Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 14:51:29 -0400 From: James FitzGibbon <james@targetnet.com> To: "Gruen, Robert" <gruen@engr.sc.edu> Cc: "'freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG'" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Unable to boot Message-ID: <20000413145129.C55837@targetnet.com> In-Reply-To: <D8AB9C5548AED211928B0090273CDDD7028CA785@mailbox.engr.sc.edu> References: <D8AB9C5548AED211928B0090273CDDD7028CA785@mailbox.engr.sc.edu>
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* Gruen, Robert (gruen@engr.sc.edu) [000413 14:43]: > I have had several responses to a previous e-mail concerning this issue but > alas, non of them have resolved my problem. I was editing the rc.conf file > and I forgot the trailing quotes in one of the lines. Now when I attempt to > boot the computer I get the message: > > /etc/rc.conf: 12: Syntax Error: Unterminated string constant > Enter full path name for shell or RETURN for /bin/sh: Obviously there is a syntax error on line 12 of your /etc/rc.conf. Without having access to the file itself, you can't find out what that error is. > Well, when I hit RETURN, or type in the path to a shell I know is there > (/usr/local/bin/tcsh), it spits out the same message. I cannot get past > this point. I have tried to boot the machine in single user mode, with an > alternate kernel, but nothing seems to get me past this point. I always > wind up with the same message and prompt. It seems strange that you can't get into /bin/sh, as even before /etc/rc parses /etc/rc.conf, you should have the root partition mounted read-only. Nevertheless: Make yourself three floppies : kern.flp, mfsroot.flp and fixit.flp (if you have the FreeBSD install CD, you can just boot the install CD and use the second CD instead of fixit.flp). Once you start the "fixit" shell from the menu, you will need to mount your drives onto /mnt. Presuming that you have an IDE disk that is dedicated to FreeBSD, the slices are probably going to be /dev/wd0s1a on /mnt /dev/wd0s1e on /mnt/var /dev/wd0s1f on /mnt/usr But you'll have to tune those for your particular install. Once you have the partitions mounted, you'll need to edit /mnt/etc/rc.conf to fix the syntax error. Then exit the fixit shell and reboot. -- j. James FitzGibbon james@targetnet.com Targetnet.com Inc. Voice/Fax +1 416 306-0466/0452 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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