topic Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood in Operating System - HP-UX

My Forthcoming Sainthood

Pete Randall — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:56:11 GMT

How do I get roped into these things? (Memo to self: consider not posting your contact info in your profile). I was contacted by one Richard Satterwhite, who purports to work for HP in software support for HPOVCM (previously know as Radia). He's studying for the CSA exam and purchased a used machine that he can't login to after boot. Being the (stupid) nice guy that I am, I'm going to try to help him out, with your help. Be thankful I didn't just forward him a list of email addresses - I've collected quite a few!!

Here's what he sent to me:

==========quote==========

"I am contacting you be email because the IT Resource Center Forum is down, - and when it's up, I can't get into it due to a password problem. My question involves HP Systems Administration.

I recently purchased a used HP UNIX box. It came with HP-UX, but, unfortunately, no password for login. I am attempting to get on using the single-user signon, and it goes through the process to a prompt, but the keyboard locks.

I would try to install a new version of HP-UX, but all they sent me was DVD-format, and I only have a CD reader.

Any thoughts on how I can get into this machine, or what may be happening?"

==========quote==========

I've already asked for details of the hardware involved and suggested trying a blank password. What additional suggestions do you folks have?

Pete

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Robert-Jan Goossens — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:12:03 GMT

Hi Pete LOL...

does he have a laptop?

Connect a null modem serial cable from a Windows machine to the hp-ux system.
Start HyperTerminal with the following settings:
â ¢ Baud rate: 9600
â ¢ Data bits: 8
â ¢ Parity: none
â ¢ Stop bits: 1
â ¢ flow control: none

power off system, power on system - interrupt boot and boot into single user mode.

Best regards,
RJ

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Pete Randall — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:15:38 GMT

I'll have to get back to you, RJ. Hopefully the hardware details are, like my sainthood, forthcoming!

Pete

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Torsten. — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:15:45 GMT

Do you operate your own (mail) support now?

;-)

I guess with his contacts to HP and perhaps access to the internal network it should not be a problem to get the CD version of HP-UX 11.11 or at least ISO images.

As you said before, to suggest something about the "keyboard locks" problem you need to know something more about the hardware.

But using a PC together with putty (I like this tool) as a serial console will probably solve this too (even for a workstation).

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Pete Randall — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:19:47 GMT

Thanks, Torsten. Once again, I'll get back to you.

Rest assured, folks, points will be forthcoming, but I need feedback from the questioner (Richard) as well as you.

Pete

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Michael Steele_2 — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:22:34 GMT

Caveat emptor

Under the doctrine of caveat emptor, the buyer could not recover from the seller for defects on the property that rendered the property unfit for ordinary purposes. The only exception was if the seller actively concealed latent defects. The modern trend in the US, however, is one of the Implied Warranty of Fitness . . .

Duh is the only thing that comes to mind

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Pete Randall — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:27:48 GMT

Michael,

That's two chuckles you've given me in one day - thanks!

OK - latest dispatch:

==========quote==========

The machine is a B2000 Visualize box, and I have a serial connection for a monitor. The keyboard works fine up until the command prompt. It does give me an error (I can't remember what it was), but it comes back with a prompt and then locks me out.

==========quote==========

I asked for details on the actual monitor and error message.

Pete

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Pete Randall — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:40:20 GMT

Ok, Richard is several hundred miles away from the machine in question right now, so he will get us more details over the weekend and I'll report back on Monday.

Thanks for your help so far!

Pete

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

TwoProc — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:42:37 GMT

St. Randall,

If a new version is desired to upgrade to, why not ask the guy to find a used DVD reader for that? There's loads of used hardware dealers around, shouldn't be too hard to find a part for that box. If you need a list of used part dealers, I can provide, it's just that I hate posting that stuff unless necessary.

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Tim Nelson — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:44:32 GMT

This is like forum by proxy, too funny.

Saint Pete to the rescue !!

( LOL )

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Dave Hutton — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:51:55 GMT

Pete, mind asking my boss for a raise?

Thanks in advance.

Dave

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

MarkSyder — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:52:04 GMT

St Peter? So when the time comes, will I meet you at the Pearly Gates?

I'll try to come up with a more productive answer than that - all that comes to mind so far is trying a different USB keyboard, but as the keyboard works up to a point it seems unlikely to be at fault.

Mark

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Torsten. — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:59:04 GMT

It's basically the same as my earlier suggestion, but this is a quote from the manual:

"In the event that your console stops displaying to your graphics device, use the following
procedure to set the console for displaying to an external terminal.
1. Turn the workstation power off.
2. Disconnect the USB keyboard connector from the rear panel.
3. Connect a serial terminal emulator to the Serial 1 connector (the left serial connector)
on the system rear panel. Configure the terminal for: 9600 baud, No Stop Bits, No
Parity, and 8 Bits.
4. Power on the system. The system will now display the console to the terminal connected
to Serial 1 port. Note that you can use a 9-pin to 9-pin serial cable (HP Part Number
F1044-80002) to connect an HP Omnibook serial port to the workstation."

With a serial console he should be able to run passwd.

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Geoff Wild — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:00:48 GMT

Saint Peter,

DVD is not supported on a B2000 - IE - you can't buy one that will work...

I used to have a B2000 - but no longer...

B2000 won't run anything past 11.23...

Best to "borrow" 11.23 cd's from someone and do an install.

Keyboard locking sends up a red flag though - could be something hardware related...

Rgds...Geoff

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Paul Cross_1 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:45:21 GMT

A few years back, I bought an old A180 that had an OS on it when it arrived. I was extremely curious about what the machine was used for in its previous life, so I needed to obtain the root passwd. If I recall, I burned a copy of the Debian HPPA installer disk and was able to break out of the installer down to a shell and mounted the HPUX disk (full volume partition if I remember). I simply removed the passwd entry in the passwd file.

Oldest trick in the book, but it worked. Turned out the machine had been used as a DNS master for the uspto.gov domain. Apparently not all government departments have to wipe their disks before disposal!

This solution assumes a healthy console. The A180 had one of those 1st gen web consoles, crappy but it worked.

-p

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

TTr — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:20:26 GMT

I use several B & C visualize workstations as servers without keyboards/mice/graphics monitors.

Attaching a standard HP serial console will switch the console from graphics to serial during boot-up. It even displays so at the front LCD display.

One caveat: With older firmware one of them would NOT boot up unless I attached a mouse to it. It did not complain about the keyboard nor about the graphics, only the mouse !!!. So because I could not upgrade the fw at the time I left the mouse attached sitting on the top of it.

Once installed, they will boot up and come up without the console being connected.

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Pete Randall — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:06:50 GMT

OK, here's the latest information from Richard:

==========quote==========
I still canâ t reply to the forum, so Iâ ll email you what I am doing.

I have a HP flat screen monitor that I am using, and a standard keyboard.

I turn the machine on and interrupt the boot process. It goes to the main menu and I type in BOOT PRI. It then asks me if I want to interact with IPL and I reply Y.
At this point, both the monitor and keyboard are responding fine. If I enter another command such as CONSOLE, it takes the request and comes back to me.

The IPL screen comes up and I type hpux â is. The messages tell me that I am in Single User Mode, and that I am Superuser.

I get the standard messages (HP and copyright messages). Then the next message that comes up after WARNING! You are Super-User!! is:

.profile[150]: hostname: not found
#

At this point the keyboard is locked out, but I can still see the screen. I canâ t do anything but turn the machine off and back on.

I have CDâ s of 11i Version 1, but I can place the first CD in and it doesnâ t read it. I am working with my son now (Hardware person) to check and see why itâ s not recognizing the CD.
==========quote==========

I'm advising the laptop and null modem approach, unless anyone else has a better solution.

Pete

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Dave Hutton — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:32:27 GMT

.profile[150]: hostname: not found

Being that error happens in the login process. Any chance the .profile for root is messed up? Messed up to the point where setting up the tty or trap functions are causing this odd keyboard lockup?

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Torsten. — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:38:26 GMT

No need to worry about the profile. I guess it is set up to include the hostname into the prompt, but in single user mode there is nothing else set ...

Proxy Pete, you are the expert regarding terminals - how about the "remote" mode?

At this point I would consider to use the PC as a terminal, would you agree?

Re: My Forthcoming Sainthood

Pete Randall — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:42:41 GMT

I'm also inclined to disregard the profile and the hostname error returned from it. I think the best chance at this point is the "pc as terminal" solution, or "laptop/null modem cabel".

We'll see.

Pete

Thanks for playing along guys - you will be rewarded.