UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello. Somehow I got out of my gui Mac OS 10.2 into Unix single-user mode. No matter what I've tried, I can't get out of Unix. I've tried the command "reboot" with no success. I've tried a safe boot, an X boot, and a couple of others and nothing seems to work. I can use the Unix commands to determine that my files are all still intact, but I can't get to them. I would try simply re-installing the OS, but my dvd drive door won't open. Does anyone have any suggestions? (If it would help, I could go through a step by step to tell you what happened before it went Unix, but it's a long story and may not help. If you think it will, let me know and I'll give details.) Thanks to anyone who can help.

Are you at a shell prompt at a console?

Are you able to either log in as root or su to root?

Can you run "ps -ef" to show all processes running?

Have to tried "shutdown -h now" to power down the box down cleanly.

Can you run "top" and see what's busy?

Hello! Just so you know, I am even newer than a newbie, so you'll have to talk to me like I'm five.

Yes, I'm at a shell prompt.

I tried logging in with my system name and password, but it came up as incorrect.

I typed in the "ps -ef" and this is what I got: ps: illegal option --f usage: ps [-aChjlmMrSTuvwx] [0|o fmt] [-p pid] [-t Hy] [-U user] [-N system] [-W swap] ps [-L]

Shutdown -h now works -- yea! I didn't know how to do that before.

Top brings up a bunch of stuff. Top line reads Processes: 5 total, 2 running, 3 sleeping.

I am also able to change directories and see that my folders and files are still there.

1. So shutdown works and a restart takes you back to a console?

2. Does this take you to a login prompt or straight in with the command prompt?

3. try ps ax

4. To get your files off I suggest you package them up as a tar file and ftp them to another box eg...

cd $HOME
tar cf /tmp/my.tar *
cd /tmp
ftp another-host
binary
put my.tar

5. then install the OS from scratch, in your case borrow a DVD drive from another machine.

Shutdown worked. Reboot was simply rebooting back to the unix prompt. I installed the OS from scratch and that seems to have worked. I still have no idea how I got into Unix to start with and why I couldn't get it back to OS X. But I'm just glad it's back. I've learned a little about Unix though Thanks for all the help!