First of all, let me say that there is a great website for HPUX.
www.itrc.hp.com Go to the search page and type in your problem and click on the criteria you want to search for answers. The forum and manuals are good ones to pick.
Okay, here's the situation. Is this running HPUX? What version? What is the MINX product? Is that an application?
I will assume you have a version of HPUX.
You will have to do one or more of several things.
Regarding the disabled root, You can fix this when you log back in to single user mode. Just create a password for root using " passwd root " command.
First, we will try the easiest thing. Reboot the box, power off and power on again. When the box is coming back up, there will be a point to break in and stop the boot process. Do this.
Now, depending on what version of unix you are running, you will want to get to single user mode.
If you have a menu there, type in whatever it asks for to get you to single.
In HPUX, type " hpux boot -is " or " hpux -is ".
When you get there, perform fsck on all the filesystems. Do a man on fsck if you have another box. Here is some of that man page.
fsck(1M) fsck(1M)
NAME
fsck (generic) - file system consistency check and interactive repair
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/fsck [-F FSType] [-m] [-V] [special ...]
/usr/sbin/fsck [-F FSType] [-o FSspecific-options] [-V] [special ...]
DESCRIPTION
The fsck command audits and interactively repairs inconsistent
conditions for HP-UX file systems on mass storage device files
identified by special. If the file system is consistent, the number
of files on that file system and the number of used and free blocks
are reported. If the file system is inconsistent, fsck provides a
mechanism to fix these inconsistencies, depending on which form of the
fsck command is used.
special represents a special device (e.g., /dev/rdsk/c1d0s8).
Options
fsck recognizes the following options:
-F FStype Specify the file system type on which to operate (see fstyp(1M) and fs_wrapper(5)). If this option
by matching special with an entry in that file.
system type is determined from the file /etc/fstab
by matching special with an entry in that file.
If there is no entry in /etc/fstab, then the file
system type is determined from the file
/etc/default/fs.
-m Perform a sanity check only. fsck will return 0
if the file system is suitable for mounting. If
the file system needs additional checking, the
return code is 32. If the file system is mounted,
the return code is 33. Error codes larger than 33
indicate that the file system is badly damaged.
*********************************************
Now, if that doesn't work you will need to have a CDROM or backup tape to restore from. Reboot the box, and have either the CDROM or tape in the system. Break in as before during the boot cycle, and boot from the tape or CDROM.
You may have to reinstall via the CDROM if you don't have a tape or can't restore from it.
My fear is that your old admin has sabotaged your box.
You may have to reinstall, if when you get to single and see that filesystems are missing.
Please respond with your progress!!