cannot boot into single user mode

[Mark Vollmers]

We are having a problem with our server (D-class 9000, running 10.20). I went to shut it down the other day using the "shutdown -r" command so it would restart itself. It halted the shutdown process halfway through and kicked me out, so I had to flip the power switch. it seemed to boot up fine when I turned it back on. When I went to shut it down and boot into single user mode to run fsck (using "shutdown" at the / folder), it got as far as
-transition to run level 0 is complete
-wait for transition to run level S
and then the screen at our dumb terminal went to gibberish and the system froze. The display on the server reads
run F01F
HP D280 CPU0
We shut it off and interrupted the boot process to go to single user mode that way, but it froze on reboot. However, if we use the "shutdown -h" command, it will shut down just fine and restart fine after we power it back up. Go figure. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Dan Hetzel · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark,

Did you ever try with the 'init s' command?
Does this one hang the same way?

Dan

[Mark Vollmers]

Dan-

No, we havn't tried that the init s command. We have only used the shutdown and interrupted the boot process (when it says press a key in 10 seconds) and then typed
boot pri isl
and then
hpux -is
at the ISL prompt.

do you use the init command when the server is fully up and running?

[Alex Glennie]

"run f01f" is suggesting block mode is enabled when it should be disabled, and that could be hanging the console i guess ?

To correct this, do the following:

1. On the console terminal, go into user system setup.

2. Make sure remote mode is on (enabled) and block mode is off (disabled).

[Curtis Larson]

well the message on the display:
run -- the system is running the operating system

FxnF -- x = the number of process runing at that instance. It's an instantaneous reading, not an average. Loads > 9 are displayed as A.

n = the number of processors

now the gibberish and the termial locking up when going to single user mode might be caused by something in the login process (/etc/profile, /.profile, maybe others) that is wanting to access something that isn't available in single user mode (anything in /usr) and this is causing your termial to be incorrectly setup. just a guess.

So have you changed files in the login process since the last time you booted into single user?

[James R. Ferguson]

Mark:

The "RUN F01F" is a normal running state for a D-Class server. "FxnF" is a running system with 'x' is the run queue depth every 5-seconds and 'n' is the number of processors.

My guess is that a kill script is dysfunctional. Have you changed any /sbin/init.d/ scripts recently?

...JRF...

[Mark Vollmers]

I don't think anything was changed since the last time we went to single user mode. The last time, we expanded the logical volume and added a dumb terminal to the server. Since then, we have only been adding stuff to /home.

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Mark,

Check in /sbin/rc0.d if you have any K??? script that could be the culprit.
'init s' is supposed to bring your system safely to single user mode, keeping all your filesystems mounted.

Best regards,

Dan

[James R. Ferguson]

Mark:

Try looking at /etc/rc.log.old for any failures during shutdown.

...JRF...

[Mark Vollmers]

Thanks for you help, everyone. I shut the server down and managed to boot into single-user mode, but I didn't do anyting diferent. The init s gets me there as well. The logs didn't really show anything odd. However, sometimes when I start up, our /home directory is there and sometimes it is empty, or I cannot access it. I really don't know what all is going on. Sounds like I've got issues with the server that I'm gonna have to dig into, though. Anyway, thanks again for the help!