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I work for an IT company that usually supports Windows systems only. Recently we had a new client come to us with an old Linux server that they're having some problems with. They boot up the server but the GUI never loads. It has never done this before, and the server remains functional. We're able to access data hosted on the server, ping the server, use PuTTY to obtain log files, etc. but the GUI or command line won't load. Suggestions?

The following displays on the screen:

It won't allow us to type commands or do anything.

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  • Do you know what the other virtual consoles show? (Ctrl+Alt+F2 etc) Oct 1, 2014 at 15:12
  • I would not expect that the GUI part is installed at all, if it's the Ubuntu server edition. But it should show a plain text login prompt at least. And that seems stuck somehow. But I would think the other virtual consoles are just working normal, looks like that pwrstatd just hangs, maybe? Oct 1, 2014 at 15:15
  • The server has loaded a GUI before. I will have a user at their office try ctrl+alt+f2 and report back. Thank you for the comment.
    – ic3b3rg
    Oct 1, 2014 at 15:17
  • That pwrstatd in tha last line, seems not to be part of ubuntu, right? (Did not find it in a quick search for packages) Oct 1, 2014 at 15:20
  • To be honest none of us have ever heard of pwrstatd. My client's old IT company is no longer doing business so we can't call them and ask about it, unfortunately.
    – ic3b3rg
    Oct 1, 2014 at 15:32

2 Answers 2

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Summarizing from comments:

So, the screen shows that the boot process got stuck when starting a service pwrstatd.
As you can ssh too the box, I expect that the other virtual consoles are working normal (Ctrl+Alt+F2 etc).

They would show a text mode login screen. When logged in, the GUI can be started:
How do I restart a Unity session from the terminal?

The GUI is installed - I think it would be started at the end of the init scripts.

But that startup of pwrstatd hangs, so they never reach the end.

The name suggests that is is about power statistics, and it seems to be not part of ubuntu - maybe it can just be removed, if not fixed?

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  • I was able to use Ctrl+Alt+F2 to get to a terminal console. I then ran startx and then unity and was able to get to a temporary desktop enviornment. From here I'm working on removing the pwrstatd program. This should resolve my issue. Thank you!
    – ic3b3rg
    Oct 1, 2014 at 17:36
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To answer your question, pwrstatd is a Cyberpower UPS program daemon that enables the computer its connected via USB to preform tasks and scripts during power and battery events. Its actually kind of interesting. See here: https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/software/power-panel-personal/#platform-section

While I am not sure at this point why its hanging at boot on your computer, I can tell you that it does not seem to load at boot after I install it on mine. I suspect that there may be parallels here (yours is hanging, and mine is not appearing to load). Questions if you know: 1. how do you check to see what programs start at boot. 2. how to I get pwrstatd to be one of them.

I know it needs to run as root to query the UPS and also to issue shutdown commands to the computer (if configured that way).

You can use it by going to prompt "sudo pwrstat -status" and "sudo pwrstat -config" I am able to get these commands to work after starting it on my machine manually "sudo pwrstatd start &"

-ding

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