Booting in single user mode

[Tony Williams]

I am trying to boot a N4000 server HP-UX 11.11 in single user mode, but it keeps starting with level 3 (Multi user mode). The system is configured with only / and stand (not the standard file systems) do you think this configuration would cause it not to boot in single user mode?

[Patrick Wallek]

How are you trying to get to single user mode?

The procedure to use is:

Reboot the machine.

Watch at the console for it to prompt 'To dicsontinue, press any key within 10 seconds'

At that point hit the space bar.

At the 'Main Menu: Enter Command >' prompt type 'bo pri' and hit return

When asked 'Interact with IPL (Y,N,Q)?>' enter Y

At the 'ISL>' prompt type in 'hpux -is'

This should get you to single-user mode.

Even with only / and /stand, you should be able to get to single-user mode. While in single-user mode you will only have / and /stand available. If you want other file systems mounted you do have to mount them manually.

[Kelli Ward]

Interesting,
in order to boot single user, you will need to issue the command:
hpux -is /stand/vmunix
at the ISL> prompt. If you are already doing so and it it still going up i3, there could be an issue.
After booting, you may need to issue the command:
mount -a
to bring up the rest of the file system.
If this command fails there may be an issue with /etc/fstab and/or /etc/mnttab

Check them out.
Good luck to you,
Kel

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Tony,

Try this,

http://us-support2.external.hp.com/cki/bin/doc.pl/sid=f171e1df0b23a64f32/screen=ckiDisplayDocument?docId=200000058670473

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Chris Vail]

The first question I have is "why only those
filesystems?". Without /var and /usr, you
only have those binaries that are in /bin and /sbin.

Also, did you answer "y" to the "Interact with IPL?" question? If you did, and it still went to init 3, then indeed you have a problem.

Were I you, I'd start with a more traditional
configuration of the system (with the /var and /usr filesystems) and try again.


Good luck
Chris

[harry d brown jr]

You can have just / and /stand, it's not illegal, just not logical.

Anyways, you need to describe exactly how you are booting or what you are doing when you say you are booting into single user mode.

live free or die
harry

[Tony Williams]

Patrick,

I did hpux -is on ISL> though when I did who -r shows i 3 (the same when I chacked inittab), I couldn't telnet or ping the machine. Any idea?

[Helen French]

Hi Tony,

You need to check the messages while booting the server. After u enter 'hpux -is' at the ISL prompt, while booting you will get a message like this " Over riding init level ; Booting in Single User mode".


Check for all messages during startup. Also 'init s' command will take you to single user mode.

HTH,
Shiju

[Patrick Wallek]

Part of your problem, I think, is that the output of 'who -r' in single-user mode is flawed. I just brought up one of my test machines in single-user mode, mounted all directories so that I have access to /usr (where 'who' is located) and it tells me that I'm in run-level 3. I KNOW that is not correct.

Try the following:

# echo $INIT_STATE
s

If it comes back with a lower case 's' then you are indeed in single-user mode.

Another way to check is to see if there are any of the 'multi-user' processes running, ie. anything that is started in run-level 2 or 3. The fact that you are not able to get to the machine over the network is a pretty good indication that you probably are actually in single-user mode. The 'who -r' command is just lying to you.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Tony:

I think your problem is that because /var is not mounted, the who command can't access /etc/wtmp which is a sybolic link to /var/adm/wtmp and thus the who -r results are bogus.

[Peter Kloetgen]

Hi Tony,

you could try to change the /etc/inittab- file, put out the 3 in the line "initdefault". then do a reboot, your system will ask you in which runlevel you want to boot. Then enter a "s" and you will be in the single user mode.

I agree with Clay, the output of "who -r" must be nonsense, cause the /var/adm/wtmp is not available and that is the file which is read by who and some more commands.


Allways stay on the bright side of life!

Peter

[K.Vijayaragavan.]

Hi,

You may use the command "getrunlvl" instead of "who -r"
for a change?
-Vijay