Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Configuring a System
Reconfiguring the Kernel (HP-UX 11i Version 2)
Chapter 3 367
To boot an Itanium-based system in fail-safe mode, get to the HPUX>
prompt as described above and type
HPUX> boot –tm
To boot a PA-RISC system in fail-safe mode, get to the ISL> prompt as
described above and type
ISL> hpux –f0x40000
(The two methods can be combined, if you want to boot a saved
configuration in fail-safe mode. This uses the kernel executable built for
the saved configuration, including all of its static modules, but none of its
dynamically loaded modules.)
When you boot the system in fail-safe mode, the previous kernel
configuration will be automatically saved for you, with a configuration
name something like saved_3DE78FA0. The exact name will be printed
for you in the boot messages on the console.
When you boot the system in fail-safe mode, the boot will stop when you
reach single-user mode. At this time you should take any necessary steps
to repair your system or your configuration and then reboot onto a valid
configuration. HP does not recommend continuing to boot to multiuser
mode after a fail-safe boot.
Guidelines for Recovering from Errors
If you have an undesirable or unbootable kernel configuration, HP
recommends the following approach to resolving the problem.
✓ If your system is up:
❏ If you know which configuration change caused the problem:
— If your backup configuration hasn’t been updated since the
bad change:
• Load the backup configuration with kconfig –l backup.
— Else (your backup configuration also has the problem in it):
• Try to reverse the change using kcmodule or kctune.
Always specify the –K option to preserve the backup
configuration.
❏ Else (you don’t know what change caused the problem, or the
above didn’t work):