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Hey everyone, I have an old server that doesn't boot. I don't know the version of unix installed, but I see SCO UNIX. It stops with that error: 

UX:init: ERROR: Cannot create /var/adm/utmp or /var/adm/utmpx
UX:init: ERROR: failed write of utmpx entry: "   "
UX:init: ERROR: failed write of utmpx entry: "   "
UX:init: INFO: SINGLE USER MODE

After that message, it just stops. I cannot write or press anything. Even CTRL + ALT + DEL does not work.

I cannot get into the system. I have tried booting with a DamnSmallLinux LiveCD but it does not recognize the file system on HDA.

Is there a way to either log in as root or bypass this error?

Thanks.

3 Answers3

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The filesystem is likely corrupt, and if single user mode is failing you're probably SoL unless you can find (the relevent) SCO install media.

A quick google shows that Linux doesn't read SCO filesystems.

LapTop006
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If Single User Mode does not work, here's the procedure to restore a corrupted file system: http://osr600doc.sco.com/en/SM_trouble/restroot.html

lrosa
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  • It would be kind if you could summarize the steps from that document. Otherwise the answer will become useless if/when the URL to the document changes. – Jenny D Mar 19 '14 at 07:53
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I would perform the following troubleshooting:

  1. Figure out the exact version of SCO Unix. This will narrow down possible tools we can use for recovery.

  2. Once version is acquired, figure out the filesystem that the drive is written as. If version of SCO is not able to be retrieved, load up a Linux live cd with fdisk and check the IDs. We would need that output. The output should look similar to the following:

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00008ec7

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1013     8136891   8e  Linux LVM
/dev/sda2            1014        1044      249007+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            1014        1044      248976   83  Linux

The ID block is what we need.

  1. The ID will tell you the type of filesystem. Use the following page to determine what type based on the ID number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_type#List_of_partition_IDs

https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html

This will determine what tool you can use.

  1. Find a live CD rescue tool that can read said filesystem. Boot with that and run fsck.
David O.
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