UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Re: jgt, it seems like the backups have been completing fine since the installation of the new drive with the exception of this last one. I do have a password for root. I tried logging in as root and using the 'init 6' command. When I entered the 'tape status' command it looked like everything was okay. Beyond that, we do use <alt><f1> and <alt><f2> often to toggle back and forth between two sessions as we run two companies from the same building here. But I've tried logging in from another session, I've tried rebooting and shutting the system down. Nothing seems to end this process.

Re: hicksd8, I used the 'ps -eaf' command that you listed. The only thing that jumped out at me was one line where the value was 4 (it's 0 for everything else). So is 789 the PID (see attached) and I would enter that in the next command in place of the 'PID'?

It's not possible for me to see whether PID 789 is the correct one because you are not showing the right-hand side of the screen.

Does any process have 'tty01' showing against it? Your first screenshot seems to show this process is communicating with the console terminal.

If you have really rebooted then the process must end then. Nothing is running when the system is down. Perhaps it is restarting at boot time.

Do you have a manual for this backup software?

If you have re-booted the system, the process is no longer running. What is most likely is that there is a lock file that the backup procedure creates in order for no other processes to run until the backup completes.
You have to find this file and delete it.
Step one is to determine the script that the menu initiates to start the backup. With luck the menu is a script and not a compiled program.
Are you prevented from running the both companies?

Just wanted to post an update as I was able to get this resolved over the phone with tech support. What ultimately did the trick was the command prompt #su - <mynormallogin> which, I'm told, was a super user workaround which enabled me to login normally and get to the main menu for my FASPAC program. Once there I was able to run a new backup and that apparently cleared the file that was hanging up the system.

Thanks very much to everyone for your time and help and especially to jgt for offering to help onsite.

Thanks for sharing this!
Here is some information.
In

Code:

ps -eaf

the fourth column is "CPU usage percent".
The "portmapper is not responding" is a system console message. Such a message occurs asynchronously, is not related with your current action. But can be disturbing, so usually you better go to another login screen that is not a system console.
In this case some process on the system (usually an access attempt to NFS, network file system) wants a process "portmap" or "rpcbind" that is not running. You can check that with the "ps -eaf" command, and check its functionality with the "rpcinfo" command.)
But probably this is not important at all, and certainly not relevant for your problem.
Your problem was that you immediately started the backup and that freezes your session. The best thing you can do is wait until the backup is finished and your session continues. Watch the activity light on the tape, and do not interrupt/force-remove the tape!
I guess the backup program puts a /etc/nologin file with a message. Then a user cannot login, and the message is displayed instead. At the end the backup program deletes the /etc/nologin.
If interrupted the /etc/nologin remains.
A # su - userlogin is a good trick - it ignores the /etc/nologin.
Also a # rm /etc/login would have worked.
See this web page.