UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

-Here's the funny thing -
I have an old HPUX1020 D270 also known as "grandfather"
Everything was all right until today...
The users began to work as usual.
Suddenly The server "kicked" out the users, and when trying to login back - The server returned with 2 different error mesgs:
one is that the "there is no empty /etc/utmp file". The second is that "cannot access /dev/root"
The wired thing is that The system didn't accept any login, including the root's.
I restarted the server and it solved the problem.
When checking the rc.log This is the freaky massages:
(This is only a part of the log)

Thank you !!

soory - I forgot to put the Logisplay date


Output from "/sbin/rc1.d/S420set_date start":
----------------------------
"/sbin/rc1.d/S420set_date start" SKIPPED

Copy processor logs to /var/tombstones
Output from "/sbin/rc1.d/S430pdcinfo start":
----------------------------
pdcinfo: The host machine is not supported by this program.
ERROR: pdcinfo returned error status=255
"/sbin/rc1.d/S430pdcinfo start" FAILED

Save system core image if needed
Output from "/sbin/rc1.d/S440savecore start":
----------------------------
EXIT CODE: 2 - savecore found no core dump to save
"/sbin/rc1.d/S440savecore start" SKIPPED

Enable auxiliary swap space
Output from "/sbin/rc1.d/S500swap_start start":
----------------------------
Enabling device paging on /dev/vg00/lvol9.
swap device(s) active

Have you checked the amount of free space on the / partition? The reason it might be working once you reboot it because on startup, many HP-UX systems will clean out tmp and other directories. I am very new to HP-UX administration, although I just got my hands on an old workstation running 10.20, and had a similar problem when I accidentally performed a runaway search that was dumping output to a file in /tmp... I filled up my root partition and bad things started to happen.

Also, did someone change permissions anywhere in the root directory? When I inherited this workstation, I pounded my head against the wall trying to figure out why non-root users couldn't log in... until I finally stopped looking at file permissions and checked the permissions of the / dir...

Also, I am not familiar with tombstones, but if you need them to, a HP CE/SE should be able to diagnose the problem... Also check syslog.log...

Just saw this little trick at the ITRC at HP's website:
Check out: http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/FamilyHome/1,,117,00.html for lots of Q&A for HP-UX.

It Happened again today.
This time the system didn't crash - It just created a core file (37 mb ) which captivated 40% of the root.
I called HP. and run this "ps -ef" thing you talked about,
I'll inform you later
Thanks

The Permissions on "/" looks ok.
What's on /dev/root?
is says in the syslog "vx-nospaces on /dev/root"
The root is in 66%
/tmp is in 4%

I'm trying to run nickel but it won't say anything.
I'm probably missing something crucial...
Any ideas?

Hmm... try the command: bdf -i
Can you paste the output back here? I wonder if you're out of i-nodes...