How to catch error messages when Zorin 16.3 OS loads

Installing Zorin OS
1

I have a shared SSD with Windows 11 and Zorin OS. The Windows install is minor, it's bare and empty. The Zorin OS is my main OS. When the boot loader loads it gives me the (usual?) Zorin OS choice and each time I choose that, the system goes blank for a second and a bunch of error logs come up on screen for a fraction of a second before continuing to (seemingly) load Zorin OS correctly.

How do I discovered what these log notices / messages are? Their shape are definitely error reporting of some sort but they're far too fast to read.

Edit:
/var/logs is where I'm looking but the boot.log file tells me nothing that looks at all useful and syslog seems to show hundreds of varied errors (mostly gnome-shell which don't seem to be the shape of those I saw at OS startup)

2

Normally, sudo tail -f /var/log/boot.log. If you are not sure, you can post the output here.

There may also be multiple boot logs in the folder.

3

It is most likely ACPI or AMD errors. These are common and don't seize the system.

You may find that some of your F# buttons do not perform the pictured operation, screen brighteness, volume control, toggle microphone, turn off wifi... that would be the ACPI error.

4

The boot.log file contains lots of

e[0;32m OK e[0m] ... notifications that don't seem to be errors.

There are other files that seem recently updated (syslog / kern.log / auth.log) but they contain such a menagerie info that not clear what's what.

5

I can only take from this that there are no critical system errors. You have said that everything seems to work normally, as well.
You may look to your Grub Parameters and see if quiet and splash are set. You may wish to add the parameter loglevel=3 as well. Just be sure to run sudo update-grub after adding the loglevel parameter.

6

Thank you.

GRUB is currently:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

I'm not sure I need to change the log level as such, but I need to be able to read the printed warnings, perhaps there's a way I can force these screen output notices/warnings into a specific file of my choosing (/var/log/loadingboot.log or similar) . Actually, I just thought I can try and photograph it with my phone..... hmm....

7

laptop_bootup
laptop_bootup995×424 187 KB

This is one of the two errors;

ACPI BIOS Error -->Could not resolve symbol _SB.PC00.MHBR --> AE_NOT_FOUND
ACPI BIOS Error -->Could not resolve symbol _SB.PTID.PBAR --> AE_NOT_FOUND

So my query I think is; now we know what sort of error it is; where should I be able to find this error on any Zorin OS logs? Thanks!

Edit: My kernal is currently 5.15.0 .

1 Like
8

Great speed and timing.
Yes, these will not show up in error logs because they are not errors.

@337harvey mentioned this above.

ACPI warnings are generally harmless. What they mean:
ACPI = Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
What ACPI Tables do: They are specified tables that describe the Hardware Interface to the Kernel or Operating System.

What ACPI Warnings Mean:
If the information in the ACPI table is empty, incomplete or erroneous; it cannot be resolved or may be "not found".
The operating system notes that the ACPI table provided by the hardware manufacturer is missing that data - which you noticed in the print.
The operating system then reverts to the Fallback generic handling. Which is why everything is working on your system, in spite of the hardware failing to identify.

You cannot resolve these without contacting the hardware manufacturer and letting them know that their tables lack data - to which they may not bother with it...
I also get some of those AE not Found and ACPI warnings and I do indeed use
quiet splash loglevel=3 grub parameter in order to not be nagged when booting up.

1 Like
9

That's great, thanks. I'll update my GRUB and move on with my OS :slight_smile:

1 Like