SCO-Unix - booting to single user mode and then crash

[Tony Becker]

>From article <9010171604.AA24053 at decpa.pa.dec.com>, by paine at fungus.dec.com (Willy Paine):
>     When it goes to SINGLE USER MODE, it displays:
>     -------------------< display >----------------------------------
>     Type control-d to proceed with normal startup,
>                                                 ( or give root passwd
>     for system maintaince.
>     ----------------------------------------------------------------
>     Then it freezes or crashs and I can not press <return>.  Notice there
>     is no real linefeed between "startup," and "(or give"

The last time I saw this the file /etc/inittab was missing. I had to
be REAL quick about typing the root password (fast machines were not an
advantage here). To recover (if this is the problem), boot from a/the floppy
and manually mount the root file system. Look to see if /mnt/etc/inittab is
present. I would loose it if I put a bad-restartable process in my inittab
like a new version of getty that conflicted with login or my asy drivers.
I believe the initab from the floopy may be used to boot the hard drive,
but you will have to edit after. I keep a backup copy called inittab.old,
or something.