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From: herndon@sctc.com (William R. Herndon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Help! Cube boots only to single user mode...
Message-ID: <1991Feb1.154516.5275@sctc.com>
Date: 1 Feb 91 15:45:16 GMT
Organization: SCTC
Lines: 64


    About two weeks ago I purchased a Maxtor XT8702S disk drive and 
    installed it in my 030 cube in place of my swapdisk.  Soon after
    I used builddisk to install my system software on the Maxtor.
    No problem, builddisk recognized my disk, its parameters, and built
    the software just fine.  However, the first time that I tried to 
    boot off the Maxtor, the boot sequence threw up a small window 
    entitled "MACH Operating System", in which a shell was running,
    and leaving me in single user mode.  Fortunately, I know a few things
    about UNIX and forced the machine to continue the boot sequence by
    going to multi-user mode by issuing an "init 2" command.  Well, when
    the machine finished starting the system services, I was left with 
    a login panel and a cursor that the window manager had no control 
    over.  In fact, the keyboard was locked also.

    I then tried to boot again, this time interrupting the boot sequence
    in the ROM monitor.  I executed:

        b sd(0,0,0)

    which left me in single user mode again, executed an "init 2" to start
    multi-user boot, and viola', I'm up and running, with control of the 
    cursor and keyboard, I might add.

    But what is the problem?  I think that it may have to do with a non-
    existant network, but I am just guessing.

    FLAMES ON:

      Businessland, where I bought my machine, has no idea what the problem
      might be.  NeXT won't let me talk to their technical support people
      because I bought my machine at Businessland.  I asked Businessland
      to talk to NeXT, and they said that NeXT's reply was something like:
      "We don't support third party hard drives <blah> <blah> <blah>..."

      Well, I don't give a damn about whether or not NeXT supports third
      party hard drives.  If the problem were with the hard drive, then
      I don't think it is likely that NeXTStep and builddisk would both 
      correctly recognize my disk, much less let me build a release on it, 
      and then ( eventually ) boot from it!!  The problem must have something 
      to do with the boot configuration paramaters or an error encountered 
      in the boot sequence,

          AND NeXT DAMN WELL BETTER SUPPORT THEIR OWN SOFTWARE!!!!

    FLAMES OFF:

    I've just about had it the total lack of support from NeXT.  Will 
    somebody please help me.

    Thanks in advance.



								- Max
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R. Herndon                              
Secure Computing Technology Corp.                  
						Once you've had black, 
herndon@sctc.com				you'll never go back...NeXT
(612) 482-7431