topic Not able to login in Operating System - HP-UX

Not able to login

Ramaprasad K — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:51:08 GMT

Hi all,

I have a B1000 workstation, with HP-UX 11.0 on it. It has been idle for 2 long years without anyone logging in and so no one knows root password.

Pl find attached a doc. which I captured while working using Hyper Terminal. In the doc. I tried to change the ROOT password from single user mode as I didn't know it. After succesfully changing, its stilll not logging in. And at the end of doc. I get some warning "No utmp entry.You must exec "login" from the lowest level "sh".". what does this mean.

What I should do now? Suggest me to login into system after analyzing the attached doc.

The serial no is: US19401620. Prod no: A4985A ( as seen at the rear of the system). Is the serial no. a valid one.

Thanks in advance
Ramaprasad K

Re: Not able to login

Matti_Kurkela — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:20:50 GMT

When booting to single user mode, your first command should be "mountall" - otherwise the root filesystem is going to be in read-only mode (for root filesystem checking and other maintenance), and any password changes won't be recorded.

The messages "mount: file system table may be corrupt" are a consequence of this. When mounting a filesystem, the mount command wants to write to /etc/mtab - but if the root filesystem is in read-only mode, it cannot do that. It tries to write, and then finds out the writing failed. So it produces the error message.

You're not supposed to use the "login" command in single user mode. Because the utmp file (it records current logins) is not initialized in single user mode, you get the "No utmp entry..." message.

Based on these messages, your /etc/profile file has some errors:

/etc/profile[130]: f: not found.
/etc/profile[131]: Syntax error: `then' is not expected.

I guess there should be "if" instead of just "f" on line 130 of /etc/profile. Fixing that would solve the second message too (the system is seeing "then" without a matching "if").

When booting to normal multi-user mode, there seems to be a problem in starting the graphical X display server. The system is telling you where to look:

The X-server can not be started on display CAD35:0...

For details look into the file, Dtlogin.errorLogFile( default: /var/dt/Xerrors )

Recommendation:
1.) boot into single user mode
2.) run "mountall"
3.) run "passwd root" to change the root password (as the "mountall" command has been run, the change will actually be effective this time!)
4.) run "shutdown -r now" to reboot the system, let it come up to normal mode
5.) now you should be able to log in as root
6.) start examining and fixing the other problems...

MK

Re: Not able to login

Robert-Jan Goossens — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:47:30 GMT

Hi just a very small add on, use below when you are in single user mode.

# /sbin/mountall

change the root passwd and reboot

# /sbin/shutdown -r now

when you are in multi user mode post the output of;

# dr_dt
# nslookup your_hostname
# nslookup your_ip_address

Regards,
Robert-Jan

Re: Not able to login

Ramaprasad K — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:19:42 GMT

Thanks Matti and Robert,

But the problem hasn't resolved yet.Attached is the file what I tried after I got reply from Matti.But the problem still persists.

1) >/etc/profile[130]: f: not found.
>/etc/profile[131]: Syntax error: `then' is >not expected.

>I guess there should be "if" instead of just "f" on line 130 of /etc/profile

I corrected it by editing.

2) After that I mounted all and saw output of bdf shown below(taken from attached file, just above it is /etc/fstab entry), all local filesystems were mounted.

# bdf
Filesystem kbytes used avail %used Mounted on
/dev/vg00/lvol3 1024000 993054 29165 97% /
/dev/vg00/lvol1 83733 36845 38514 49% /stand
/dev/vg00/lvol4 512000 268337 231607 54% /var
/dev/vg00/lvol5 6234112 6136033 97895 98% /ford

Then I changed the root password, but still in the multi-user mode, the status is the same.

The issue is not resloved completely.

From bdf, it seems that root (/) is 97% full, and /ford is 98% full. Is it some reason. I have also run 'du / -kax'. pl check and suggest, if deleting any would help.

For your information, I have collected syslog ( in the attached file).

Those places where i felt I have some suspection, I have commented beginning ++++++++++ ( u can search in the file for the string of '+' so u get it easily).

Some of the services have failed (in the end of the file). Can u suggest, what could be the reason.

Regards
Ramaprasad k

Re: Not able to login

Matti_Kurkela — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:20:40 GMT

When you're in single-user mode, the workstation keyboard is probably functioning in US layout. Before setting the new password, type it out to verify that all the keys are producing the characters you expect.

Also, the characters @ and # will have special effects in the single-user mode, so it's not recommended to use them in a root password.

The filesystem layout seems to be non-standard in this machine:

# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/vg00/lvol3 / vxfs delaylog 0 1
/dev/vg00/lvol1 /stand hfs defaults 0 1
/dev/vg00/lvol4 /var vxfs delaylog 0 2
/dev/vg00/lvol5 /ford vxfs delaylog 0 2

You were also worried about these messages:

vxfs: mesg 055: vx_metaioerr - /dev/vg00/lvol5 file system meta data read error
vxfs: mesg 016: vx_ilisterr - /ford file system error reading inode 4434

This is a problem. The /ford filesystem (also known as /dev/vg00/lvol5) has developed an error. If the machine has been idle for 2 years (and before that in use for who knows how long), the increased activity now is causing any possible weak spots to fail now. In other words, the disk may be about to die soon.

You should make it your top priority to get a copy of all necessary data off this machine to a reliable storage.

MK

Re: Not able to login

Ramaprasad K — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:18:59 GMT

Thanks again Matti,

>When you're in single-user mode, the >workstation keyboard is probably >functioning in US layout. Before setting >the new password, type it out to verify >that all the keys are producing the >characters you expect.

I checked the Keyboard and its sending same keys what I expect. So that probability is ruled out.

>Also, the characters @ and # will have >special effects in the single-user mode, so >it's not recommended to use them in a root >password.

I am aware of the above rules and so have been using the standard 'root123' for all users(infact only 2), including root.

>The filesystem layout seems to be non->standard in this machine:

1)What do you mean by this? What is the expected FS layout.

2)Also, can anyone give me a sample Serial number of a B1000 workstaion. I am not sure whether what I a seeing on the box is valid one : US19401620 but the prod. no. is valid.

Regards,
Ramaprasad