"System" directory hosed by failed XTools install

cedmonds

Registered
So after a shaky start with OS X (it didn't like the Adaptec 2906 in my otherwise stock G4 450 DP), i thought i had everything under control.

anyway, i downloaded Tenon XTools to install and play with, and started the installation - the installer froze almost immediately after starting, so i let it sit there for about ten minutes - "writing files" message displayed, but the progress bar didn't move at all and I couldn't hear any disk activity. waited a while longer and still nothing, so i hit "pause" in the installer. this responded with the usual "will pause when current action is finished" message, but of course it didn't and i waited a lot longer, still stuck. so i quit the installer (surprise this work) which of course completely froze my machine at the spinning icon - no response from anything on the desktop.

so then i connected in via ssh, only to find that there was no more System directory, completely gone for some reason, plus some things from /usr where missing too (like sbin), nothing would die, so i managed to use /halt/sbin and bring it down. of course on powering up it couldn't boot into OS X, and wouldn't find my 9.1 install either, so i booted from the 9.1 CD, tried Disk First Aid, Norton, and rebuilding the desktop (the install was on an HFS+ volume), nothing brought it back. now i have to re-install, that really sucks!!!

BTW, does anyone know if there is a way to boot from the CD into single user mode? S and CMD-D don't do anything for me. it would be a little annoying if there was no boot cd for doing fsck, etc.

i guess maybe i am really running Mac OS X alpha 2

 
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