and then open the lid on your laptop, put your computer to sleep etc... You should see what the linux kernel and the desktop thinks about your actions and what may be wrong or happening right.
Very useful.

If you get recurring errors follow these steps to get a clean log with the problems.

Clean the log and paste errors
Please make sure your system is up to date with the command,
sudo pacman -Syyu
Then clean your journalctl with
sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=1d
and then after that the command
sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=250M
Now log out and log back in. Do not skip this step.
Then wait for the problem and look at the errors with,
journalctl -p3

You may find you can google the errors and get an idea of what is going on or report the errors as described above.

Please PM anika200 before making edits to this post beyond more than a couple words or corrections , Thank you.
If you do not get a reply in 365 days then go for it.

Here is the list of people that have broken the above wishes so far.
@freggel.doe
@AgentS
@DeMus

DeMus · 27 December 2017 07:10

Great post. One thing which could/should be added is this:
when using a terminal make it wide so lines which are output from the instructions will not be chopped and therefore will be easier to read.

AlManja · 27 December 2017 13:33

So useful, thanks!
I never heard of gist before

anika200 · 27 December 2017 13:51

Me either, I have to check it out too. I think @AgentS made that suggestion.

papajoke · 17 June 2018 23:12

gist or http://sprunge.us (no login, no package)

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log |curl -F 'sprunge=<-' http://sprunge.us

AgentS · 17 June 2018 23:40

Server down?

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | curl -F 'sprunge=<-' http://sprunge.us
<html>
 <head>
  <title>500 Internal Server Error</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <h1>500 Internal Server Error</h1>
  The server has either erred or is incapable of performing the requested operation.<br /><br />



 </body>
</html>

papajoke · 18 June 2018 19:02

oops

now use http://ix.io

AgentS · 18 June 2018 19:17

and wgetpaste is nice. I 'll add them when available, or you can do it.

eugen-b · 16 July 2018 10:04

Moar likes for @anika200!

anika200 · 16 July 2018 17:12

hahaha, yes more likes.

For some reason they were all wiped out, sob sob sniffles.

I do enjoy the likes though, thanks all. Hopefully it helps someone besides me though

eugen-b · 16 July 2018 17:15

I suspect they reached an integer overflow.

anika200 · 16 July 2018 17:20

Of course it was

jbMacAZ · 16 July 2018 17:28

This is great. Is there some way to pin this to the top of the forum? Most posts these days are requests for troubleshooting.

SlayerProof32 · 28 November 2018 04:40

Ones I also tend to use for troubleshooting

lsusb -v |grep blue
If I can’t find the Bluetooth card, I tell them to post lsusb -v
(For people with Bluetooth issues)

If you would like, add that everyone should mark their issue as solved if someone’s issue is resolved.

anika200 · 28 January 2019 20:39

Great suggestion in general and about the solved button, I will work it in sometime. A list of more commands somewhere might be helpful, I will see what I can do. Maybe someone else already has one I could link too?

I have also started using hwinfo --bluetooth or hwinfo --gfxcard, which even works within vm if need be. See hwinfo --help for the list of options.

SlayerProof32 · 29 November 2018 02:36

Wow! I didn't even know about hwinfo. A lot easier to use than lsusb -v |grep blue

tbg · 29 November 2018 04:41

Try this hwinfo command I dreamed up if you want information about all your network components:

hwinfo --netcard --wlan --bluetooth | grep -Ei "model\:|driver\:|status\:|cmd\:|file\:|detected\:" | grep -v "Config Status"

c00ter · 29 November 2018 16:05

Ooh, I like that! Great helper for your "area of expertise."

No, not that one. The other one.

anika200 · 29 November 2018 22:07

Alright I admit it looks cool but does'nt hwinfo --network do the same thing? I think it would work for regular trouble shooting anyway but maybe not for total infiltration.

tbg · 29 November 2018 22:16

Yes, hwinfo does exactly the same thing. but it outputs too much information that is not essential for troubleshooting. It also outputs sensitive information that really shouldn't be posted on a public forum. That is why I removed all the non-essential and sensitive information from the command output. The full hwifo output is not really what you want posted on a troubleshooting thread, best to be selective for those purposes I think.