Boot Solaris from CD-ROM to solve problems

Contributor Icon Contributed by qmchenry  
Tag Icon Tagged: Solaris system administration  

Some problems cannot be fixed through the operating system, for example not remembering the root password or changes to configuration files that prevent the system from booting. Solaris allows booting from the CD-ROM into single user mode which will allow you to mount your filesystems and repair the problem.


To boot into single user mode from CD-ROM, from the ok (bootprom) prompt:

boot cdrom -s

This will give you a root prompt (#) with a functional but limited Solaris filesystem from the cdrom. To access your filesystems, you need to mount them. For example, if your root filesystem is c0t0d0s0, use:

mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /mnt

Then you can work in the /mnt filesystem and make changes to your real root filesystem. You can mount other filesystems on their usual mount points within the root (/mnt) filesystem. Once you have fixed whatever you need, just reboot.

 

5 Comments -


  1. kem said on October 7, 2008

    yes because you are on /a mount (root). you must type pwd to see where you are ? and thereafter to go on root/ to cdrom and type umount /a so that ok

  2. Anonymous said on April 29, 2010

    in intel machines, hw can we solv the passwd breaking at root level, by using vmware.

  3. Vasanthnirmal said on November 22, 2010

    hey mount the cdrom in the dir /a

    #mount /dev/dsk/c0t6d0s0 /a … bcoz cdrom devices will mount under /a when it enters in to single user mode…..

  4. John Gooch Ctr said on November 26, 2010

    How do you tell a v440 to boot from CDROM? I put the disk in , but it just tries to boot from the HD over and over, without prompting me to boot from the CDROM.

  5. Ghost said on December 6, 2010

    Get to the ok prompt and type:
    boot cdrom

    One way is to use serial console and send a break/Stop-A. You can also use ALOM (type #. to get there).

 

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