No GUI on server after initial setup and reboot

coltect · 10-21-2011, 05:15 AM

I have been setting up a 9.02 install and had this problem.
The install went OK, populated the rack OK, setup various items, then rebooted and got no GUI on the server. Splashy shows up and runs through, but when it gets to 100% the screen goes black/blank. Ctrl-Alt +, - and backspace do nothing.
After a couple of hours I realised that the PC had the local time set in its BIOS when I installed. I also had the PC disconnected from any networks during the initial install, but connected it up when installing modules in the rack.
During the install Untangle changed the PC BIOS time to UTC, which is 10 hours behind me here.
On reboot, with the BIOS time set to UTC I get the blank screen.
With the BIOS time set to the local time, on reboot I get the normal untangle GUI.
Will fixing this require a reinstall with the BIOS time set to UTC before installing ? or if I just leave it turned off for another 10 hours, then turn it on with the BIOS clock set to UTC time, will it then work properly ? Or is there an easy fix for this ?
Thanks, Col.

jcoffin · 10-21-2011, 08:35 AM

Changing the time during installation is dicey. There is really no reason to change the time in BIOS as the Untangle will use NTP to correct the time. I would just pick a time in BIOS in the same range as the final time you want and re-install from CD.

coltect · 10-21-2011, 02:02 PM

Thanks,
So the real answer is to always set your BIOS clock to UTC before installing.

coltect · 10-21-2011, 02:08 PM

Well it looks like waiting until the time caught up the +10 hours from UTC so the timestamps on all the files are now in the past instead of the future, didn't work. It will need re installing.
Cheers,
Col

coltect · 10-21-2011, 07:56 PM

Quick update. After a 3 hour drive this morning to the clients site, untangle boots properly into the GUI. So I did just have to wait the +10 hours offset and all file timestamps are now in the present or past, instead of in the future.
BIOS is now set to UTC, NTP is happy, all working good. Time to head home.
Thanks Untangle Devs, great software.

Note: Always a good idea to set the BIOS clock to UTC for Offline installs.

Cheers,
Col

sky-knight · 10-21-2011, 08:46 PM

Fascinating, this may be why our appliances randomly stop booting to GUI after first boot completes.

coltect · 10-22-2011, 03:01 AM

Well just in case it helps, this is the sequence I did to screw it up in the first place.

Boot into PC BIOS to check things, set the clock to local time, not China time. This is +10 UTC.
With the box unconnected to any network;
Boot Untangle CD and Install. All OK.
Reboot, GUI comes up fine.
Untangle says it's not connected to internet.
Connect WAN cable and install modules, change any settings etc. (I reckon during this time NTP gets to sync and sets the BIOS clock to UTC and OS to local time)

Reboot. No Gui. Splashy runs to 100% then screen goes blank/black.

All bad now.

Ctrl-Alt + - or backspace don't help, but drop me back to tty1, where I could login as root, if I had set the root password before rebooting. Which I hadn't done. Bugger.

After lots of googling and reading untangle forums, I went into the BIOS and changed each settings to do with the onboard video, one at a time and rebooted, thinking this may have something to do with it. No luck.Tried 3 different monitors, via DVI and VGA.

No luck.
I did manage to boot into Recovery mode and reset to Factory Defaults, still no good after that.

Eventually I noticed that the clock was set to UTC time in the BIOS.
Changed that to my local time and it booted into the GUI. - immediately set the root password. I then had to go through FirstRun again and setup all the modules again

After a reboot, no GUI. But I can login as root now.

In the shell date now shows 10 hours into the future. All the timestamps on folders /etc /var .. are 10 hours in the future from the initial install time. Hmm...

Disconnect the WAN cable again, set the BIOS clock to local time, reboot into a GUI.

After putting everything back that I had changed, and a few more reboots I was sure this was the problem.

If I set the BIOS clock to local time, disconnected the WAN cable, and rebooted, it would come up into the GUI.

Connect the WAN cable, then do a /etc/init.d/ntp restart. Wait a min and date now shows the correct local time.
Reboot and Splashy runs through, but no GUI.

I started the original install process about 2:30pm local time, stopped fiddling about 11pm with untangle running with the GUI, but the WAN cable connected and correct UTC time via NTP.

I tried rebooting at about 7:30am, no luck.

Drove to the clients site by about 10:30am to install the box, expecting a re-install on site and it booted into the GUI like it should.

This gave the system enough time (I'm guessing) to get past the install times of the original Install, plus anything else I touched up to 11pm. My local time is +10 UTC, so leaving it until it got past the 10 hour mark sorted the problem.

Untangle seems to have worked perfectly since then.

(As it normally does, thanks Dev's great software. I don't post much but started playing with Untangle at V5.something years ago)

Hope this helps,
Cheers, Col

sky-knight · 10-22-2011, 08:32 AM

Once you get a root login set, the command is:

su - kiosk

That will force the UI to start.

And I've got several customers in the last week that have done the same thing. They get thier boxes, configure the first boot, put in modules, reboot and no more UI. I've been pulling my hair out because I can't duplicate it.

But my images are set to AZ time by default. Why? Because the Dev thinks it's funny for AZ users to have to use the command line to set a timezone I suppose. Anyway, if you're on the East coast, and you reset that TZ, for a few hours... you've gone back in time. The only customers I have that have this issue are East of me, and now it all makes perfect sense.

New images being generated, this time they'll be set to GMT, and I'll just have to send out workaround mails to AZ people to get them into the terminal to set a timezone.

coltect · 10-23-2011, 04:18 AM

I'm pretty sure that I tried the su - kiosk command and got the same black/blank screen instead of the GUI. I also tried su -kiosk in case the space between the - and kiosk made a difference.
Moral of the story, always set BIOS clock to UTC/GMT before installing Untangle.
Cheers, Col

limbomenga · 12-15-2011, 01:10 AM

Ahh geez man.. after 1-day of installation hair pulling.. this is the answer to my problem?! Jeez. How come i didnt have this problem in 9.0.1?

But now my problem is; if an Untangle install (9.0.1) is upgraded to (9.1) (not a clean install); will this problem be around when i reboot the machine? Anybody?

Because right now i have a live production server that i'm damn scared to reboot at the moment; but then again its working fine without a reboot so far (touch wood)

10-21-2011, 05:15 AM	#1 (permalink)
coltect Newbie Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 10	No GUI on server after initial setup and reboot I have been setting up a 9.02 install and had this problem. The install went OK, populated the rack OK, setup various items, then rebooted and got no GUI on the server. Splashy shows up and runs through, but when it gets to 100% the screen goes black/blank. Ctrl-Alt +, - and backspace do nothing. After a couple of hours I realised that the PC had the local time set in its BIOS when I installed. I also had the PC disconnected from any networks during the initial install, but connected it up when installing modules in the rack. During the install Untangle changed the PC BIOS time to UTC, which is 10 hours behind me here. On reboot, with the BIOS time set to UTC I get the blank screen. With the BIOS time set to the local time, on reboot I get the normal untangle GUI. Will fixing this require a reinstall with the BIOS time set to UTC before installing ? or if I just leave it turned off for another 10 hours, then turn it on with the BIOS clock set to UTC time, will it then work properly ? Or is there an easy fix for this ? Thanks, Col.

10-21-2011, 08:35 AM	#2 (permalink)
jcoffin Untangler Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sunnyvale, CA URLs submitted: 1 Posts: 1,783	Changing the time during installation is dicey. There is really no reason to change the time in BIOS as the Untangle will use NTP to correct the time. I would just pick a time in BIOS in the same range as the final time you want and re-install from CD. __________________ Attention: Support and help on the Untangle Forums is provided by volunteers and community members like yourself. If you need Untangle support please call or email support@untangle.com

10-21-2011, 08:46 PM	#6 (permalink)
sky-knight Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Phoenix, AZ URLs submitted: 8 Posts: 15,457	Fascinating, this may be why our appliances randomly stop booting to GUI after first boot completes. __________________ Rob Sandling, BS:SWE, MCP Intouch Technology Phone: 480-272-9889 rob@intouchtechllc.com UntangleAppliances.com Phone: 866-794-8879

10-22-2011, 08:32 AM	#8 (permalink)
sky-knight Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Phoenix, AZ URLs submitted: 8 Posts: 15,457	Once you get a root login set, the command is: su - kiosk That will force the UI to start. And I've got several customers in the last week that have done the same thing. They get thier boxes, configure the first boot, put in modules, reboot and no more UI. I've been pulling my hair out because I can't duplicate it. But my images are set to AZ time by default. Why? Because the Dev thinks it's funny for AZ users to have to use the command line to set a timezone I suppose. Anyway, if you're on the East coast, and you reset that TZ, for a few hours... you've gone back in time. The only customers I have that have this issue are East of me, and now it all makes perfect sense. New images being generated, this time they'll be set to GMT, and I'll just have to send out workaround mails to AZ people to get them into the terminal to set a timezone. __________________ Rob Sandling, BS:SWE, MCP Intouch Technology Phone: 480-272-9889 rob@intouchtechllc.com UntangleAppliances.com Phone: 866-794-8879

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10-21-2011, 02:02 PM	#3 (permalink)
coltect Newbie Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 10	Thanks, So the real answer is to always set your BIOS clock to UTC before installing.

10-21-2011, 02:08 PM	#4 (permalink)
coltect Newbie Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 10	Well it looks like waiting until the time caught up the +10 hours from UTC so the timestamps on all the files are now in the past instead of the future, didn't work. It will need re installing. Cheers, Col

10-21-2011, 07:56 PM	#5 (permalink)
coltect Newbie Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 10	Quick update. After a 3 hour drive this morning to the clients site, untangle boots properly into the GUI. So I did just have to wait the +10 hours offset and all file timestamps are now in the present or past, instead of in the future. BIOS is now set to UTC, NTP is happy, all working good. Time to head home. Thanks Untangle Devs, great software. Note: Always a good idea to set the BIOS clock to UTC for Offline installs. Cheers, Col

10-22-2011, 03:01 AM	#7 (permalink)
coltect Newbie Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 10	Well just in case it helps, this is the sequence I did to screw it up in the first place. Boot into PC BIOS to check things, set the clock to local time, not China time. This is +10 UTC. With the box unconnected to any network; Boot Untangle CD and Install. All OK. Reboot, GUI comes up fine. Untangle says it's not connected to internet. Connect WAN cable and install modules, change any settings etc. (I reckon during this time NTP gets to sync and sets the BIOS clock to UTC and OS to local time) Reboot. No Gui. Splashy runs to 100% then screen goes blank/black. All bad now. Ctrl-Alt + - or backspace don't help, but drop me back to tty1, where I could login as root, if I had set the root password before rebooting. Which I hadn't done. Bugger. After lots of googling and reading untangle forums, I went into the BIOS and changed each settings to do with the onboard video, one at a time and rebooted, thinking this may have something to do with it. No luck.Tried 3 different monitors, via DVI and VGA. No luck. I did manage to boot into Recovery mode and reset to Factory Defaults, still no good after that. Eventually I noticed that the clock was set to UTC time in the BIOS. Changed that to my local time and it booted into the GUI. - immediately set the root password. I then had to go through FirstRun again and setup all the modules again After a reboot, no GUI. But I can login as root now. In the shell date now shows 10 hours into the future. All the timestamps on folders /etc /var .. are 10 hours in the future from the initial install time. Hmm... Disconnect the WAN cable again, set the BIOS clock to local time, reboot into a GUI. After putting everything back that I had changed, and a few more reboots I was sure this was the problem. If I set the BIOS clock to local time, disconnected the WAN cable, and rebooted, it would come up into the GUI. Connect the WAN cable, then do a /etc/init.d/ntp restart. Wait a min and date now shows the correct local time. Reboot and Splashy runs through, but no GUI. I started the original install process about 2:30pm local time, stopped fiddling about 11pm with untangle running with the GUI, but the WAN cable connected and correct UTC time via NTP. I tried rebooting at about 7:30am, no luck. Drove to the clients site by about 10:30am to install the box, expecting a re-install on site and it booted into the GUI like it should. This gave the system enough time (I'm guessing) to get past the install times of the original Install, plus anything else I touched up to 11pm. My local time is +10 UTC, so leaving it until it got past the 10 hour mark sorted the problem. Untangle seems to have worked perfectly since then. (As it normally does, thanks Dev's great software. I don't post much but started playing with Untangle at V5.something years ago) Hope this helps, Cheers, Col

10-23-2011, 04:18 AM	#9 (permalink)
coltect Newbie Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 10	I'm pretty sure that I tried the su - kiosk command and got the same black/blank screen instead of the GUI. I also tried su -kiosk in case the space between the - and kiosk made a difference. Moral of the story, always set BIOS clock to UTC/GMT before installing Untangle. Cheers, Col

12-15-2011, 01:10 AM	#10 (permalink)
limbomenga Newbie Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 1	Ahh geez man.. after 1-day of installation hair pulling.. this is the answer to my problem?! Jeez. How come i didnt have this problem in 9.0.1? But now my problem is; if an Untangle install (9.0.1) is upgraded to (9.1) (not a clean install); will this problem be around when i reboot the machine? Anybody? Because right now i have a live production server that i'm damn scared to reboot at the moment; but then again its working fine without a reboot so far (touch wood)