rx4640 EFI "Could not boot maintenace mode"

[Dave Verdon]

Hi, and welcome to the new forum.  I believe this was answered in the old IYRC forum, but, SURPRISE!  Can't find it.  So, I'll ask for the redundant solution.

I have an rx4640 that runs HP-UP 11iv2.  I'm trying to boot via the primary disk and am unable to.  I get the following message:

AUTO BOOT> boot vmunix -lq

Could not boot maintenance mode

If I issue the following command after that:

AUTO BOOT> boot

it just sits there and (if I remember correctly) dumps.

How can I get out of maintenance mode?  Is there a flag set somewhere that I am overlooking?

Thanks very much in advance for the help!

Dave

[Torsten. · Accepted solution]

>> How can I get out of maintenance mode?

You are not in that mode.
The boot area is probably damaged and need to be repaired (use recovery shell from install DVD).

[Robert_Jewell]

LVM Maintenance Mode is accessed by running boot -lm  (not -lq), so the error is strange.

If you allow the autoboot to continue do you receive the same error message? 

Since you can access the HPUX> menu you have some means of of a boot loader installed on that disk.  Run the following to see what you see:

 HPUX> ll  (ell, ell)

You should a listing of your /stand filesystem with attributes.  Something like this:

dr-xr-xr-x   9 bin         bin            8192 May 24 15:34 ./
dr-xr-xr-x   9 bin         bin            8192 May 24 15:34 ../
drwxr-xr-x   5 root        sys            8192 May 18  2010 backup/
dr-xr-xr-x   3 bin         bin              96 May 18  2010 boot.sys/
-rw-r--r--   1 root        sys              21 May 18  2010 bootconf
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root        root             14 May 24 15:34 bootfs@ -> current/bootfs
drwxr-xr-x   5 root        root           8192 Jul 29  2010 crashconfig/
drwxr-xr-x   5 root        sys            8192 May 18  2010 current/
-rw-rw-rw-   1 root        sys            4428 May 24 20:07 ioconfig
-r--r--r--   1 root        sys              82 May 18  2010 kernrel
drwxr-xr-x   2 root        sys              96 May 24 20:06 krs/
drwxr-xr-x   5 root        sys            8192 May 18  2010 last_install/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root        root             96 May 18  2010 lost+found/
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root        root              7 May 24 15:34 nextboot@ -> current
-rw-------   1 root        root             12 May 24 15:33 rootconf
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root        root             15 May 24 15:34 system@ -> nextboot/system
-r--r--r--   1 root        sys            2611 May 18  2010 system.import
-rw-r--r--   1 root        sys            3553 May 18  2010 system.prev
-rwxr-xr-x   3 root        sys        65017104 May 18  2010 vmunix*

Also try:

HPUX> showauto

This tells you what the default boot 'string' is.  For example:

\EFI\HPUX\AUTO => boot vmunix

I might also confirm that you are booting to the correct disk.

-Bob

[Dave Verdon]

Thanks, Robert and Torsten.

 I tried to do the ll and it just hangs, so I think Torsten is correct in the assumption that the boot area is damaged.  I will use the Recovery Shell from the DVD to rebuild it.

I was thinking that it was a setting in the EFI where I was getting into maintenance mode, but it is actually with the LVM Manager, so I was actually outside the EFI.

Thanks for your help.  I should be able to muddle through the repair, otherwise you may hear from me again!

Dave

[Torsten.]

The prompt you currently see

AUTO BOOT>

is the prompt of the boot loader hpux.efi.

From here the system will read the AUTO file and load the kernel.

If you have a problem with either the AUTO(start) file or the kernel (vmunix inside /stand), the system will stay at this prompt (with an error message).

[Dave Verdon]

Yeah, you are right.  The prompt just hangs, so I do believe there is a disk problem.  I'm running the Recovery shell now.  I think I may just un-mirror a disk from a partner server, put it in this machine and re-configure it to be the new machine.

I'm going to play around with the recovery shell for a little bit, as it's all good practice for when a real event happens.

Thanks for your help Torsten.

[Torsten.]

Take care, if you "unmirror" a set of disk, the "unmirrored" disk will not have any data anymore.