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From: friedl@vsi.UUCP (Stephen J. Friedl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Big fun with Sys V Drivers
Summary: You don't have to standalone restore
Keywords: reloading drivers boring
Message-ID: <551@vsi.UUCP>
Date: 16 Apr 88 03:23:44 GMT
References: <406@paisano.UUCP>
Organization: V-Systems, Inc. -- Santa Ana, CA
Lines: 32

In article <406@paisano.UUCP>, Michael C. De Masi writes:
> Being an administrator on several machines (various 3b's 
> running a few different versions of Sys V) I sometimes
> find myself in the position of doing 'partial restores'
> on my machines due to passwd files getting munged, inittabs
> disappearing or someone forgetting their root password.
> (generally user oriented problems)
> 
> A 'partial restore', which basically just replaces the
> important system files with more or less vanilla versions
> thereof usually works fine to get the machine to a more
> or less workable state.

In many cases it is not necessary to do a standalone restore,
as it trashes some pretty important files.  There is a method
to operate a standalone UNIX from the boot floppy by saying
a few magic words.  From there you can get a # prompt and
do fsck, mount, etc.  I use this all the time and almost never
have to do a restore of any kind.  It's wonderful.

Michael's posting has prompted me to put down my thoughts
on how to operate as a standalone shell.  I'll send a copy
to anybody who asks via email, and if I get enough requests
I'll post it.  NOTE: these are not automated procedures like
the sysadm menus; you need a fair amount of Unix sysadm
experience and you need to think fast on your feet.  Beware...

P.S. - this is for the 3B2 only...

-- 
Steve Friedl   V-Systems, Inc.   "Yes, I'm jeff@unh's brother"
friedl@vsi.com  {backbones}!vsi.com!friedl  attmail!vsi!friedl