manager@a.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu (Cris Fuhrman, Systems Manager) (03/09/89)
Salut,
I recently had a problem with a Sun 3/60 disk-server to four 3/50's - the
/bin directory got trashed - for the second time (it happened last
semester too). The 5 machines were all dead, and the /bin directory on
the server was blitzed so bad that fsck demanded I run it manually from
single user '#'. Anyway, I got numerous files (all in /bin) which read as
having unknown file types. fsck just deleted them, and things looked ok
from there.
I copied mini-unix to the swap partition, and reinstalled /bin (I had a
tar tape from when this happened last time). Everything works ok -except:
When a user logs in to the SERVER machine, he gets the following message:
Last login: Mon Feb 27 17:41:25 from annex01
Sun UNIX 4.2 Release 3.5 (SUNF) #7: Fri Oct 7 16:23:22 EDT 1988
-> Cannot exec binary file.
This seems to occur independent of the user or his .cshrc/.login file (as
I have mv'd all the .(files) in my account and I still get this message.
The man pages on login don't mention any files that get executed at login
(except /bin/login and perhaps /bin/csh or /bin/sh). Can anyone tell me
where this error is coming from?
[[ My guess is "/usr/ucb/quota". I recall that login runs that at some
point to produce notices about a user exceeding his/her quota. --wnl ]]
Also, has anyone ever heard of a bug that causes /bin to get trashed on
the server? As this is the second time it has happened in less than 6
months, I'm wondering if someone else has had this experience.
-Crisdvb@kodak.com (David Blaszyk SOFT) (03/23/89)
manager@a.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu (Cris Fuhrman, Systems Manager) writes:
8^> I recently had a problem with a Sun 3/60 disk-server to four 3/50's - the
8^> /bin directory got trashed - for the second time (it happened last
8^> semester too). The 5 machines were all dead, and the /bin directory on
8^> the server was blitzed so bad that fsck demanded I run it manually from
8^> single user '#'. Anyway, I got numerous files (all in /bin) which read as
8^> having unknown file types. fsck just deleted them, and things looked ok
8^> from there.
8^>
8^> I copied mini-unix to the swap partition, and reinstalled /bin (I had a
8^> tar tape from when this happened last time). Everything works ok -except:
8^> When a user logs in to the SERVER machine, he gets the following message:
Cris,
Had a similar problem myself. What I did was copied some binaries from a
68010 to my Sun3 (68020). Once I tried to re-boot that error message kept
coming up. What 'csh' is trying to do is `exec' a binary that you
possibly moved, that is not compatible with your system. In my case, it
was 'awk', which placed that same message into the file /etc/motd.
Look in /etc/motd. I bet you $$$ that this message is in this file.
8^> -> Cannot exec binary file.
At boot time, the files /etc/rc & /etc/rc.local, looks at a couple files
and tries to build a string using both 'sed' and 'awk', if these binaries
are incorrect, as they were in my case, they spout out spurious
information into the pipeline to /etc/motd.
This might be a solution, look at the replaced binaries, see if there were
any name collisions, probably is one of the binaries in /bin like 'sed' or
'awk' that is used at boot time that caused this.
Hope this helps,
Dave
8^>
8^> Last login: Mon Feb 27 17:41:25 from annex01
8^> Sun UNIX 4.2 Release 3.5 (SUNF) #7: Fri Oct 7 16:23:22 EDT 1988
8^> -> Cannot exec binary file.
8^>
8^> months, I'm wondering if someone else has had this experience.
Yes, I have, to see exactly where it is from, look at the file /etc/rc or
/etc/rc.local, and look for shell script calls to /bin/*, this is most likely
where your problem is located.
Dave Blaszyk - Eastman Kodak Company .....rochester!kodak!elmgate!dvb
(use uuhosts or such to find path to rochester)