Original OSX Server - need help big time!!!

[jim1061]

I acquired Mac OS X in 1998 when it first came out not the one released a month ago. I'm relatively new with Unix and have been learning and adjusting my Server as I learn.

Yesterday, while trying to set permissions so that clients and employees who upload to our Server cannot see other parts of the server, I eliminated many permissions under "other". All seemed fine at the end of the day. Today I was unable to telnet in to the Server from another computer but was unable to, so I decided to shutdown and restart the server...And here comes my problem...

Upon rebooting i got a green screen with error messages and a few instructions to try. I tried each option unsuccessfully. I can boot the server from the original Server CD but thats it. I don't know what to do at this point. I though of re-installing the Server basics but didn't know if that would eliminate files that I have on my two hard drives which are crucial. Below is the entire error screen I get upon rebooting. If anyone knows what I should do, please help by either posting here or contancting me via AOL IM...my scrren name there is GOLD4USA...thanks...Jim

The screen says:

Rhapsody Kernel Loader (02:12:14 990220)
sl-debug, unknown wordDebug Flag=00000000
? no dev
EXIT called
Open Firmware, 2.4
To continue booting MacOS type:
BYE (return)
To continue booting from the default boot device type:
BOOT (return)
For open Firmware serial I/O typr:
TTYA IO (return)
OK
0>_


When I BYE (return):
I get a grey screen with a floppy with a question mark..even after waiting a while the floppy remains and nothing
happens

When I BOOT (return)
It says BOOT claim failed

When I TTYA IO (return)
nothing happens

 

[Arin]

Do you know if you have version 1.0, 1.0.2, or 1.2 ?

All are from the first series that is based on Rhapsody/OPENSTEP.

I'm not positive, as my current OS X config is a running web server so I can't shut it down to check, but I believe you can boot holding down the "s" key which should boot you into "single user mode" this mode is command line only, but should allow you to run the utility called "fsck"
try running it as follows "fsck -f" this will force it to check ALL filesystems, even the ones that are marked as clean.

you can also use the "-y" flag to say "yes" to all operator questions.

hope this helps...

-Arin

 

[Henkies]

That's right ! "? no dev" means it can't find your hard disk or the system software on it. So the first thing to try is what Arin says (while booting in single user mode !) And pray on you bare knees...

 

[tsmith]

If the above solutions don't work reinstalling isn't too bad. You will lose your original settings but so long as you don't initialize the partition it won't delete files you have put on there. I have done a reinstall with OSX myself and it retained all my data(excluding prefs etc)

Antony