The server will not continue beyond this. This occurred after a crash that happened when I removed a huge messages file from /var/adm created by syslogd. I changed the syslog.conf file to put the that log into syslog.dated instead and tried to restart syslogd, but got the crash and this started happening. Recommendations, please.
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> While the system is booting , and wait at > console mode: Press Ctrl+c , > - The go to single user mode using : > # boot -fl s > > Revert back the changes, keep only > syslog.conf , aso verify the /etc/inittab > file .
WHat do I do after I get the single user prompt? I user the boot command above, the system booted to single user mode, but I can't do anything except a cat or ls command. How do I get the file systems mounted? I can't find my documentation on how to proceed in single user mode. I can't change any files without any commands.
While I don't recall configuring backups (it's been a LOOOONG time since I configured this system - I'm not a Unix admin normally, but I can read and follow instructions and that's how I was able to set the system up originally), I can see on another disk several files that are gzipped tar files, one of whose name is fulluser20oct09.tar.gz, and a couple siimilar files with progressively earlier dates, so I think those are the backups. If you can advise me on how to recover the /usr file system, at least I'll be able to check on the contents of those files.
The disk that housed /usr is the book disk and also houses /. /etc/fdmns was fine. /sbin/advfs/advscan, when used on the domain says "nothing to fix". showfdmn says "E_DOMAIN_NOT_ACTIVATED". I used the File Administration Guide to rebuild the files in /etc/fdmns manually, after using dd to make a copy of the partition that represented /usr (rz8g). /etc/fstab was fine. Nothing in it had changed.
After deleting the domain files and recreating them following advice in the File Administration Guide, I was able to finally mount /usr, but it's completely empty. This is not a good thing. If I restore the contents of the partition with dd in the reverse direction with the file I had created with dd before this started, would that restore the files in /usr?
If /usr fails to mount, then I wouldn't expect a dd of it to be any good. You'll have to use your backup. To restore this, you're likely to have to boot up of an OS CD, as (I think) the gunzip utility is usually to be found somewhere under /usr.
So...
1. Boot up off CD, and drop to a Unix shell. 2. Create the relevant symbolic links under /etc/fdmns to be able to mount your existing disks. 3. Use something like "gunzip -c fulluser20oct09.tar.gz | tar tvf - | more" to be view the contents of your backup file. 4. Assuming the /usr file system is in the backup, the restore it with something like "gunzip -c fulluser20oct09.tar.gz | tar xvf - /usr"
I tried booting off the CD and the first messages I received were "preparing to install". I aborted the process. I don't want to reinstall yet. How can I just mount the CD so I can copy the contents of /usr to the hard drive? Should I even consider that?
When the install CD first boots up, there is an option to exit to the Unix shell. In the GUI version of the installer this is on the "File" pull-down menu.
However, if the issue is restoring /usr, why would you boot from CD? If root is OK, you should be able to boot it to single-user and restore /usr from that point. Booting from CD to restore should only be necessary if you're restoring root.
> Booting from CD to restore should only be > necessary if you're restoring root.
If the backup files are gzipped, then (I think) you'll need to have a working /usr in order to get the gunzip command, hence why I said to boot off CD.
To Rob: Ah, OK. I missed that detail in the thread and was assuming that the backups were from something like vdump. If the backups are gzipped, than I agree that he'll need to boot off CD to use gunzip.
To the original poster: Don't panic when it says "preparing to install". The installation process gives you plenty of warning before it actually starts writing over disks. Let it boot up, then choose "Exit to shell" from the File menu, then follow the rest of the procedure Rob suggested.
Since, as I said, advscan, when asked to fix the usr_domain domain, says "Attempting to fix link/dev_count for domain usr_domain. Nothing to fix", and advscan rzg shows "usr_domain. Domain Id 3f6f4c86.0008beb0. Created Mon Sep 22 15:24:54 2003. Domain volumes 1. /etc/fdmns links 1. Actual partitions found rz8g", but mount_advfs -F 16384 usr_domain#usr /usr gives the ""Domain usr_domain not activated - inconsistency detected, usr_domain#usr on /usr: device does not contain a valid ADVFS file system" and showfdmn usr_domain shows "unable to get info for domain usr_domain. error=E_DOMAIN_NOT_AXTIVATED", is there any way to manually resolve the inconsistency by altering some bits somewhere to remove the inconsistency? How can I even find our what the inconsistency is? I think the data in the partition is intact and if there's any way to recover it without having to reconstruct the entire file system, it would be a good thing.
The Alpha is operational again. I wound up needing to reinstall from CD and after a lot of work, managed to restore most of what I needed. When I didn't have was a backup of a few of the device drivers so I couldn't make a new kernel containing the devices, but fortunately, I had a copy of the pre-crash kernel.
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