boot.log empty in Redhat 5

Just found that /var/log/boot.log is empty on our database server with In RHEL 5.  So we can’t able to see the start up log for services during the server’s start  to find why Oracle 11g doesn’t load. Quick googling helps to find a workaround with boot log.

You need to edit the “/etc/init.d/functions” file to uncomment 3 lines of code in 4 sections:  success, failure, passed, warning.
Before modifying the file:

# Log that something succeeded
success() {
#if [ -z "${IN_INITLOG:-}" ]; then
# initlog $INITLOG_ARGS -n $0 -s "$1" -e 1
#fi
[ "$BOOTUP" != "verbose" -a -z "${LSB:-}" ] && echo_success
return 0
}

After modifying the file:

# Log that something succeeded
success() {
if [ -z "${IN_INITLOG:-}" ]; then
initlog $INITLOG_ARGS -n $0 -s "$1" -e 1
fi
[ "$BOOTUP" != "verbose" -a -z "${LSB:-}" ] && echo_success
return 0
}

You need to uncomment the same content for all 4 functions.

After restart the /var/log/boot.log will be populated.