UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Hi ppl,

We are using Sun OS and recently, encountered this strange problem.

When issuing the "w" or "who" command, the system produce no listing. See screen shot below.

-----------------------
$ w
2:56pm up 2 day(s), 21:10, 0 users, load average: 1.03, 0.75, 0.69
User tty login@ idle JCPU PCPU what
$

---------------------------

There are users logging into the system but the "w" command shows that there are 0 users.

How could be problem here ? Please advice.

Thanks

Hi,

can you perform the finger commando ? What is it reporting ? How are the users connected ? Default network login ? Or some special kind of login ?

Did you reboot the system and tested again ?

I know, if you are logged in with some kind of script, not using the default login prog, the system will not recognize you.

May be a little bit more details is usefull :-)

Regards
malcom

Thanks malcom,

Yes the are users logging in (see "last" output). "finger" said no one logged on ??.

We are using the default network login. The server was rebooted 2 days ago with missing /proc directory. I have to create the /proc directory manually else the "w" command will return an error "/proc missing file or directory ... sometime like that". Now that the /proc is created, "w" command does return any error message other than the "0 users" problem.

---------------------------------
$ last -n 10
informix pts/21 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 15:36 - 15:38 (00:01)
rnd pts/13 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 15:31 - 15:33 (00:02)
rnd pts/6 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 15:29 - 15:33 (00:04)
eir pts/38 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 15:18 - 15:18 (00:00)
eir pts/18 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 15:17 - 15:18 (00:00)
eir pts/5 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 15:17 - 15:18 (00:00)
eir pts/11 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 15:02 - 15:03 (00:00)
rnd pts/36 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 14:46 - 14:48 (00:02)
eir pts/41 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 14:35 - 14:38 (00:02)
informix pts/12 192.xx.x.xxx Thu Oct 16 14:33 - 14:38 (00:04)

$ finger
No one logged on

$ finger rnd
Login name: rnd In real life: RND Staff Only
Directory: /export/home/rnd Shell: /bin/sh
Last login Thu Oct 16 15:31 on pts/13 from 192.168.1.144
No unread mail
No Plan.

$ w
3:47pm up 2 day(s), 22:01, 0 users, load average: 1.00, 0.93, 0.91
User tty login@ idle JCPU PCPU what
-----------------------------

Regards

Hi,

What you are showing now with "last -n 10" is that lot's of users were logged in, but now anymore. It displays starting-time and time of logout. between the "(" it shows the total time they have been logged in, only a couple of minutes, so therefor you can only make a good example of it when someone really is logged in.
If one is "last -n 10" displays (still logged in) and of course no time of logout.

Example:
g1161d ftp server1 Thu Oct 16 10:00 still logged in
g1161d ftp server1 Thu Oct 16 09:47 - 09:47 (00:00)
sys007 pts/tc server1 Thu Oct 16 08:30 still logged in

Note that "w" and "who" are have different output. Perderabo made a very interesting remark about it once, but I can't find it anymore

Anyway, hope to have been of any help.


Regs David

Depending on your release, who reads either /var/adm/utmp or /var/adm/utmpx. Which ever it is, it must exist and be world readable. If /proc was missing, maybe /var/adm was also trashed?

wtmp or utmp may have the wrong permissions, or may be corrupted. telnetd has been known to cause corruption issues.

Try this at your own risk:

With no users on your system, take backup copies of wtmp and utmp. Delete wtmp and utmp. Then try logging on a few sessions and see if the output is correct. Make sure the files have been re-created at this point. If not, some unix flavors require you to do a touch and recreate the files.

fyi,

it used to be a hack back in the day to erase your login from the mentioned files so you can "ghost" around in the system.