A price / coupon scanner in a nearby CVS evidently woke up dead:
Yup, it’s a Linux console boot log, with the last line suggesting something horrible happened inside the device mapper:
A start job is running for dev-mapper-cryptswap1.device
The systemd timing status shows it’s been stuck for a while and has no hope of rescue:
(2d 1h 41min 10s / no limit)
I’d reboot that sucker if it had a keyboard …
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
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10 responses to “Linux Where You Least Expect It”
cryptswap1.device suggests it has some class of encrypted partition — which, given what it does, I’m rather glad it (probably) doesn’t hold transaction data in clear text. If the storage has gone funny on that, it’s not going to boot again with that drive.
The “where I least expect it” bit about this is that it’s not a Raspberry Pi.
I suppose there could be a Pi tucked inside, but a little industrial PC would make more sense. On the other paw, “sense” might take second place behind “cheap”, so ya never know.
Once when I donated platelets at the local blood center I saw a reboot of an apheresis machine, and it was indeed Linux. No idea which flavor or which processor.
some years ago, I saw the boot screen of an ATM which had hung – it was running some version of Linux (possibly RedHat) on a 486-DX2. At the time, I reckoned the processor had to be at least 20 years old
Which reminds me of spotting an OS/2 boot screen stalled on a grocery store register, long years after OS/2 had faded from the scene. Once something gets embedded, it’s pretty much stuck there for the life of the hardware.
Maybe an ATM skimmer gang lurking somewhere near? ;-)
Collateral damage from the ATM at the grocery store across the street?
Ya never know!
Congratulations Ed! 35 years of technology journalism.
CIRCUIT CELLAR ISSUE 001 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1988
Firmware Furnace, by Ed Nisley
Turns out I wrote a few articles in other magazines by early 1985 and ghost-wrote some of Steve’s Byte columns, so my “career” is creeping up on four decades.
I have also verified Steve’s observation that you will not get rich writing articles for tech magazines. [grin]
Thanks for the reminder: it’s been a fun ride!
in a quiet village in the west of Ireland? Slim pickin’s for a skimmer gang…
ATM is gone a few years now, I strongly suspect it ran that 486 to the bitter end