Hi Kevvo,
"sh-2.05a" is the name of the shell you're using, although I'm pretty sure it said "bash" instead of "Hash." You are in Single User Mode because the machine cannot boot. This is doubtless the result of something having erased the softlink, /etc, which points to /private/etc. The same culprit, usually one of Norton Utilities, has probably also erased two other similar softlinks. From Single User Mode, it is a simple matter to restore the softlinks and then when you exit Single User Mode, the machine will continue to startup normally. However, be very careful with typing while in Single User Mode; all commands are executed with root privileges and you can do tremendous damage with a mistake. In what follows, "execute" means to type the command as I've written it and then hit the <Return> key.
You should usually check to see if the disk is damaged by executing:
/sbin/fsck -yf
You might have to run that more than once. Try doing it until no errors are returned. Then, before you can do anything, you must mount the disk with write permissions by executing:
/sbin/mount -uw /
You can then execute the following command to see if any of the symlinks are really missing:
/bin/ls -l /etc /var /tmp
For any or all of these, if the command returns "No such file or directory" or the listings don't begin with the letter ell, 'l', then you've found the problem and you must restore those symbolic links. For each of those files that is there but whose listing doesn't begin with 'l', execute the corresponding ones of the following:
/bin/rm /etc
/bin/rm /var
/bin/rm /tmp
The final step is to actually fix the softlinks. For the files for which the long listing returned "No such file or directory" or the listings don't begin with the letter ell, 'l', you must execute the corresponding command from the following list:
/bin/ln -s /private/etc /etc
/bin/ln -s /private/var /var
/bin/ln -s /private/tmp /tmp
More than likely, you will have to execute all three. When you have done that, you are ready to get out of Single User Mode. Since you got there as a result of an error, it would be my choice to start the boot process from the beginning by executing:
/sbin/reboot
After that, you machine should startup normally. If there are further difficulties, let us know.
--
Gary
~~~~
The first is to ensure your partner understands that nature
has root privileges - nature doesn't have to make sense.
-- Telsa Gwynne
