SUMMARY: Pb with boot

Alberto Ferrari (ferraria@mz.astra.com.ar)
Wed, 02 Apr 1997 21:25:44 -0300

<Sorry for the delay - this message was bouncing around a while because
of bad bulk address>

Dear Friends:
I asked you about the following problem

> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 11:40:31 -0300
> I' m having problem with one (remote) SUN (SunOS 4.1.3) I support. The
> local Sysad changed /etc/hosts
> localhost 127.0.0.1
> to
> localhost 127.0.0.2
>
> The result is the machine does boot, but the following message appears
ad infinitum:
> rpc.lock: cannot contact status monitor
>
> It finally reaches the login prompt, but (apparently) dies shortly after - no
> way to login in.
>
> We succesfully boot from SunOS CD and get into single-user shell, but
> found no way to "mount" /dev/sd0a and correct /etc/hosts
> Any help will be greatly appreciated
> Thank you
> Alberto Ferrari

Thanks a lot to all who answered. Here's the synthesis:

ANALYSIS:
>>>Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services
<Glenn.Satchell@Uniq.com.au>
>>>Marc S. Gibian <gibian@stars1.hanscom.af.mil>
Yes, Localhost must be defined as 127.0.0.1 on all systems.

>>>Daniel Baker <dbaker@hobbes.cuckoo.com>
No, I had no copy of fstab. Now I have.
>>>John Reynolds <reynolds@acetsw.amat.com>
Yes, the local sysad wiped out the standard loopback address.
That's defined in the TCP/IP protocols, and all the utilities that monitor the
network on the local system will use it.

ALTERNATIVES:
>>>Stephen Harris <sweh@mpn.com>
>>>Ira Childress <irac@nis.comdata.com>
>>>Robin Marquis <rmarquis@ordsvy.gov.uk>
"boot -sw cdrom" or "boot (0,6,2) -sw" to make the CD "pseudo writeable"
(this allows the swap area which the kernel boots into to be writable.
when in shell) and so "mount /dev/sd0a /a" (/a being the mount point).

from prom mode
OR "boot -s" to bring it up in the single user mode with all the filesystems
intact
<<THIS IS THE ONE WE DID AND WORKED!!!!>>

>>>Margaret Shinkle <marge@meitca.com>
I suppose as a drastic measure, you could change the
scsi id on the drive and temporarily install it on another,
bootable workstation. There you can mount the drive and
correct the file on the other workstation. Long way of doing it, but it should
work.

I thought you *should* be able to mount the drive when booting
from the CD rom. Does it lack the mount command? have you
tried mounting it and specifying that it should mount rw?
Sorry, it's been ages since I've booted 4.1.3 from CDROM.
I do recall that I did this once and had to use sed instead
of vi, but I don't recall any other details.

Another option is to boot your machine using the new LINUX
for SUN hardware. A small linux kernel can fit on a floppy..
enough to get to your hard drive also.

These are equivalent:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>Mark A. Baldwin (mark.baldwin@aur.alcatel.com)
>>>Tim Carlson <tim@santafe.edu>
boot off CD,
mkdir /mnt
/etc/mount /dev/sd0a /mnt (maybe need an fsck /dev/sd0a first)
cd /mnt/etc
mv hosts hosts.old
echo 127.0.0.1 localhost > hosts
/etc/umount /mnt
reboot.
>>>Sophia Sameera Corsava <106625.3502@compuserve.com>
1) mount -F ufs /dev/xxxx /tmp
cd /tmp/etc
I restored from tap. You can try to change the hosts file with vi.

Another way :
mount /dev/rroot /root or /tmp depending on the configuration of your
system.

>>>Gary Richardson <gpr@agile.com>
If you're running SunOS (and not Solaris) you should be able to get
into the CD shell. Here's what I'd do:

- boot from CD. Install miniroot and reboot using the "just installed miniroot".

- One you get the # prompt, do these commands:

mkdir /mnt
mount /dev/sd0a /mnt

- That should mount / onto /mnt.

- cd to /mnt/etc and vi the hosts file. It might not know the terminal
type so you'll have to suffer thru it's bogus line by line mode. But
it should be enough to allow you to change the localhost entry.

Why you couldn't mount / before is a mystery. My only thought would be
when you booted from the CD it gives you a list of options (not exact):

1. Run Format
2. Install miniroot
3. Exit to shell

If you exited to shell I can see how the mount won't work. You need to
install the miniroot and reboot to that before you can do things such
as mounting filesystems.