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Date:      Thu, 29 Aug 2002 09:12:13 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
To:        shubha_mr@yahoo.com (=?iso-8859-1?q?shubha=20mr?=)
Cc:        freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: BSD GOD,save me!
Message-ID:  <200208291312.g7TDCEV26704@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20020829044336.34942.qmail@web14605.mail.yahoo.com> from "=?iso-8859-1?q?shubha=20mr?=" at Aug 29, 2002 05:43:36 AM

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> 
> Hi,
> Here is the tragic story!
> When I booted my BSD machine this morning,it said
> Automatic file system check failed...........help!
> Enter full pathname of the shell or RETURN for bin/sh

This happens if the machine was improperly shut down with files open
(eg someone cut the power) and if the system is getting disk read/write
errors - which indicates the disk may be failing.

You got booted in to single user mode when the automatic fsck failed.
Nothing but a special semi-mount of / is available.  

The first is generally easy to recover from.
Just do a manual fsck
  When it asks that Enter Full pathname question, just hit RETURN/ENTER
  type  fsck -p    (or fsck -f if you have patience and can wait)
  Answer yes to any prompts - you don't have much choice anyway unless
    you want to get really sophisticated about recovering lost stuff - 
    mostly it will just be orphan blocks of disk that need relinking.
  When it finishes, reboot the system with  'shutdown -r now'  or try
  doing a CTRL-D to end single user and complete the original boot, but
  I am skeptical [paranoid] and just do the whole reboot under those
  sorts of circumstances.

If it is because of a failing disk, try the same thing and then
immediately make a backup of as much as you can and start ordering
a replacement disk.   If the disk is beginning to fail, you may get 
it back to working for a short while, but it is ultimately doomed
so back up very often and get a new one in as soon as you can.

> 
> I entered /bin/csh (I was not sure tho')
> Cannot open /et/termcap
> Using dumb terminal settings.
> 
> It does not even enter /usr/src..It says no such file
> or directory..

Probably it was not mounted - is either your /usr or /usr/src directory 
in its own mounted file system or is /usr/src living somewhere else
with a link?   If so it is not mounted when you are first in single
user mode.  If the above fsck works and finishes, then you can do

  mount -u /
  mount -a
  swapon -a

and then you should be able to get to /usr/src, etc.  You can poke around
and check things out.   But probably just the reboot is all you really want.

////jerry

> 
> Good god,save me!
> 
> Thanks and Regards,
> shubha
> 
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