SUMMARY: utmpx error message

From: Mariel Feder (mfeder@central.meralco.com.ph)
Date: Mon Jul 13 1998 - 04:22:36 CDT


ORIGINAL QUESTION:
>I get the following messages when I shut down the workstation to level 0:
>
>INIT: failed write utmpx entry: "s0"
>
>INIT: failed write utmpx entry: "fw"
>
>Does someone know what it means, because I have no idea?
>Should I worry about it? The machine restarts no problema after this.

The answer is included in SunSolve, SRDB ID: 12885, BUG REPORT ID: 1185668.
The explanantion and workaround is included below. In brief, I can ignore
this messages, or create a couple of links to avoid them.
Regards
Mariel

SRDB ID: 12885

SYNOPSIS: error messages from INIT on shutdown

DETAIL DESCRIPTION:

When shutting down the system, the following messages appear:

        INIT: failed write of utmpx entry: "s0"
        INIT: failed write of utmpx entry: "fw"

and /var is a mounted partition.

SOLUTION SUMMARY:

Init is trying to record the changes to the run-level into the
/var/adm/utmpx file. Unfortunately, by this time in the shutdown, all
the filesystems have been unmounted, including /var.

The message can be safely ignored.

However, if you would like to eliminate the messages, do the
following:

1) Boot to single user, and give the password to enter a single-user
shell:

        ok boot -s
        Rebooting with ...
        ...
        INIT: SINGLE USER MODE
        
        Type Ctrl-d to proceed with normal startup,
        (or give root password for system maintenance): <type root password>
        

2) Execute the following commands:

        # umount /var
        # mkdir /var/adm
        # ln -s /dev/null /var/adm/utmpx
        # ln -s /dev/null /var/adm/utmp

This creates the utmpx file on the root partition so
that "init" can write the entry. Because this entry is useless, we
made a link to /dev/null so that this write gets thrown away.

BUG REPORT ID: 1185668
PRODUCT AREA: System Administration
PRODUCT: shutdown
SUNOS RELEASE: Solaris 2.5
HARDWARE: any

*******************************************

Mariel Feder - IT Consultant
Meralco Electric Company - MTP - IT.
Phone: (63)(2) 637.8897
Fax: (63)(2) 637.8868
E-mail: mfeder@meralco.com.ph



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