I created an own small server with Debian. Last night i updated it. It created an error while generating the initrd and it didn't boot.

Today i booted from another filesystem and did dpkg --configure -a with chroot. I also checked the filesystem.

Now everything should be ok.

But cron doesn't work:-( It is the same /etc/crontab-File but it doesn't work. I reinstalled cron and tried many things.

Is there a way to see cron's log? I only readed about rsyslog, but i have not installed rsyslog, because the server is based on a minimal system (Freeagent Dockstar).

Has someone an idea?

Best regards Silvio Keller

Update

There is no file /var/log/syslog and dpkg -l|grep syslog gives me no output, so i think syslog is not installed. It is only a minimal system.

cron -l gives:

cron: can't lock /var/run/crond.pid, otherpid may be 687: Resource temporarily unavailable

So i stopped cron with /etc/init.d/cron stop and executed cron -l again, this gives no output. At this moment i tried to start cron with /etc/init.d/cron start:

Starting periodic command scheduler: cron failed!

But there's no additional error info... But i see there's now in the background a proccess called cron -l which runs.

If i stop it /etc/init.d/cron start works:

Starting periodic command scheduler: cron.

I used the crontab-file /etc/crontab, this worked for me always. Till i updated my kernel and the initrd it doesn't.

The file's content is:

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
# m h dom mon dow user  command
17 *    * * *   root    cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6    * * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
47 6    * * 7   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
52 6    1 * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )
00 5    * * *   root    dummy
23 45   * * 7   root    dummy

00 *    * * *   root    dummy
*/1 *   * * *   root    dummy
00 1    * * *   root    dummy
00 4    * * *   root    dummy
*/5 *   * * *   root    dummy
#00 */10 * * *  root    dummy

01 0    * * *   root    dummy
00 5    * * *   root    dummy
00 4    * * *   root    dummy
#

If i start crontab -e it creates a new file /tmp/crontab.vn87tv/crontab, which is unfortunaly on a tmpfs and which also doesn't work.

Thanks & Best regards