Disabling NIS at boot

I have a 44P-170 (7044-170) machine that has 4.3 ML11 installed on it and I am having a problem with NFS/NIS at boot. The machine will boot all the way up to the CDE login screen but when I log in as root, the screen goes black and will stay that way overnight. I have tried a console login as well and then I just the message:
NIS: server not responding for domain "pacnet"; still trying
repeated over and over.

How do I or can I disable NFS/NIS during the boot process so I can get access as root to fix the problem?

Thanks
SeanU

Try http://www.unix.com/showthread.php?t=18760

I have been trying to boot off the media I have 4.3.3 but it will stop after the timestamp message and the LED display is: 0518. I believe this error refers to a console error, but I am not sure how to get past it. I have tried to set the console to the monitor/keyboard/mouse I have set up. I am working off a monitor through a KVM but the keyboard and mouse are hooked up directly to the machine.

Sean

You could unplug the monitor, keyboard and mouse and use the serial port with a laptop running a terminal emulator.

I'll try that. Haven't used that set up in a long time, will have to do more reading and find my set of cables.

Should be 9600,n,8,1 but you have to "catch" the booting process to tell it that your serial device should now be the console.

NIS is configured in the file /etc/resolv.conf, to have the system only use DNS and the /etc/hosts file enter the line:

local8,bind8

If your machine refuses to let you log on properly boot it from a diagnostic CD into maintenance mode and open a shell there.

bakunin

So I have set up a hyper terminal session with a laptop and connected through a serial cable and I am still having the 0518 LED display come up, when I try to boot CD. Any suggestions? The terminal settings are:
Bits per second: 9600
Data Bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop Bits: 1
Flow control: None

Did you see anything on the terminal screen?

How are you getting it to boot from the CD-ROM apart from putting the CD-ROM in the drive?

Yes, I am seeing output to the terminal screen, here's a snapshot of the tail end:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to AIX.
boot image timestamp: 02:29 08/26
The current time and date: 20:49:38 11/05/2007
number of processors: 1 size of memory: 1024Mb
boot device: /pci@fef00000/scsi@c/sd@1,0:\ppc\chrp\bootfile.exe
closing stdin and stdout...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not using any method to boot from CD except for putting CD into drive and then changing the boot settings in SMS to boot from the CD first.

And you

(a) unplugged keyboard/mouse/screen
(b) changed SMS through the serial port?
(c) can confirm it's the CD-ROM light flashing, not the root harddisk?

Did you install the system, was it installed from CD-ROM originally?

A - Yes, Keyboard, mouse and screen are unplugged.
B - Yes, I changed SMS through serial port to boot from CD
C - Yes, CD-ROM light flashing at startup. I did change it back to HD boot once to see what would happen but got the same NIS problem as before (Got log in screen but once root password entered never got prompt.

I received the machine with BASE 4.3.3 installed, I am not sure if base OS was installed from CD or through network connection.

The next question is which CD are you trying to boot from?

Do you have anything else you can boot from, including, say, a machine diagnostic CD downloaded from IBM?

I am trying to boot from the CD: AIX V4.3.3 (5765-C34)

No I do not have any other media to boot from.

The best I could find was

comp.unix.aix: Re: 4.3.3 & CDROM Installation (44P-170)

and

comp.unix.aix: AIX machine won't boot - LED says 0518

My own horror story as follows Nekochan Net � View topic - RS/6000 7043 43P Model 140 CDROM firmware question

You should, at this point, NOT boot from an installation CD but a DIAGNOSTIC CD. Probably your rootvg is seriously damaged and the only remedy is a reinstall.

With the diagnostic CD boot up, exit to a maintenance shell and save your work (if there is any), then reinstall the system.

If you have a mirrored rootvg (you should always have this) you could try to split up the mirror (/usr/sbin/unmirrorvg rootvg; /usr/sbin/reducevg rootvg hdisk<X>). Install to the now freed disk and boot from there. Once the system is up and running again, you can try to import the old rootvg and revive its filesystems to get off any data you might want to keep. At last remove this old rootvg and remirror - it pays to have the rootvg always mirrored.

bakunin

I do not have a diagnostic CD. Do you know where I can get one or an image of one? Since IBM does not support AIX 4 any longer, I would not think I could order one from them.

It's worth asking though.

Just sent an e-mail to IBM, asking for CD or image...
Also found:
https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/diags/download/home.html

I am downloading both of the CD52035.iso and CD51025.iso images, maybe I can use one of these. I think they are for AIX 5 and I might have to update the firmware to get them to work but it's worth a shot.

I am sorry, but i have to correct myself (don't know, where i was with my thoughts when i wrote this):

The correct file is /etc/netsvc.conf of course. The line in there should read:

hosts=local8,bind8

bakunin