HP-UX

Hello.

system fails on reboot this AM.
received message about not possible for kernel to find process that caused crash.
system does memory dump succesfully, then tries to boot again.
looking further at messages during this time, i'm getting 'init died with return value 256'...system panic init died.
also says to check inits execute permission, inits location, and the root partitions location.

nothing of note done to system to cause this yesterday.

system is older hpux 10.20 version (i'm helping company liquidate, so need to laugh/gag about o/s version please.)

system keeps cycling through this process...can't get past.
any assistance appreciated.

Drew

I would start by seeing if I can boot manually in single user:

boot <pri>
interact with IPL > yes
and at ISL prompt > hpux -is

If that works, then try to mount the vg00 filesystems...
Then check for any corruption in files like /etc/inittab /etc/ioctl,syscon etc... their timestamps etc...
look at
-r-xr-xr-x 1 bin bin 278528 May 20 1998 /sbin/init

If all seems normal try init 2
then init 3 ...
If things do wrong again after changing runlevel start all again but once mounted vg00 edit /etc/initta and comment out from powerf line
and change runlevel again or execute the line commented out one after the other...till you fall on the one giving trouble...

Good luck

trying to boot in single user still hangs at same place.

How did you go single user? I ment by single user - In maintenance mode (No disk yet...)
What model?

during boot, choose to go to IPL.
choose hpux -iS
with interactive IPL help.

same problem.
HPUX10.20
hp9000/800 k class server.

trying to boot from ignite tape gives me ipl error: bad LIF magic.
tape seems to be readable (cleaned drive to be sure).

gonna try & find older ignite for booting as well...
any other suggestions?

Well yes...
Try again with "hpux -lm"
If this doesnt work, since you have not yet mounted any file system, we can forget about Corrupt /stand/vmunix /etc/inittab /sbin/init ...
It leaves us :Missing LIF , corrupt root filesystem and bad BRDA...(that is what comes to my mind at the moment...)

Your guess?

Mind you thinking of it - you havent tried to boot from alternate kernel:
"hpux /stand/vmunix.prev" but I woulndt think this works since tape boot was unsuccessfull


While at it - I will go and look on HP ITRC and keep you informed...
Do you have any support from HP or an account?