UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

When i try to boot my solaris 2.6 E220R server, i get this error message

> INIT: cannot create /var/adm/utmp or /var/adm/utmpx
>INIT: failed write of utmpx entry:" "
>INIT: failed write of utmpx entry:" "
INIT Single User Mode
Press Ctrl-d for normal boot process or enter roots password for system maintenance.

Now when i do either of the last sentence above, nothing happens, it appears to hang.

I used the solaris cd to boot to single user mode using
boot cdrom -s
with the intention of running fsck on the /var files system where the utmpx file recides. But when it boots to root prompt-single user mode with cd , i am unable to type successfully. Any letter i type just keeps running on , repeating it self like;
fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffssssssssssssssssssssssssscccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkk........etc.

Please how do i get out of this mess? I really need a quick response, it's my mail system.

As far as your booting problem, it's a documented problem -

Installing Solaris 2.5.1 11/97 or Solaris 2.6 5/98 on Ultra 5, 10, 60, 80 or E220r and E420r
with 440 or 450 Mhz CPUs, whether interactively using a CDROM or doing a
jumpstart install will fail with the message "hme0 - link down".
[B]Another failure symptom is multiple keyboard input repeats, or repeating keystrokes[\B]
.
To prevent this, the Operating Environment Installation CD p/n 704-6914-10 (Sept 99) or
704-7076-10 (Feb 2000) must be used. Complete procedures are documented in
the manual(s) 804-6657-11(Sept 99) or 806-4005-10 (Feb 2000)
"Installing Solaris 2.5.1 or Solaris 2.6 Software on 419+ MHz Systems" or
"Installing Solaris Software for Selected Hardware"

Look for the OECD and documentation in the shrink wrapped packet
that says "Binary Code License" or inside front cover of
"Installing Solaris Software for Selected Hardware" manual.

See SunSolve boot cdrom keystroke repeats for more information.

As far as your /var/adm problem, once you do get to single user mode (from cdrom - since it is complaining that it cannot create or write to the file, it means you will never log in by booting from the disk), check the permissions on the directory and on the file, if it exist.

$ ls -ld /var/adm
drwxrwxr-x 6 root sys 512 Aug 11 03:10 /var/adm
$ ls -l /var/adm/u*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 828 Aug 11 19:57 /var/adm/utmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 8556 Aug 11
19:57 /var/adm/utmpx

(Reminder - you will be mounting your var partition on /mnt or /a - change your command accordingly)

Sorry, i made a mistake, its solaris 7 not 2.6.
I did boot to single user mode with the cd and i did run fsck, fixed errors, mounted the /var partition on /a, rm the utmpx, utmp, wtmpx, wtmp files, touched them and gave the default group and owner permissions. Then i restarted with init 6 ( after umount /a) but when it was booting i noticed an error message; "cannot sync file systems.....give up.....rebooting" and then i end up in square one.

Please what could be the problem? ....i think i have tried everything.


Lealyz

In your reply u gave this ;

$ ls -l /var/adm/u*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 828 Aug 11 19:57 /var/adm/utmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 8556 Aug 11
19:57 /var/adm/utmpx


On my system, after "bin" i have 0 for both utmpx and utmp ( not 8556 and 828) . What is the implication of these numbers? and what effect could it have on file performance?

lealyz.

Those numbers are the size of the file.

Since this is a mailserver, do you have /var/spool/mqueue as a separate partition? If not, it could be that your /var partition is full and that is why you can't write to it.

http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/retr...%20solaris%207

Take a look at the link above. But that apart, i do have large /var/spool/mailbox directory but when i do df -k, i still appear to have quite a lot of space . BUt i am cleaning out my mailbox directory nevertheless.

Could this problem really affect the performance of this server in this manner, and if soo why?

lealyz