single user mode buildwerld failures

[kayve at sfsu.edu]

Quoting kayve at sfsu.edu:

> Quoting Christian Walther <cptsalek at gmail.com>:
> 
> > On 04/04/07, KAYVEN RIESE <kayve at sfsu.edu> wrote:
> > > there were so many steps they didn't seem obvious.. i got halfway thru
> and
> > > realized i
> > > was in some prompt for mergemaster -p, or so i thought, so i started
> over.
> > > i had no
> > > idea what was happening.  i can't log on now.
> > > /etc/passwd is gone.  i used a freeBSD disk that is certainly old to go
> to
> > > a fixit shell but i didn't
> > > know what to do.  i can go back to the fixit shell if somebody tells me
> > > what to do but i have
> > > to *#@&ing walk over to kinkos now to get on the internet.
> > 
> > So firstly you should probably sit down and take a deep breath.
> > 
> > Secondly, it appears that you messed up your system pretty badly, I'm
> > not sure that it can be fixed. On the other hand, it just might be
> > that you missed a few steps.
> > 
> > For example, when you're in single user mode the root filesystem is
> > mounted read only, which means that you can't write to it. Anything
> > related to the upgrade process (installworld, mergemaster...) has to
> > fail.
> 
> i looked at the /usr/src/UPDATING and what to do after the command
> mergemaster -p was not described.  is there a better web page for 
> that somewhere?  i was also taking advice from an "expert" on 
> experts-exchange  both sources did not described the bizzare behavior
> i observed after simply invoking the command "mergemaster -p" both
> sources informed me to do that command followed by another command.
> i saw no advice telling me more details than that.  if such a site
> exists, could i please have a direct relevant link?
> 
> 
> > 
> > Question is (sorry this isn't ment to sound harsch) if you read the
> > manual carefully, because it describes the entire process pretty
> > detailed. That is to say you have to read all the chapters, not only
> > the beginning.
> > For example it appears that you didn't remount the root filesystem
> > read/writeable after you booted to single user mode.
> 
> i followed some instructions but nothing perpared me for the way
> my acted after the command "mergemaster -p"  i did not get back
> the same prompt from which i invoked "mergemaster -p" from.  it
> asked me a question that i fergot what it was.  that was bad.. i
> know.. i could not cut and paste there.  i could have maybe
> done "mergemaster -p > file.out" but i didn't.  oops.  that was 
> stupid.
> 
> > 
> > Passwords are not stored in /etc/passwd, there is /etc/pwd.db,
> > /etc/master.passwd and /etc/spwd.db, too. All are required for the
> > system to be fully functional. The latter two contain the passwords in
> > encrypted form. You might want to try to restore these files in
> > particular.
> 
> okay.. /etc/passwd was in /var/tmp/etc/passwd, so the others will
> be similarly so? i can handle this.
> 
> > 
> > BTW: Your mailer appears to be broken. Some of your postings are
> > really difficult to read, it seems as if quoted postings aren't marked
> > properly, for example with a ">".
> 
> sorry.  i use pine.  ">" marks recursively who is saying what.  i
> cut and pasted hurredly which i guess is stupid.  it sounds like you
> are giving me good advice that i can easily follow.  i will try that
> and get back to you.  it might be more easy to look at the links i gave,
> but i posted a lot of makesplat that got that guy mad at me.  you can
> scroll all the way to the bottom and see what the latest is maybe you
> can follow.
> 
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> > 
> 
> 
>