[OT] Failure to boot .... This could happen to you.

[David G. Miller]

Ed Greshko <Ed.Greshko <at> greshko.com> writes:

> 
> This was a bizarre coincidence but given the "lesson" I thought I'd offer
it up.
> 
> I had not updated this one system for a while so I ran "yum update". 
Noticed that the list of updates included a
> kernel update and x11-drivers.  Upon rebooting the system stopped/hung at
"Starting GNOME display
> manager". 
> 
> Everything had been running perfectly fine prior to the update.  So, of
course, I assumed an update was to blame.
> 
> It took a bit of time, but I finally tracked down the problem to the DVI
cable which had been chewed on by one of
> my cats.  (Doing dental impressions now to find the culprit.)  Replaced
cable, all is well.  Need to wrap my
> cables in chain mail.  
> 
Had a similar problem when I used point-to-point wireless for my internet
connectivity.  A squirrel chewed through the network cable that provided
power and data connectivity to the antenna on our roof.  The little beggar
was smart enough to only chew through the data lines and not the power lines
so my ISP could still talk to the processor for the antenna.  They
eventually came out and replaced the line at which time I "painted" the
cable with an oil based extreme hot sauce called "Gold Cap" (hated to
"waste" the hot sauce).  It worked though.

Cheers,
Dave