I’m trying to trouble shoot a boot problem on a recent install of Leap 15.6. It’s loaded on an 2018 Apple MacMini; Neofetch gives this information about the machine ‘Host: Macmini8,1 1.0.’
It is typically the first boot of the day. I turn on the machine and see the Apple symbol, then the Grub screen, then the initial boot text, then “Leap” with the spinning circle. The circle disappears after 15-20 seconds and 30 seconds or so later the machine shuts down. If I immediately turn the machine on again, it boots in 25 seconds and Leap runs without any problems.
I did notice that the ‘/var/log’ directory contains files in red text in this format ‘boot.log-[DATE].xz’ corresponding to the dates when it does not boot properly. I assume they contain the error information I need to diagnose the problem. However, I have not been able to find anything that tells me how to open and examine the files; ‘cat [FILE]’ or ‘nano [FILE]’ yield only gibberish.
I know that I can turn off the commands in the Grub boot menu that ‘silence’ the boot process – which I have done – but I have trouble seeing and processing what I’m seeing from that text without knowing exactly what I’m looking for.
Thank you for your response. I forgot to mention in my first post that in previous trouble shooting sessions, I had run a command to reveal the previous boot log (I don’t which specific one.) However when I run the command you provided, this is the output:
‘Specifying boot ID or boot offset has no effect, no persistent journal was found.’
I file with .xz extension typically refers to a file that is compressed, which is why you see “gibberish”.
Extract (decompress) the content and you will then be able to open in a text editor. Some extraction tools will also allow you to open (.xz file) and read the content as text.
Since it is not every boot, it may take a few days but you have given me the tools I need for now. I will begin to implement these and diagnosis accordingly.
Here are some of the final lines of text from the ‘journalctl’ command you offered.
Dec 23 07:57:20 OpenSUSE15 chromium-browser.desktop[2341]: [2473:2473:1223/075720.472843:ERROR:gl_surface_presentation_helper.cc(260)] GetVSyncParametersIfAvailable() failed for 2 times!
Dec 23 07:57:21 OpenSUSE15 chromium-browser.desktop[2341]: [2473:2473:1223/075721.301017:ERROR:gl_surface_presentation_helper.cc(260)] GetVSyncParametersIfAvailable() failed for 3 times!
Dec 23 07:57:27 OpenSUSE15 dbus-daemon[962]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.fwupd': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
Dec 23 07:57:27 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: failed to get featured apps: no apps to show
Dec 23 07:57:27 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: Only 0 apps for curated list, hiding
Dec 23 07:57:27 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: Only 0 apps for recent list, hiding
Dec 23 07:57:27 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: g_task_return_pointer: assertion 'G_IS_TASK (task)' failed
Dec 23 07:57:31 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: g_task_return_pointer: assertion 'G_IS_TASK (task)' failed
Dec 23 07:57:31 OpenSUSE15 systemd[1]: systemd-localed.service: Deactivated successfully.
Dec 23 07:57:31 OpenSUSE15 systemd[1]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Deactivated successfully.
Dec 23 07:57:40 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: g_task_return_pointer: assertion 'G_IS_TASK (task)' failed
Dec 23 07:57:40 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: failed to get featured apps: no apps to show
Dec 23 07:57:40 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: Only 0 apps for curated list, hiding
Dec 23 07:57:40 OpenSUSE15 gnome-software[1746]: Only 0 apps for recent list, hiding
Dec 23 07:57:48 OpenSUSE15 kernel: applesmc: probe of applesmc.768 failed with error -5
Dec 23 07:57:48 OpenSUSE15 fwupd[2162]: 12:57:48.219 FuPluginIntelMe failed to get public key using /fpf/OemCred: generic failure [0xb]
I also found a host of errors related to this line:
Dec 23 08:04:15 OpenSUSE15 gnome-shell[2440]: The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
But it concluded with:
Dec 23 08:04:14 OpenSUSE15 gnome-shell[2439]: Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server
There were other errors – pipewire could not find a camera, because there isn’t one, gsd-media-keys couldn’t set the hibernate or playback-repeat – but they did not seem critical. I did look for help regarding the ‘chromium’ errors, but quickly realized it would be above my pay grade to resolve and it’s not clear if this is the problem.
And the boot pattern still holds: the first boot of the day results in an automatic shutdown. The second boots into a full-functioning OpenSUSE GNOME desktop.
And (as long as persistent journal is enabled) you can also show the boot log from older boots, so you do not need to wait for it happen again. See man journalctl. Unfortunately, I believe in Leap persistent journal is off by default. You may consider enabling it.