Bad disk or bad motherboard?

[Linda Card]

I just got word that one of our remote machines
in Hawaii (HP C3600 running HP-UX 10.20) will not boot.
I'm hearing that it won't boot down to Single
User Mode either which makes it hard to reload.

The error that the site's admin is telling me is:
IPL ‘error: bad LIS magic: not a valid LIS volume'

Does this sound like a bad disk to you? If
they can't even get it to boot to Single User,
maybe the machine (and the disk) need to be
replaced....

Any ideas?

[Peter Godron · Accepted solution]

Linda,
this thread may be of interest:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=242218

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Linda,

Normally, "Bad Lif" IS a disk problem.
If it was a motherboard, you wouldn't even get that far.

Rgds,
Jeff

[Patrick Wallek]

Yes, it does sound like a bad disk.

The error you mention means that the machine can not find the LIF file on the disk, which it needs to boot. This would effect going to single-user mode as well.

If you replace the disk, you should be able to interrupt the boot and get to the IPL menu which would allow you to boot from CD/DVD, tape or network.

[Geoff Wild]

I think that means that on a panic, it went to the wrong place and corrupted your boot disk...

You will have to boot off of a CD or make_tape_recovery

Rgds...Geoff

[Jeff Schussele]

I should have added that *now's* a great time to bring that workstation up to the 21st century and put a proper OS on it.
10.20 has been out of support for quite some time.
Reload it with 11.11 & you'll sleep better at night :~))

My $0.02,
Jeff

[Linda Card]

Jeff,
While I agree that the OS is showing its
age, the government gets to make those
decisions for me.

Geoff,
I am having the site try booting from 4mm'
tape to rebuild. Yes, 4mm tape - no CD-ROM on these old dinosaurs.

I appreciate your advice, as always. I will let the forum know the outcome and assign my points when this is resolved.
Linda

[Peter Godron]

Linda,
have you had any luck with this?

[Linda Card]

Hi all,
Yes, I just got word that the reload worked.
All is well. Thanks so much for the help.
I will assign points before closing thread.
Linda

[Linda Card]

Thanks for all the help. I can always count
on this forum to be responsive. Maybe you
guys could teach Sun how to run an online
resource.