A kind soul sent me the AIX dianostics disk set to try to break into the powerserver 320h, and I am having mixed results. With the switch in service mode, I was able to make the machine boot off the floppies; eventually it reaches a menu: AIX 3.2 INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE Select the number of the task that you want to perform 2 Install a system that was created with the SMIT "Backup the System" function or the "mksysb" command 3 Install this system for use with a "/usr" server. 4 Install a limited function maintenance shell. Type the number of your selection, then press "Enter": 4 Type 'exit' to return to the main menu. Use the getrootfs command to access file systems that reside on the root volume group. #ls ls: not found #vi vi: not found #cat /etc/mnttab #getrootfs usage: /usr/sbin/getrootfs [-f] diskname -f disregard status of hd5 Available disks: location: hdisk0 00-01-00-00 #getrootfs -f hdisk0 Importing Volume Group... rootvg /dev/rhd4 (/): ** Unmounted cleanly - Check supressed /dev/rhd2 (/usr): ** Unmounted cleanly - Check supressed /usr/sbin/getrootfs: mount: not found checking all mounts and the existance of df /usr/sbin/getrootfs: mount: not found /usr is not mounted #ls ls: not found #mount mount: not found #umount Usage: umount [-sf] {-a|-n Node|-t Type|all|allr|Device|File|directory|File System} # Further investigation revealed that if I "umount /usr", then there is some mount executable in the ram disk. Ok, so I make /usr1, copy all the stuff in the ramdisk /usr to /usr1 (also in ramdisk) and run getrootfs again. Still no luck mounting /usr . So, using the tools that I copied into /usr1 I mount /dev/hd4 in /mymnt/hd4 and /dev/hd2 in /mymnt/hd2 ; further investigation reveals that there indeed exist directories /mymnt/hd2/bin, /mymnt/hd2/lib, /mymnt/hd4/etc and so on; I seem to have mounted / and /usr from the HD correctly. I still cannot use any executables in the HD, though: #/mymnt/hd2/bin/ls killed typing # cat /mymnt/hd4/etc/passwd reveals that AIX seems to have shadow passwords but I can't find any of the usual files (master* etc) . # passwd cannot execute #/mymnt/hd4/bin/passwd killed So, does anybody know what's going on? carlos. -- Carlos E. Murillo-Sanchez email: carlos_murillo(a)spammers.not.ieee.org Universidad Autonoma de Manizales, Manizales, Colombia ---- "I'm not going to get involved in peer-review mumbo-jumbo." -- John Doolittle, House Republican, confronted by a reporter with the peer-review nature of the environmental studies he was dismissing. "Peer review is in fact the great mumbo-jumbo detector." -- Carl Sagan.