Debian / Ubuntu Record Boot Messages

by Vivek Gite · 3 comments

Once the userspace boot messages are gone from the console in Debian, they're gone forever. How do I log all messages sent to the /dev/console device to a logfile under Debian Linux sever?

You need to use the bootlogd to record boot messages to a file called /var/log/boot. However, this is turned off by default. Edit /etc/default/bootlogd, enter:
# vi /etc/default/bootlogd
To run bootlogd at startup set it as follows:

BOOTLOGD_ENABLE=yes

After reboot you can see message in /var/log/boot:
# tail -f /var/log/boot
OR
# egrep -iw 'word1|err|warn' /var/log/boot

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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Al B.. 02.03.10 at 10:28 pm

Interesting…But I thought usually whatever is in console is usually piped to messages anyway

2 dj 02.06.10 at 11:38 pm

Setting BOOTLOGD_ENABLE=yes does not work in the current version of Ubuntu. This is a popular recommendation, but it ain’t gonna help :-(

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/boot/+bug/34165
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sysvinit/+bug/306998
https://bugs.launchpad.net/upstart/+bug/328881
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/2933

3 techbrainless 02.12.10 at 6:55 pm

Thanks for the nice post ,

dj you are right regarding Ubuntu , i have tried the above method but it did not work for me (I am using ubuntu 9.10) but unfortunately i have just noticed your comment after applying the above method ……………………..

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