Unix Gurus: I need your help!!!

[billiam0878]

My computer won't boot. I've run System works and tried to repair the drive, but now all I get on boot is a UNIX screen that means absolutely nothing to me:

/etc/master.passwd: Not a directory
/etc/master.passwd: Not a directory
-sh: /etc/profile: Not a directory
-sh-205b#

After the b# there's a blinking square where I can enter commands. PLease help me get back into my machine! Thanks so much,

Bill

[MisterMe]

Originally posted by billiam0878
My computer won't boot. I've run System works and tried to repair the drive, but now all I get on boot is a UNIX screen that means absolutely nothing to me:

/etc/master.passwd: Not a directory
/etc/master.passwd: Not a directory
-sh: /etc/profile: Not a directory
-sh-205b#

After the b# there's a blinking square where I can enter commands. PLease help me get back into my machine! Thanks so much,

Bill It sounds like your permissions were severely damaged. Boot from your MacOS X CD and repair your permissions.

[cubist]

On Mac OS X, for reasons known only to Apple, /etc is actually a link to /private/etc. It probably is a permissions issue, but at the # prompt you might be able to do some ls and chmod commands...

Never mind. Do as MisterMe suggests. Boot the CD, open Disk Tools and run Disk Utility, select the hard drive (volume), and reset permissions.

[zimv20]

Originally posted by billiam0878
I've run System works

bad choice. thou shalt run NO NORTON UTILITIES on thine mac.

buy diskwarrior and use it to repair your drive. if that doesn't work, reinstall osx.

[tomf87]

Run:

mount -uw /
fsck -y

This will repair filesystem errors for you and hopefully get it back up. After that, run Disk Utility and repair permissions.