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Solaris Common Messages and 

Troubleshooting Guide 

Sun Microsystems, Inc. 

901 San Antonio Road 

Palo Alto, CA 94303 

U.S.A. 

Part No: 805-4036–10 

October, 1998

Copyright 1998 Sun Microsystems, Inc. 901 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, California 94303-4900 U.S.A. All rights reserved. 

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et sont des marques de fabrique ou des marques déposées de SPARC International, Inc. aux Etats-Unis et dans d’autres pays. Les produits 

portant les marques SPARC sont basés sur une architecture développée par Sun Microsystems, Inc. 

L’interface d’utilisation graphique OPEN LOOK et Sun TM 

a été développée par Sun Microsystems, Inc. pour ses utilisateurs et licenciés. 

Sun reconnaît les efforts de pionniers de Xerox pour la recherche et le développement du concept des interfaces d’utilisation visuelle ou 

graphique pour l’industrie de l’informatique. Sun détient une licence non exclusive de Xerox sur l’interface d’utilisation graphique Xerox, 

cette licence couvrant également les licenciés de Sun qui mettent en place l’interface d’utilisation graphique OPEN LOOK et qui en outre 

se conforment aux licences écrites de Sun. 

CETTE PUBLICATION EST FOURNIE “EN L’ETAT” ET AUCUNE GARANTIE, EXPRESSE OU IMPLICITE, N’EST ACCORDEE, Y 

COMPRIS DES GARANTIES CONCERNANT LA VALEUR MARCHANDE, L’APTITUDE DE LA PUBLICATION A REPONDRE A UNE 

UTILISATION PARTICULIERE, OU LE FAIT QU’ELLE NE SOIT PAS CONTREFAISANTE DE PRODUIT DE TIERS. CE DENI DE 

GARANTIE NE S’APPLIQUERAIT PAS, DANS LA MESURE OU IL SERAIT TENU JURIDIQUEMENT NUL ET NON AVENU. 

Please 

Recycle

Contents 

Preface 

xxi 

1. About Error Messages 1 

Searching for Messages 1 

Choosing What To Look For 1 

In the Printed Book 2 

In the AnswerBook Navigator 2 

Combining Search Techniques 4 

Understanding the Message Explanations 4 

2. Alphabetical Message Listing 7 

Numbers and Symbols 7 

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***** 7 

** Phase 1-- Check Blocks and Sizes 8 

** Phase 1b-- Rescan For More DUPS 8 

** Phase 2-- Check Pathnames 9 

** Phase 3-- Check Connectivity 9 

** Phase 4-- Check Reference Counts 10 

** Phase 5-- Check Cyl groups 10 

29a00 illegal instruction 11 

451 timeout waiting for input during source 12 

Contents 

iii

"A" 14 

"B" 21 

550 hostname... Host unknown 12 

550 username... User unknown 13 

554 hostname ... Local configuration error 13 

Accessing a corrupted shared library 14 

access violation unknown host IP address 15 

A command window has exited because 

its child exited. 15 

Address already in use 16 

Address family not supported by protocol family 16 

admintool: Received communication service error 4 16 

Advertise error 17 

answerbook: XView error: NULL pointer 

passed to xv_set 17 

Arg list too long 18 

Argument out of domain 18 

Arguments too long 19 

assertion failed: string, file name, line int 19 

Attempting to link in more shared 

libraries than system limit 20 

automountd[int]: server hostname responding 20 

automount[int]: name: Not a directory 21 

Bad address 21 

BAD/DUP FILE I=i OWNER=o MODE=m SIZE=s 

MTIME=t CLEAR? 22 

Bad file number 22 

block no. BAD I=inode no. 22 

BAD_MESSAGE (error code 100) from X.400 23 

iv Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

"C" 30 

bad module/chip at: position 23 

Bad request descriptor 24 

BAD SUPER BLOCK: string 24 

BAD TRAP 26 

/bin/sh: file: too big 26 

Block device required 27 

Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ directory/directoryliteral>/ 

sd@3,0 27 

boot error 13 | sun4m 28 

Broadcast Message from root (pts/int) 

on server [date] 28 

Broken pipe 29 

Bus Error 29 

Cannot access a needed shared library 30 

Cannot allocate colormap entry for " string " 30 

Cannot assign requested address 30 

cannot change passwd, not correct passwd 31 

Cannot exec a shared library directly 31 

Cannot find SERVER hostname in network database 32 

Cannot open FCC file 33 

Cannot send after transport endpoint shutdown 33 

Can’t create public message device (Device busy) 33 

Can’t invoke /etc/init, error int 34 

can’t open /dev/rdsk/string: (null): 

UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY 35 

can’t synchronize with hayes 35 

cd: Too many arguments 36 

Channel number out of range 36 

Contents 

v

"D" 47 

chmod: ERROR: invalid mode 36 

Command not found 37 

Communication error on send 38 

Connection closed. 38 

Connection closed by foreign host. 38 

[Connection closed. Exiting] 39 

Connection refused 39 

Connection reset by peer 39 

Connection timed out 40 

console login: ^J^M^Q^K^K^P 40 

core dumped 41 

corrupt label - wrong magic number or 

corrupt label - label checksum failed 42 

could not grant slave pty 43 

Could not initialize tooltalk (tt_open): 

TT_ERR_NOMP 44 

Could not open ToolTalk Channel 44 

Could not start new viewer 45 

cpio: Bad magic number/header. 45 

cpio : can’t read input : end of file 

encountered prior to expected end of archive. 46 

Cross-device link 46 

data access exception 47 

Data fault 47 

Deadlock situation detected/avoided 48 

Destination address required 48 

/dev/fd/int: /dev/fd/int: cannot open 49 

/dev/rdsk/c0t6d0s2: No such file or directory 50 

vi Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

"E" 58 

Device busy 50 

device busy 51 

/dev/rdsk/string: CAN’T CHECK FILE SYSTEM. 52 

/dev/rdsk/string: UNEXPECTED 

INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY. 53 

Directory not empty 53 

diskN not unique 54 

Disc quota exceeded 54 

driver is already installed 55 

DUMP: Cannot open dump device 

‘/dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s1’: Permission denied 55 

dumptm: Cannot open ‘/dev/rmt/string’: Device busy 56 

DUP/BAD I=i OWNER=o MODE=m SIZE=s 

MTIME=t FILE=f REMOVE? 57 

int DUP I=int 57 

ENOMEM The available data space is not 

large enough to accommodate the shared 

memory segment 58 

error 13 59 

error 15 initializing 59 

Error 76 60 

Error 88 60 

error: DPS has not initialized or 

server connection failed 60 

Error: Error adding OS service 

Solaris 2.6 sparc sun4u: 61 

Error Host Unknown: 62 

ERROR: missing file arg (cm3) 62 

ERROR [SCCS/s.string]: ‘SCCS/p.string’ 

nonexistent (ut4) 63 

Contents 

vii

"F" 66 

"G" 76 

ERROR [SCCS/s.string]: writable ‘string’ exists (ge4) 63 

Error: you don’t have a license to 

run this program 63 

esp0: data transfer overrun 64 

Event not found 64 

EXCESSIVE BAD BLKS I=int CONTINUE? 65 

EXCESSIVE DUP BLKS I=int CONTINUE? 65 

Exec format error 66 

failed to initialize adapter 66 

fbconsole: ioctl SRIOCSREDIR: Device Busy. 67 

fd0: unformatted diskette or no 

diskette in the drive 68 

File descriptor in bad state 68 

File exists 68 

File locking deadlock 69 

filemgr: mknod: Permission denied 69 

File name too long 70 

file system full 70 

FILE SYSTEM STATE IN SUPERBLOCK IS WRONG; FIX? 71 

File table overflow 71 

File too large 72 

FREE BLK COUNT(S) WRONG IN SUPERBLK SALVAGE? 72 

fsck: Can’t open /dev/dsk/string 73 

fsck: Can’t stat /dev/dsk/string 73 

ftp: ftp/tcp: unknown service 74 

fw_ipinput: q fc5fddc0:illegal interface 74 

fwm: no license 75 

viii Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

"H" 77 

"I" 80 

giving up 76 

Graphics Adapter device /dev/fb is of unknown type 76 

group.org_dir: NIS+ servers unreachable 77 

hang console 77 

/home/string: No such file or directory 78 

Host is down 78 

host name configuration error 79 

hosts.org_dir: NIS+ servers unreachable 79 

I can’t read your attachments. What 

mailer are you using? 80 

Identifier removed 80 

ie0: Ethernet jammed 81 

ie0: no carrier 81 

ifconfig: bad address 82 

ifconfig bad address le0 82 

If pipe/FIFO, don’t sleep in stream head 83 

Illegal Instruction 83 

Illegal instruction "0xhex" was 

encountered at PC 0xhex 84 

Illegal seek 84 

Image Tool: Unable to open XIL Library. 85 

Inappropriate ioctl for device 85 

INCORRECT BLOCK COUNT I=int (should be int) CORRECT? 86 

index failed:full:index preceded by saveset name 86 

inetd[int]: execv /usr/sbin/in.uucpd: 

No such file or directory 87 

inetd[int]: string/tcp: unknown service 87 

Contents 

ix

"J" 93 

"K" 94 

"L" 95 

inetd[int]: string/udp: unknown service 88 

inetd: Too many open files 88 

INIT: Cannot create /var/adm/utmp or 

/var/adm/utmpx 88 

InitOutput: Error loading module for /dev/fb 89 

Interrupted system call 90 

Invalid argument 90 

Invalid null command 91 

Invalid_SS_JWS_HOME:no 

C:\\lib\basicframe.properties 91 

I/O error 92 

Is a directory 92 

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: 93 

kernel read error 94 

Killed 94 

kmem_free block already free 95 

last message repeated int times 95 

ld.so.1 fatal: can’t set protection on segment 96 

ld.so.1: string: fatal: string: can’t open 

file: errno=2 96 

ld.so.1: string: fatal: string: open 

failed: No such file or directory 97 

ld.so.1: string: fatal: relocation 

error: symbol not found: string 97 

ld.so.1: string: fatal: relocation error: 

string: string: referenced symbol not found 98 

le0: Memory error! 99 

x Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

le0: No carrier-- cable disconnected 

or hub link test disabled? 99 

le0: No carrier-- transceiver cable problem? 100 

level 15 interrupt 101 

.lib section in a.out corrupted 101 

LINK COUNT FILE I=i OWNER=o MODE=m 

SIZE=s MTIME=t COUNT... ADJUST? 101 

Link has been severed 102 

LL105W: Protocol error detected. 102 

ln: cannot create /dev/fb: Read-only file system 102 

lockd[int]: create_client: no name for 

inet address 0xhex 103 

Login incorrect 103 

lp hang 104 

"M" 105 

Machine is not on the network 105 

mailtool: Can’t create dead letter: 

Permission denied 105 

mailtool: Could not initialize the 

Classing Engine 106 

Mail Tool is confused about the state 

of your Mail File. 106 

mail: Your mailfile was found to be 

corrupted (Content-length mismatch). 107 

Machine is not on the network 107 




Classing Engine 108 


of your Mail File. 109 

Contents 

xi


corrupted (Content-length mismatch). 109 

file name may contain holes - can’t swap on it. 110 

mbuf map full 110 

Memory address alignment 110 

memory leaks 111 

Message too long 111 

mount: /dev/dsk/string is already 

mounted, /string is busy, or... 112 

mount: giving up on: /string 112 

mount: mount-point /string does not exist. 113 

mount: the state of /dev/dsk/string is not okay 113 

Multihop attempted 114 

mbuf map full 114 

Memory address alignment 114 

memory leaks 114 

Message too long 115 


mounted, /string is busy, or... 115 

mount: giving up on: /string 116 

mount: mount-point /string does not exist. 116 

mount: the state of /dev/dsk/string is not okay 117 

Multihop attempted 117 

"N" 118 

Name not unique on network 118 

named [pid]: hostname.domainname has CNAME 

and other data (illegal) 118 

/net/string: No such file or directory 119 

Network dropped connection because of reset 120 

xii Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

Network is down 120 

Network is unreachable 120 

NFS getattr failed for server string: 

RPC: Timed out 121 

nfs mount: Couldn’t bind to reserved port 122 

NFS mounted callog file Unsupported. 122 

nfs mount: mount: string: Device busy 123 

NFS mount: /string mounted OK 123 

NFS read failed for server string 124 

nfs_server: bad getargs for int/int 124 

NFS server string not responding still trying 125 

NFS server string ok 125 

NFS string failed for server string: error int (string) 126 

nfs umount: string: is busy 126 

NFS write error on host string: No space 

left on device. 126 

NFS write failed for server string: RPC: Timed out 127 

NIS+ authentication failure 128 

nis_cachemgr: Error in reading NIS cold start file : 

’/var/nis/NIS_COLD_START’ 128 

No buffer space available 129 

No child processes 129 

No default media available 130 

No directory! Logging in with home=/ 130 

No message of desired type 131 

No recipients specified 132 

No record locks available 132 

No route to host 132 

No shell Connection closed 133 

Contents 

xiii

No space left on device 133 

No such device 134 

No such device or address 134 

No such file or directory 135 

no such map in server’s domain 135 

No such process 136 

No such user as string-- cron entries not created 136 

Not a data message 137 

Not a directory 137 

Not a stream device 138 

Not enough space 138 

not found 139 

NOTICE: vxvm: unexpected status on close 139 

NOTICE: /string: out of inodes 141 

Not login shell 141 

Not on system console 142 

Not owner 142 

Not supported 142 

No utmpx entry 143 

6/04/98 7:27:54 nsrck: SYSTEM error, 

more space needed to compress [client] 

index, 8.1 MB required 144 

"O" 145 

Object is remote 145 

ok 145 

Operation already in progress 146 

Operation canceled 146 

operation failed [error 185], unknown 

group error 0, string 146 

xiv Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

Operation not applicable 147 

"P" 150 

Operation not supported on transport endpoint 147 

Operation now in progress 148 

/opt/bin/jws: /solaris/bin/locate_dirs: not found 148 

Option not supported by protocol 148 

out of memory 149 

Out of stream resources 149 

overlapping swap volume 149 

Package not installed 150 

panic -boot: Could not mount filesystem 150 

panic: mutex_adaptive_exit 152 

Panic 152 

PARTIALLY ALLOCATED INODE I=int CLEAR? 153 

passwd: Changing password for string 154 

passwd.org_dir: NIS+ servers unreachable 155 

Password does not decrypt secret key 

for unix.uid@string 155 

"Q" 159 

"R" 159 


Please specify a recipient. 156 

Protocol error 156 

protocol error, string closed connection 157 

Protocol family not supported 157 

Protocol not supported 158 

Protocol wrong type for socket 158 

quotactl: open Is a directory 159 

Contents 

xv

Read error from network: Connection reset by peer 159 

"S" 166 

Read-only file system 160 

rebooting... 160 

Recipient names must be specified 160 

Reset tty pgrp from int to int 161 

Resource temporarily unavailable 161 

Restartable system call 162 

Result too large 162 

rlogin: no directory! connection closed 163 

rmdir: string: Directory not empty 164 

ROOT LOGIN /dev/console 164 

ROOT LOGIN /dev/pts/int FROM string 164 

RPC: Program not registered 165 

rx framing error 165 

save: SYSTEM error, Arg list too long 166 

SCSI bus DATA IN phase parity error 166 

SCSI transport failed: reason ’reset’ 167 

Security exception on host string. USER 

ACCESS DENIED. 168 

Segmentation Fault 168 

sendmail[]: can’t lookup data via name 


server "nis" 169 

server "dns" or 

sendmail[int]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR: net hang 

reading from string 170 

Service wouldn’t let us acquire selection 170 

setmnt: Cannot open /etc/mnttab for writing 171 

share_nfs: /home: Operation not applicable 171 

xvi Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

Slice c0t1d0s0 is too small to contain 1 replicas 171 

Socket type not supported 172 

Soft error rate (int%) during writing was too high 172 

Soft error rate (retries = int) during 

was too high 173 

writing 

"T" 180 

Software caused connection abort 173 

Srmount error 174 

Stale NFS file handle 174 

statd: cannot talk to statd at string 175 

stty: TCGETS: Operation not supported on socket 175 

su: No shell 176 

SunPC may NOT run correctly as root 177 

su: ’su root’ failed for string on /dev/pts/int 177 

su: ’su root’ succeeded for string on /dev/pts/int 178 

syncing file systems... 178 

SYSLOGD CAUSES SYSTEM HANGS 179 

syslog service starting. 179 

System booting after fatal error FATAL 179 

system hang 180 

SYSTEM HANGS DURING BOOT 180 

tar: /dev/rmt/0: No such file or directory 180 

tar: directory checksum error 181 

tar: tape write error 181 

Text file busy 182 

Text is lost because the maximum edit 

log size has been exceeded. 182 

THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEM(S) HAD AN 

UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY: 182 

Contents 

xvii

The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an 

external device is turned off. 183 

THE SYSTEM IS BEING SHUT DOWN NOW !!! 184 

The system will be shut down in int minutes 184 

This gateway does not support Unix Password. 185 

This mail file has been changed by 

another mail reader. 185 

"U" 190 

Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet 186 

Timer expired 186 

token ring hangs 187 

Too many links 187 

Too many open files 187 

Transport endpoint is already connected 188 

Transport endpoint is not connected 188 

TRAP 3E 189 

ufsdump 4mm commands 190 

umount: warning: /string not in mnttab 190 

Unable to connect to license server. 

Inconsistent encryption code. 191 

unable to get pty! 191 

Unable to install/attach driver ’string’ 192 

Unable to open nwrecover, Error: 

nwrecover: NSR: please start a server on client_name 192 

uname: error writing name when booting 193 

undefined control 193 

Unmatched ‘ 193 

UNREF FILE I=i OWNER=o MODE=m SIZE=s 

MTIME=t CLEAR? 194 

Use "logout" to logout. 194 

xviii Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

user unknown 195 

/usr/dt/bin/rpc.ttdbserverd:Child Status’ changed 195 

/usr/openwin/bin/xinit: connection to 

X server lost 196 

/usr/ucb/cc: language optional software 

package not installed 196 

UX: userdel: error: Cannot update 

system files login cannot be deleted 197 

"V" 198 

Value too large for defined data type 198 

Volume Manager reports error: 198 

vxconfigd error: segmentation fault 199 

vxvm:vxslicer:ERROR unsupported disk layout 200 

"W" 200 

WARNING: add_spec: No major number for sf 200 

WARNING: Clock gained int days-- CHECK 

AND RESET THE DATE! 201 

WARNING: No network locking on string: 

contact admin to install server change 202 

WARNING: processor level 4 interrupt not serviced 202 

WARNING: /tmp: File system full, swap 

space limit exceeded 203 

WARNING: TOD clock not initialized-- 

CHECK AND RESET THE DATE! 203 

WARNING: Unable to repair the / 

filesystem. Run fsck 204 

"X" 206 

Watchdog Reset 204 

Who are you? 205 

Window Underflow 205 

X connection to string:0.0 broken 

(explicit kill or server shutdown). 206 

Contents 

xix

xinit: not found 207 

XIO: fatal IO error 32 (Broken pipe) 

on X server "string:0.0" 207 

Xlib: connection to "string:0.0" refused by server 207 

Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display "0.0" 208 

xterm: fatal IO error 32 (Broken Pipe) 

or KillClient on X server "string:0.0" 209 

XView warning: Cannot load font set 

’string’ (Font Package) 210 

"Y" 210 

yp_all RPC clnt_call (transport level) failure 210 

ypbind[int]: NIS server for domain "string" OK 211 

ypbind[int]: NIS server not responding for domain " 

string "; still trying 211 

"Z" 212 

ypwhich: can’t communicate with ypbind 212 

zsint: silo overflow 212 

xx Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

Preface 

System administrators and advanced users can use the Common Messages and 

Troubleshooting Guide to find explanations of some of the more common error 

messages in the Solaris system. 

Look up the messages and explanations here when you see a system message that 

you don’t understand. If the message you’re searching for is fairly common, it might 

be documented in this book. 

How This Book Is Organized 

Chapter 1,” explains how to find messages in both the AnswerBook Navigator and 

in the printed book. 

Chapter 2,” lists messages alphabetically, with troubleshooting information following 

each message listing. 

Special Symbols 

Three special symbols are used with the message explanations in this book. 

Preface 

xxi

See Also 

When further reading is suggested for a topic mentioned in the message explanation, 

the v symbol appears next to the first mention of the topic. This tells you to look in 

the message “See Also” section for sources of more information. 

New Line 

This symbol means that the part of this multi-line message following ¿ appears on a 

separate line. 

Deciphering Type Changes And Prompt 

Symbols 

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book. 

AaBbCc123 

Variables, book titles, words 

to be emphasized 

To delete a file, type rm filename. 

Read Chapter 6 in User’s Guide. 

TABLE P–1 

Typographic Conventions 

Typeface or 

Symbol 

AaBbCc123 

Meaning 

Functions, commands, 

filenames, code, screen 

displays 

Example 

Edit your .login file. 

Use ls -a to list all files. 

The setlogmask() function sets... 

AaBbCc123 

name(num) 

What you type, contrasted 

with screen displays 

The manual page in the 

Solaris 2.7 Reference Manual 

AnswerBook 

machine_name% su 

Password: 

See ls(1). 

% C shell prompt %ls-a 

xxii Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

TABLE P–1 Typographic Conventions (continued) 

Typeface or 

Symbol 

Meaning 

Example 

$ Bourne or Korn shell prompt $ ls -a 

# Superuser prompt # ls -a 

xxiii

CHAPTER 1 

About Error Messages 

This book covers some of the more common error messages in the Solaris 7operating 

environment. Most messages covered here come from the operating system and the 

window system, but some come from commands, networking, and system 

administration (the section 1 and section 1M man pages). 

Searching for Messages 

Choosing What To Look For 

How you choose to look up a particular message depends on 

4 how the message is constructed 

4 whether you are searching in a printed book or in the AnswerBook documentation 

Variable Words and Numbers 

Remember as you are searching that some words and numbers in messages vary 

when the messages are displayed. For example, the following message uses the name 

of the server affected, b5server in this case: 

NFS read failed for server b5server 

When message words or numbers vary, this book uses the words variable and number 

in the italics type face. So the previous message is listed in this book as: 

NFS read failed for server variable 

1

Variable words and numbers can appear anywhere in a message, even at the 

beginning. Because of this, messages are alphabetized by the first nonreplaced word 

or number in the message. 

Frequently Duplicated Parts of Messages 

Many messages you see are actually combined messages, often beginning with a 

program name. The five error messages in the following example are basically the 

same even though the command names are different. 

4 find: out of memory 

4 grep: out of memory 

4 ls: out of memory 

4 mount: out of memory 

4 fsck: out of memory 

Rather than document this message at least five times, it appears in this book as the 

message “out of memory.” Messages that contain colons (:) are often combined 

messages, and you might find that explanations of message sections are available 

separately. 

So, if you don’t find the beginning of a message in the book, and the message 

contains colons, search for other parts of the message. 

In the Printed Book 

Methods for finding a particular message vary depending on whether you are 

looking at a printed book or are searching online with the AnswerBook Navigator. 

To find a message in the printed book, you can search the table of contents (which is 

an alphabetical listing of the messages) or the main body of the manual, Chapter 2. 

In the AnswerBook Navigator 

While print search methods work in AnswerBook, too, it’s much faster to search for 

messages through the search utility in the AnswerBook Navigator. 

1. Bring up AnswerBook 

$ answerbook 

2. Click Select on the Search button 

3. Enter the words or pattern to search for in the “Search Library For:” pane 

2 Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide ♦ October, 1998

4. Double-click Select on an entry in the resulting list. Although any of the entries 

might contain the information you’re looking for, those from this book are most 

likely to be what you want. 

If your first search doesn’t find the message, consider altering the search pattern. 

Remember that this book contains only a small percentage of possible messages. 

In general, you are most likely to find a documented message in the AnswerBook 

search pane when you enclose the searched-for words in quotation marks (““) or in 

parentheses (). 

Using Pattern Matching 

You can search in the AnswerBook Navigator for text containing specific single 

words, phrases that contain spaces, words near one another, and word variations. 

See“Using the AnswerBook Software” in OpenWindows User’s Guide for more 

detailed information about the AnswerBook search. 

TABLE 1–1 

AnswerBook Search Pattern Matching 

To search for Such as Use 

Single words installing, le0, group The words 

Phrases with spaces Installing Packages Quotation marks (““) around 

the phrase 

Words near one another Installing...Server Parentheses ( ( )) 

Word variations delete, deleting, deletion Asterisks (*) and hyphens (-) 

The following example shows some of the possible matches for specific AnswerBook 

Navigator searches. 

About Error Messages 3

TABLE 1–2 

AnswerBook Search Results 

Searching With 

Installing 

“Installing Packages” 

(Installing Server) 

Delet* 

Finds These (for Example) 

Installing XIL Device Handlers (XIL Device Porting and 

Extensibility Guide) 

Installing Packages on a Server for... (Application Packaging 

Developer’s Guide) 



Installing Packages for Clients on a Server (Software and 

AnswerBook Packages...) 



Creating an Install Server (SPARC Installing Solaris Software) 

Delete All Silence (Solaris Advanced User’s Guide) 

Deleting a Line (Solaris Advanced User’s Guide) 

Deletion of the New Selection (OLIT Reference Manual) 

If you are unable to find an error message documented, please report it to us by 

sending e-mail to msgdoc@Eng.Sun.COM (this address is an autoresponder alias, not 

an actual person). 

Combining Search Techniques 

Combine the above search techniques to further refine your search. For example, 

“chang* mail-tool” finds documents containing phrases such as “change mailtool,” 

“change mail tool,” “change mail-tool,” “changing mailtool,” and so on. 

Understanding the Message 

Explanations 

Each message contains at least one of the following areas: 

4 Cause: What might have happened to cause the message 

4 Action: What you can do to fix the problem or, to continue with your work 


4 Technical Notes: Background information that might be interesting or helpful to a 

technical audience. This often contains information specifically for programmers 

Whenever you see part of a message that says “errno=” and then a number, look 

up the number on the Intro(2) man page to see what it indicates. System error 

messages on the Intro(2) man page are organized numerically. 

4 See Also: Suggests further reading 

About Error Messages 5


CHAPTER 2 

Alphabetical Message Listing 

Messages listed here are in the current Solaris 7 system. Many were also present in 

earlier Solaris 2 systems. 

Messages are listed alphabetically. 

Numbers and Symbols 

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***** 

Cause 

This comment from the fsck(1M) command tells you that it changed the filesystem 

it was checking. 

Action 

If fsck(1M) was checking the root filesystem, reboot the system immediately to 

avoid corrupting the / partition. If fsck(1M) was checking a mounted filesystem, 

unmount that filesystem and run fsck(1M) again, so that work done by fsck(1M) 

is not undone when in-memory file tables are written out to disk. 

7

** Phase 1-- Check Blocks and Sizes 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command is checking the filesystem shown in the messages that are 

displayed before this one. The first phase checks the inode list, finds bad or duplicate 

blocks, and verifies the inode size and format. 

Action 

If more than a dozen errors occur during this important phase, you might want to 

restore the filesystem from backup tapes. Otherwise it is fine to proceed with 

fsck(1M). 

See Also 

For more information, see the chapter on checking filesystem integrity in the System 

Administration Guide, Volume I. 

** Phase 1b-- Rescan For More DUPS 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command detected duplicate blocks while checking a filesystem, so 

fsck(1M) is rescanning the filesystem to find the inode that originally claimed that 

block. 

Action 

If fsck(1M) executes this optional phase, you will see additional DUP/BAD 

messages in phases 2 and 4. 

See Also 




** Phase 2-- Check Pathnames 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command is checking a filesystem, and fsck(1M) is now removing 

directory entries pointing to bad inodes that were discovered in phases 1 and 1b. 

This phase might ask you to remove files, salvage directories, fix inodes, reallocate 

blocks, and so on. 

Action 

If more than a dozen errors occur during this important phase, you might want to 

restore the filesystem from backup tapes. Otherwise it is fine to proceed with 

fsck(1M). 

See Also 



** Phase 3-- Check Connectivity 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command is checking a filesystem, and fsck(1M) is now verifying 

the integrity of directories. You might be asked to adjust, create, expand, reallocate, 

or reconnect directories. 

Action 

You can usually answer yes to all these questions without harming the filesystem. 

See Also 



Alphabetical Message Listing 9

** Phase 4-- Check Reference Counts 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command is checking a filesystem, and fsck(1M) is now checking 

link count information obtained in phases 2 and 3. You might be asked to clear or 

adjust link counts. 

Action 


See Also 



** Phase 5-- Check Cyl groups 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command is checking a filesystem, and fsck(1M) is now checking 

the free-block and used-inode maps. You might be asked to salvage free blocks or 

summary information. 

Action 


See Also 




29a00 illegal instruction 

Cause 

When trying to boot a client from a boot/jumpstart server to install/upgrade a 

workstation, it fails with the following message: 

boot net - install 

Rebooting with command: net - install 

Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ledma@f, 400010/le@f, 8c0000 File and args: - 

install 

29a00 Illegal Instruction 

(0) ok 

Action 

The problem lies in the /tftpboot directory of the boot server. Confirm that the 

HOSTID and HOSTID.ARCH files are linked to the correct inetboot file for your 

architecture. The following is an example of how a symbolic link should look: 

# cd /tftpboot 

# ls -l 81971904* 

81971904 -> inetboot.sun4m.Solaris_2.4 

81971904.SUN4M -> inetboot.sun4m.Solaris_2.4 

The following is an example of an incorrect entry for a sun4m system: 

C753002F -> inetboot.axil4m.Solaris_2.5.1 

C753002F.AXIL4M -> inetboot.axil4m.Solaris_2.5.1 

If the entries are not correct, remove the entry for the particular client in this 

directory, using rm_install_client or rm_client commands, and re-add the 

client with the add_install_client(1M) or add_client command or through 

Solstice giving the correct architecture. 


451 timeout waiting for input during 

source 

Cause 

When sendmail(1M) reads from anything that might time out, such as an SMTP 

connection, it sets a timer to the value of the r processing option before reading 

begins. If the read doesn’t complete before the timer expires, this message appears 

and reading stops. (Usually this is during RCPT.) The mail message is then queued 

for later delivery. 

Action 

If you see this message often, increase the value of the r processing option in the 

/etc/mail/sendmail.cf file. If the timer is already set to a large number, look for 

hardware problems such as poor network cabling or connections. 

See Also 

For more information about setting the timer, see the section describing the 

sendmail(1M) configuration options in the Mail Administration Guide. If you are 

using the AnswerBook, the term "timeouts" is a good search string. 

550 hostname... Host unknown 

Cause 

This sendmail(1M) message indicates that the destination host machine, specified 

by the address portion after the @ (at-sign), was not found during DNS (Domain 

Naming System) lookup. 

Action 

Use the nslookup(1M) command to verify that the destination host exists in that or 

other domains, perhaps with a slightly different spelling. Failing that, contact the 

intended recipient and ask for a proper address. 

Sometimes this return message indicates that the intended host is down, rather than 

unknown. If a DNS record contains an unknown alternate host, and the primary host 

is down, sendmail(1M) returns a "Host unknown" message from the alternate host.¤ 


For uucp(1C) mail addresses, the "Host unknown" message probably means that the 

destination hostname is not listed in the /etc/uucp/Systems file. 

Technical Notes 

¤ This is a known sendmail(1M) version 8.6.7 bug. 

See Also 

For information on how sendmail(1M) works, see the Mail Administration Guide. 

550 username... User unknown 

Cause 

This sendmail(1M) message indicates that the intended recipient, specified by the 

address portion before the @ (at-sign), could not be located on the destination host 

machine. 

Action 

Check the e-mail address and try again, perhaps with a slightly different spelling. If 

this doesn’t work, contact the intended recipient and ask for a proper address. 

See Also 


554 hostname 

... Local configuration error 

Cause 

This sendmail(1M) message usually indicates that the local host is trying to send 

mail to itself. 


Action 

Check the value of the $j macro in the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file to ensure 

that this value is a fully-qualified domain name. 


When the sending system provides its hostname to the receiving system (in the 

SMTP HELO command), the receiving system compares its name to the sender’s name. 

If these are the same, the receiving system issues this error message and closes the 

connection. The name provided in the HELO command is the value of the $j macro. 

See Also 


"A" 

Accessing a corrupted shared library 

Cause 

Trying to exec(2) an a.out that requires a static shared library (to be linked in) and 

exec(2) could not load the static shared library. The static shared library is probably 

corrupted. 


The symbolic name for this error is ELIBBAD, errno=84. 


access violation unknown host 

IP address 

Cause 

Solstice Backup Utility fails displaying the error: 

access violation unknown host IP address on Networker 4.2.2. This is 

usually caused by corrupted host name in the host NIS/NIS+ map/table. 

Action 

Check the Networker client configuration for an incorrect host name. If all else fail, a 

workaround is to add the entry to /etc/hosts. 

A command window has exited because 

its child exited. 

Cause 

The argument to a cmdtool(1) or a shelltool(1) window looks like it is supposed to be a 

command, but the system cannot find the command. 

Action 

To run this command inside a cmdtool(1) or a shelltool(1), make sure the command is 

spelled correctly and is in your search path (if necessary, use a full path name). If 

you intended this argument as an option setting, use a minus sign (-) at the 

beginning of the option. 


Both the cmdtool(1) and the shelltool(1) are OpenWindows terminal emulators. 


Address already in use 

Cause 

User attempted to use an address already in use, and the protocol does not allow this. 


The symbolic name for this error is EADDRINUSE, errno=125. 

Address family not supported by 

protocol family 

Cause 

An address incompatible with the requested protocol was used. 


The symbolic name for this error is EAFNOSUPPORT, errno=124. 

admintool: Received communication 

service error 4 

Cause 

AdminTool could not start a display method because a remote procedure call timed 

out, so it can’t send the request. This error results when admintool(1M) tries to 

access the NIS or NIS+ tables when networking is not enabled. 

Action 

Verify the system network status with ifconfig -a to make sure the system is 

connected to the network. Make sure the ethernet cable is connected and the system 

is configured to run NIS or NIS+. 


Advertise error 

Cause 

This error is RFS specific. It occurs when users try to advertise a resource already 

advertised, try to stop RFS while there are resources still advertised, or try to force 

unmount a resource when it is still advertised. 


The symbolic name for this error is EADV, errno=68. 

answerbook: XView error: NULL pointer 

passed to xv_set 

Cause 

The AnswerBook navigator window comes up, but the document viewer window 

does not. This message appears on the console, and the message "Could not start 

new viewer" appears in the navigator window. This situation indicates that you have 

an unknown client or a problem with the network naming service. 

Action 

Run the ypmatch(1) or nismatch(1) command o determine if the client hostname 

is in the hosts map. If it isn’t, add it to to NIS hosts map on the NIS master server. 

Then make sure the /etc/hosts file on the client contains an IP address and entry 

for that hostname followed by loghost (reboot if you changed the /etc/hosts 

file). Check that the ypmatch(1) or nismatch(1) client hosts command returns the 

same IP host address as in the /etc/hosts file. Finally, quit all existing 

AnswerBooks and restart. 

See Also 

For more information on the NIS hosts map, see the section on the default search 

criteria in the NIS+ and FNS Administration Guide. If you are using the AnswerBook, 

"NIS hosts map" is a good search string. 


Arg list too long 

Cause 

The system could not handle the number of arguments given to a command or 

program when it combined those arguments with the environment’s exported shell 

variables. The argument list limit is the size of the argument list plus the size of the 

environment’s exported shell variables. 

Action 

The easiest solution is to reduce the size of the parent process environment by 

unsetting extraneous environment variables. (See the man page for the shell you’re 

using to find out how to list and change your environment variables.) Then run the 

program again. 


An argument list longer than ARG_MAX bytes was presented to a member of the 

exec(2) family of system calls. 

The symbolic name for this error is E2BIG, errno=7. 

Argument out of domain 

Cause 

This is a programming error or a data input error. 

Action 

Ask the program’s author to fix this condition, or supply data in a different format. 


This indicates an attempt to evaluate a mathematical programming function at a 

point where its value is not defined. The argument of a programming function in the 

math package (3M) is out of the domain of the function. This could happen when 

taking the square root, power, or log of a negative number, when computing a power 


to a non-integer, or when passing an out-of-range argument to a hyperbolic 

programming function. 

To help pinpoint a program’s math errors, use the matherr(3M) facility. 

The symbolic name for this error is EDOM, errno=33. 

Arguments too long 

Cause 

This C shell error message indicates that there are too many arguments after a 

command. For example, this can happen by invoking rm * in a huge directory. The 

C shell cannot handle more than 1706 arguments. 

Action 

Temporarily start a Bourne shell with sh(1) and run the command again. The 

Bourne shell dynamically allocates command line arguments. Return to your original 

shell by typing exit. 

assertion failed: string, file name, 

line int 

Cause 

An unexoected condition in the program has happened. 

Action 

Contact the vendor or author of the program to ask why it failed. If you have the 

source code for the program, you can look at the file and line number where the 

assertion failed. This might give you an idea of how to run the program differently. 


This message results from a diagnostic macro called assert(3C) that a programmer 

inserted into the specified line of a source file. The expression that evaluated untrue 

precedes the file name and line number. 


Attempting to link in more shared 

libraries than system limit 

Cause 

Trying to exec(2) an a.out that requires more static shared libraries than is 

allowed on the current configuration of the system. 


The symbolic name for this error is ELIBMAX, errno=86. 

automountd[int]: server hostname 

responding 

Cause 

This automounter message indicates that the system tried to mount a filesystem from 

an NFS server that is either down or extremely slow to respond. In some cases this 

message indicates that the network link to the NFS server is broken, although that 

condition produces other error messages as well. 

Action 

If you are the system administrator responsible for the non-responding NFS server, 

check to see whether the machine needs repair or rebooting. Encourage your user 

community to report such problems quickly but only once. When the NFS server is 

back in operation, the automounter will be able to access the requested filesystem. 

See Also 

For more information on NFS failures, see the section on NFS troubleshooting in the 

NFS Administration Guide. If you are using the AnswerBook, a good search string is 

"NFS Service." 


automount[int]: name: Not a directory 

Cause 

The file specified after the first colon is not a valid mount point because it is not a 

directory. 

Action 

Ensure that the mount point is a directory and not a regular file or a symbolic link. 

"B" 

Bad address 

Cause 

The system encountered a hardware fault in attempting to access a parameter of a 

programming function. 

Action 

Check the address to see if it resulted from supplying the wrong device or option to 

a command. If that is not the problem, contact the vendor or author of the program 

for an update. 


This error could occur any time a function that takes a pointer argument is passed an 

invalid address. Because processors differ in their ability to detect bad addresses, on 

some architectures passing bad addresses can result in undefined behaviors. 

The symbolic name for this error is EFAULT, errno=14. 


BAD/DUP FILE I=i OWNER=o MODE=m SIZE=s 

MTIME=t CLEAR? 

Cause 

While checking inode link counts during phase 4, fsck(1M) found a file (or 

directory) that either does not exist or exists somewhere else. 

Action 

To clear the inode of its reference to this file or directory, answer yes. With the -p 

(preen) option, fsck(1M) automatically clears bad or duplicate file references, so 

answering yes to this question seldom causes a problem. 

Bad file number 

Cause 

Generally this is a program error, not a usage error. 

Action 

Contact the vendor or author of the program for an update. 


Either a file descriptor refers to no open file, or a read(2) (or write(2)) request is 

made to a file that is open only for writing (or reading). 

The symbolic name for this error is EBADF, errno=9. 

block no. BAD I=inode no. 

Cause 

Upon detecting an out-of-range block, fsck(1M) prints the bad block number and 

its containing inode (after I=). 


Action 

In fsck(1M) phases 2 and 4, you decide whether or not to clear these bad blocks. 

Before committing to repair with fsck(1M), you could determine which file 

contains this inode by passing the inode number to the ncheck(1M) command: 

# ncheck -iinum filesystem 

See Also 



BAD_MESSAGE (error code 100) from 

X.400 

Cause 

X.400 software was working fine. Suddenly message exchanges failed in 

ma_start_delivery(). It was returning an error code of 100 (BAD_MESSAGE). 

ma_start_delivery() call fails when trying to exhange file of more than 900 

bytes. 

Action 

X.400 was restarted with the wrong umask. 

et the umask to 0022 and restart software to fix. 

bad module/chip at: position 

Cause 

This message from the memory management system often appears with parity 

errors, and indicates a bad memory module or chip at the position listed. Data loss is 

possible if the problem occurs other than at boot time. 


Action 

Replace the memory module or chip at the indicated position. Refer to the vendor’s 

hardware manual for help finding this location. 

Bad request descriptor 

Cause 

Apparently used only in NIS+ to indicate corrupted or missing tables. 


The symbolic name for this error is EBADR, errno=51. 

BAD SUPER BLOCK: string 

Cause 

This message from fsck(1M) indicates that a filesystem’s super-block is damaged 

beyond repair and must be replaced. At boot time (with the -p option) this message 

is prefaced by the filesystem’s device name. After this message comes the actual 

damage recognized (see Action). Unfortunately fsck(1M) does not print the 

number of the damaged super-block. 

Action 

The most common cause of this error is overlapping disk partitions. Do not 

immediately rerun fsck(1M) as suggested by the lines that display after the error 

message. First make sure that you have a recent backup of the filesystem involved; if 

not, try to back up the filesystem now using ufsdump(1M). Then run the 

format(1M) command, select the disk involved, and print out the partition 

information. 

# format 

: N 

> partition 

(continued) 


(Continuation) 

> print 

Note whether the overlap occurs at the beginning or end of the filesystem involved. 

Then run newfs(1M) with the -N option to print out the filesystem parameters, 

including the location of backup super-blocks. 

# newfs -N /dev/dsk/device 

Select a super-block from a non-overlapping area of the disk, but note that in most 

cases you have only one chance to select the proper replacement super-block, which 

fsck(1M) soon propagates to all the cylinders. If you select the wrong replacement 

super-block, data corruption will probably occur, and you will have to restore from 

backup tapes. After you select a new super-block, provide fsck(1M) with the new 

master super-block number: 

# fsck -o b=NNNN /dev/dsk/device 


Specific reasons for a damaged super-block include: a wrong magic number, out of 

range NCG (number of cylinder groups) or CPG (cylinders per group), the wrong 

number of cylinders, a preposterously large super-block size, and trashed values in 

super-block. These reasons are generally not meaningful because a corrupt 

super-block is usually extremely corrupt. 

See Also 

For more information on bad superblocks, see the sections on restoring bad 

superblocks in the System Administration Guide, Volume I. If you are using the 

AnswerBook, "superblock" is a good search string. 


BAD TRAP 

Cause 

A bad trap can indicate faulty hardware or a mismatch between hardware and its 

configuration information. Data loss is possible if the problem occurs other than at 

boot time. 

Action 

If you recently installed new hardware, verify that the software was correctly 

configured. Check the kernel traceback displayed on the console to see which device 

generated the trap. If the configuration files are correct, you will probably have to 

replace the device. 

In some cases, the bad trap message indicates a bad or down-rev CPU. 


A hardware processor trap occurred, and the kernel trap handler was unable to 

restore system state. This is a fatal error that usually precedes a panic, after which 

the system performs a sync, dump, and reboot. The following conditions can cause a 

bad trap: a system text or data access fault, a system data alignment error, or certain 

kinds of user software traps. 

/bin/sh: file: too big 

Cause 

This Bourne shell message indicates a classic "no memory" error. While trying to load 

the program specified after the first colon, the shell noticed that the system ran out 

of virtual memory (swap space). 

Action 

See the message "Not enough space" for information on reconfiguring your system to 

add more swap space. 


Block device required 

Cause 

A raw (character special) device was specified where a block device was required, 

such as during a call to the mount(1M) command. 

Action 

To see which block devices are available, use ls -l to look in /devices. Then 

specify a block device instead of a character device. Block device modes start with a 

b, whereas raw character device modes start with a c. 


The symbolic name of this error is ENOTBLK, errno=15. 

Boot device: /iommu/sbus/ 

directory/directoryliteral>/sd@3,0 

Cause 

This message always appears at the beginning of rebooting. If there is a problem, the 

system hangs, and no other messages appear. This condition is caused by conflicting 

SCSI targets for the boot device, which is almost always target 3. 

Action 

The boot device is usually the machine’s internal disk drive, target 3. Make sure that 

external and secondary disk drives are targeted to 1, 2, or 0, and do not conflict with 

each other. Also make sure that tape drives are targeted to 4 or 5, and CD drives to 

6, avoiding any conflict with each other or with the disk drives. You can set a 

device’s target number using pushbutton switches or a dial on the back near the 

SCSI cables. If the targeting of the internal disk drive is in question, check it by 

powering off the machine, removing all external drives, turning the power on, and 

running the probe-scsi-all or probe-scsi command from the PROM monitor. 


oot error 13 | sun4m 

Cause 

Diskless client boot gave NFS mount error 13 

Cause 

Diskless client fails to boot, NFS error 13 

Broadcast Message from root (pts/int) 

on server [date] 

Cause 

This message from the wall(1M) command is transmitted to all users logged into a 

system. You could see it during a rlogin(1) or telnet(1) session, or on terminals 

connected to a timesharing system. 

Action 

Carefully read the broadcast message. Often this broadcast is followed by a 

shutdown warning. 

See the message "The system will be shut down in int minutes" for details about 

system shutdown. 

See Also 

For more information on bringing down the system, see the section on halting the 

system in the System Administration Guide, Volume I. If you are using the 

AnswerBook, "halting the system" is a good search string. 


Broken pipe 

Cause 

This condition is often normal, and the message is merely informational (as when 

piping many lines to the head(1) program). The condition occurs when a write on a 

pipe does not find a reading process. This usually generates a signal to the executing 

program, but this message displays when the program ignores the signal. 

Action 

Check the process at the end of the pipe to see why it exited. 


The symbolic name of this error is EPIPE, errno=32. 

Bus Error 

Cause 

A process has received a signal indicating that it attempted to perform I/O to a 

device that is restricted or that does not exist. This message is usually accompanied 

by a core dump, except on read-only filesystems. 

Action 

Use a debugger to examine the core file and determine what program fault or system 

problem led to the bus error. If possible, check the program’s output files for data 

corruption that might have occurred before the bus error. 


Bus errors can result from either a programming error or device corruption on your 

system. Some common causes of bus errors are: invalid file descriptors, unreasonable 

I/O requests, bad memory allocation, misaligned data structures, compiler bugs, and 

corrupt boot blocks. 


"C" 

Cannot access a needed shared library 

Cause 

Trying to exec(2) an a.out that requires a static shared library and the static 

shared library doesn’t exist or the user doesn’t have permission to use it. 


The symbolic name for this error is ELIBACC, errno=83. 

Cannot allocate colormap entry for " 

string " 

Cause 

This message from libXt (X Intrinsics library) indicates that the system colormap 

was full even before the color name specified in quotes was requested. Some 

applications can continue after this message. Other applications, such as Workspace 

Properties Color, fail to come up when the colormap is full. 

Action 

Exit the programs that make heavy use of the colormap, then restart the failed 

application and try again. 

Cannot assign requested address 

Cause 

Results from an attempt to create a transport endpoint with an address not on the 

current machine. 



The symbolic name for this error is EADDRNOTAVAIL, errno=126. 

cannot change passwd, not correct 

passwd 

Cause 

While running yppasswd(1) and trying to change a user’s password, it responded 

with the message cannot change passwd, not correct passwd. 

Also getting yppasswd user string does not exist on server console, but 

running ypcat passwd | grep (user) returns the username. Verified that 

yppasswdd(1M) is running. 

Action 

Check the passwd(4) file with pwck(1M) and verify that yppasswdd(1M) is 

running on the right server. Then verify where the passwd(4) file is located and if 

changed, check that yppasswdd(1M) has the location in the process line. The 

password located in /etc/yp should read 

/usr/lib/yp/rpc.yppasswdd -D /etc/yp. The -D option with the passwd files 

directory location tells yppasswdd(1M) where to update and verify password 

changes. 

Cannot exec a shared library directly 

Cause 

Attempting to exec(2) a shared library directly. 


The symbolic name for this error is ELIBEXEC, errno=87. 


Cannot find SERVER hostname in 

network database 

Cause 

A brief description: the user is on a different subnet and is running permanent 

licenses: 

ultra1(50)% cc -o hello hello.c 

License Error : Cannot find the license server (fry) 

in the network database for product(Sun WorkShop Compiler C) 

Cannot find SERVER hostname in network database (-14,7) 

cc: acomp failed for hello.c 

ultra1(51)% 

Action 

First, make sure that the server is up and running. Second, make sure that the server 

is in the /etc/hosts file of the client system by typing: ping server name. Third, 

check the license daemon on teh server to see if it is running. Fourth, make sure that 

there is an elementary license file on the client: 

cd /etc/opt/licenses 

more sunpro.loc 

Fifth, in the sunpro.loc directory are there only text license files such as 

sunpro.lic,1? Sixth, on the client check: 

% cd /etc 

% more nsswitch.conf | grep hosts 

hosts: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files 

This says that it will use the nis server to look up the IP address. If it is set first for 

nis and the /etc/hosts file has the server listed by name, change the line to 

hosts: 

files nis 

Then see if it can find it. If not, try truss and snoop to see what is going on. 


Cannot open FCC file 

Cause 

When trying to send mail via Netscape, the message is displayed. The problem is 

that Netscape is trying to save the outbound message to a file that has been specified 

by the user, but does not exist. 

Action 

To correct this problem: go to options Mail and News Preferences, then go to 

Compose. A template pops up. There is a section that specifies where to save 

out-going mail and news files. Make sure that these files exist or remove them from 

the template, if you do not care about logging what messages are sent via Netscape. 

Cannot send after transport endpoint 

shutdown 

Cause 

A request to send data was disallowed because the transport endpoint has already 

been shut down. 


The symbolic name for this error is ESHUTDOWN, errno=143. 

Can’t create public message device 

(Device busy) 

Cause 

This message comes from the lp(1) print scheduler, indicating that it is either 

extremely busy or hung. 


Action 

If print jobs are coming out of the printer in question, wait until they are finished 

and then resubmit this print job. If you see this message again, the lp(1) system is 

probably hung. 

See the message "lp hang" for a procedure to clear the queue. 


If lp(1) is unable to create a device for printer messages, the message FIFO could be 

already in use, or locked by another print job. 

See Also 

For more information on the print scheduler, see the section on administrating 

printers in the System Administration Guide Volume II. 

Can’t invoke /etc/init, error int 

Cause 

This message can appear while a system is booting, indicating that the init(1M) 

program is missing or corrupted. Note that /etc/init is a symbolic link to 

/sbin/init. 

Action 

Boot the miniroot so you can replace init(1M). Halt the machine by typing 

Stop-A or by pressing the reset button. Reboot single-user from CD-ROM, the net, 

or diskette. For example, type boot cdrom -s at the ok prompt to boot from 

CD-ROM. After the system comes up and gives you a # prompt, mount the device 

corresponding to the original / partition somewhere, with a command similar to the 

mount(1M) command below. Then copy the init(1M) program from the miniroot 

to the original / partition, and reboot the system. 

# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 /mnt 

# cp /sbin/init /mnt/sbin/init 

# reboot 


If this doesn’t work, other files might be corrupted, and you might need to reinstall 

the entire system. 


The error number is 2 if /sbin/init is missing, or 8 if /sbin/init has an 

incorrect executable format. This is usually followed by a "panic: icode" message. The 

system tries to reboot itself, but goes into a loop, because rebooting is impossible 

without init(1M). 

See Also 

For more information on booting the system, see the section on halting and booting 

the system in the System Administration Guide, Volume I. 

can’t open /dev/rdsk/string: (null): 

UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY 

Cause 

On SunOS 4.1.x, this message indicated that the device containing the /dev 

filesystem has become disconnected. Solaris behavior has not been confirmed. 

can’t synchronize with hayes 

Cause 

This message sometimes appears when using a modem that the system regards as a 

"Hayes" type modem, which includes most modems manufactured today. The 

message can be caused by incorrect switch settings, by poor cable connections, or by 

not turning the modem on. 

Action 

Check that the modem is on and that the cables between the modem and your 

system are securely connected. Check the internal and external modem switch 

settings. Turn the modem off and then on again, if necessary. 


cd: Too many arguments 

Cause 

The C shell’s cd(1) command takes only one argument. Either more than one 

directory was specified, or a directory name containing a space was specified. 

Directory names with spaces are easy to create with File Manager. 

Action 

Use only one directory name. To change to a directory whose name contains spaces, 

enclose the directory name in double (") or single (’) quotes, or use File Manager. 

Channel number out of range 

Cause 

The system has run out of stream devices. This error results when a stream head 

attempts to open a minor device that does not exist or that is currently in use. 

Action 

Check that the stream device in question exists and was created with an appropriate 

number of minor devices. Make sure that the hardware corresponds to this 

configuration. If the stream device configuration is correct, try again later when more 

system resources might be available. 


The symbolic name for this error is ECHRNG, errno=37. 

chmod: ERROR: invalid mode 

Cause 

This message from the chmod(1) command indicates a problem in the first 

non-option argument. 


Action 

If you are specifying a numeric file mode, you can provide any number of digits 

(although only the final one to four are considered), but all digits must be between 0 

and 7. If you are specifying a symbolic file mode, use the syntax provided in the 

chmod(1) usage message to avoid the "invalid mode" error message: 

Usage: chmod [ugoa][+-=][rwxlstugo] file ... 

Some combinations of symbolic keyletters produce no error message but fail to have 

any effect. The first group, [ugoa], is truly optional. The second group, [+-=], is 

mandatory for chmod(1) to have an effect. The third group, [rwxlstugo], is also 

mandatory for effect, and can be used in combination when that combination does 

not conflict. 

Command not found 

Cause 

The C shell could not find the program you gave as a command. 

Action 

Check the form and spelling of the command line. If that looks correct, echo $path 

to see if the user’s search path is correct. When communications are garbled, it is 

possible to unset a search path to such an extent that only built-in shell commands 

are available. Here is a command to reset a basic search path: 

% set path = (/usr/bin /usr/ccs/bin /usr/openwin/bin .) 

If the search path looks correct, check the directory contents along the search path to 

see if programs are missing or if directories are not mounted. 

See Also 

For more information about the C shell, see csh(1). 


Communication error on send 

Cause 

This error occurs when the current process is waiting for a message from a remote 

machine, but the link connecting the machines breaks. 


The symbolic name for this error is ECOMM, errno=70. 

Connection closed. 

Cause 

This message can appear when using rlogin(1) to another system if the remote 

host cannot create a process for this user, if the user takes too long to type the correct 

password, if the user interrupts the network connection, or if the remote host goes 

down. Data loss is possible if files were modified and not saved before the 

connection closed. 

Action 

Just try again. If the other system has gone down, wait for it to reboot first. 

Connection closed by foreign host. 

Cause 

When a user telnet(1)s to another system, this message can appear if the user 

takes too long to type the correct password, if the remote host cannot create a login 

for this user, or if the remote host goes down or terminates the connection. Data loss 

is possible if files were modified and not saved before the connection closed. 

Action 

Just try again. If the other system has gone down, wait for it to reboot first. 


[Connection closed. Exiting] 

Cause 

After using the talk(1) command to communicate with another user, the other 

person enters an interrupt (usually Control-c), and this message appears on your 

screen. 

Action 

Sending an interrupt like this is the usual way of exiting the talk program. The 

talk(1) session is over and you can return to your work. 

Connection refused 

Cause 

No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. This 

happens either when trying to connect to an inactive service or when a service 

process is not present at the requested address. 

Action 

Activate the service on the target machine, or start it up again if it has disappeared. 

If for security reasons you do not intend to provide this service, inform the user 

community, possibly suggesting an alternative. 


The symbolic name for this error is ECONNREFUSED, errno=146. 

Connection reset by peer 

Cause 

A connection was forcibly closed by a peer. This normally results from a loss of the 

connection on the remote host due to a timeout or a reboot. 



The symbolic name for this error is ECONNRESET, errno=131. 

Connection timed out 

Cause 

This occurs either when the destination host is down or when problems in the 

network cause lost transmission. 

Action 

First check the operation of the host system, for example by using ping(1M) and 

ftp(1), then repair or reboot as necessary. If that doesn’t solve the problem, check 

the network cabling and connections. 


No connection was established in a specified time. A connect or send request failed 

because the destination host did not properly respond after a reasonable interval. 

(The timeout period is dependent on the communication protocol.) 

The symbolic name for this error is ETIMEDOUT, errno=145. 

console login: ^J^M^Q^K^K^P 

Cause 

This usually occurs because OpenWindows exited abnormally, leaving the system’s 

keyboard in the wrong mode. The characters that appear when someone attempts to 

login are garbage transliterations of what someone types. 

Action 

On a SPARC system: find another machine and remote login to this system, then run 

this command: 

$ /usr/openwin/bin/kbd_mode -a 


This puts the console back into ASCII mode. Note that kbd_mode is not a windows 

program, it just fixes the console mode. 

On an x86 system: log in remotely and start, then kill the X server, or reboot the 

system. 


The usual reason for this problem occurring is an automated script run from 

cron(1M) that clears out the /tmp directory every so often. Ensure that any such 

scripts do not remove the /tmp/.X11-pipe or /tmp/.X11-unix directories, or 

any files in them. 

core dumped 

Cause 

A core(4) file contains an image of memory at the time of software failure, and is 

used by programmers to find the reason for the failure. 

Action 

To see which program produced a core(4) file, run either the file(1) command or 

the adb(1)(1) command. The following examples show the output of the file(1) 

and adb(1) commands on a core file from the dtmail program. 

$ file core 

core: ELF 32-bit MSB core file SPARC Version 1, from ‘dtmail’ 

$ adb core 

core file = core -- program ‘dtmail’ 

SIGSEGV 11: segmentation violation 

^D 

(use Control-d to quit the program) 

Ask the vendor or author of this program for a debugged version. 



Some signals, such as SIGQUIT, SIGBUS, and SIGSEGV, produce a core dump. See 

the signal(5) man page for a complete list. 

If you have the source code for the program, you can try compiling it with cc -g, 

and debugging it yourself using dbx or a similar debugger. The where directive of 

dbx provides a stack trace. 

On mixed networks, it can be difficult to discern which machine architecture 

produced a particular core dump, since adb(1) on one type of system generally 

cannot read a core(4) file from another type of system, and will produce an 

"unrecognized file" message. Run adb(1) on various machine architectures until you 

find the right one. 

The term "core" is archaic– ferrite core memory was supplanted by silicon RAM in 

the 1970s, although spaceships still employ core memory for its imperviousness to 

radiation. 

See Also 

For information on saving and viewing crash information see the System 

Administration Guide, Volume II. If you are using the AnswerBook, "system crash" is a 

good search string. 

corrupt label - wrong magic number or 

corrupt label - label checksum failed 

Cause 

After a power cycle, the machine comes up with error messages saying: 

corrupt label - label checksum failed or 

corrupt label - wrong magic number . format(1M) showed: 

0 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0 


2 backup wm 0 - 5460 4.2G (5460/0/0) 4154160 




6 unassigned wm 0 - 2730 2.1G (0/0/0) 0 

7 unassigned wm 2730-5460 2.1G (0/0/0) 0 

The disks were using raw partitions beginning at block 0 (cylinder 0). 


The disk label (VTOC) is kept on the block 0 of cylinder 0. The label will eventually 

get overwritten by database programs using raw partitions if the raw partition 

begins at cylinder 0. (Unix filesystems avoid this area of the partition.) 

Action 

The workaround is to go into format and get the backup label using the backup 

command. Relabel the disk using this backup label. You should then be able to 

access the disk. 

Backup the data on this disk. 

Go back to the disk and relabel it, starting the raw partition at cylinder 1 (This looses 

one cylinder, but prevents corrupting the VTOC). 

Label again. 

Restore the data from your backup. 

could not grant slave pty 

Cause 

User gets the error message: could not grant slave pty when attempting a 

telnet(1), rlogin(1), or rsh(1) session (anything that requires a shell) or when 

trying to bring up an x-term. 

Action 

The user’s file permissions were set wrong on /usr/lib/pt_chmod. The user had: 

# ls -la /usr/lib/pt_chmod 

---s--x--x 1 bin bin 3120 May 3 1996 

The permissions should be: 

# ls -la /usr/lib/pt_chmod 

---s--x--x 1 root bin 3120 May 3 1996 

Note that the owner should be root, user had bin as the owner. Also note that the 

setuid bit must be set. Once the user did a chown root pt_chmod, everything 

worked again. 


Could not initialize tooltalk (tt_open): 

TT_ERR_NOMP 

Cause 

Various desktop tools display or print this message when the ttsession(1) process is 

not available. The TookTalk service generally tries to restart ttsession(1) if it is not 

running. So this error indicates that the ToolTalk service is either not installed or is 

not installed correctly. 

Action 

Verify that the ttsession(1) command exists in /usr/openwin/bin or /usr/dt/bin. 

If this command is not present, ToolTalk is not installed correctly. The packages 

constituting ToolTalk are the runtime SUNWtltk, developer support SUNWtltkd, 

and the manual pages SUNWtltkm. CDE ToolTalk packages have the same names 

with ".2" appended. 


The full TT_ERR_NOMP message string reads as follows: "No ttsession(1) is running, 

probably because tt_open(3) has not been called yet. If this is returned from tt_open(3) 

it means ttsession(1) could not be started, which generally means ToolTalk is not 

installed on the system." 

Could not open ToolTalk Channel 

Cause 

Attempting to run workshop remotely, the error message is displayed. 

The fix is the following: 1. Make sure workshop is no longer running; 2. In the 

telnet/rlogin session window, type /bin/ps -ef | grep ttsession. If 

there is one running that belongs to the user who has telneted into the system, 

type kill pid_of_ttsession; 3. In the telnet rlogin session, type 

/usr/dt/bin/ttsession -s -d :0.0; 4. Start 

workshop. 


Could not start new viewer 

Cause 

This message appears in the AnswerBook navigator window, along with an XView 

error message on the console. 

Action 

See the message "answerbook: XView error: NULL pointer passed to xv_set" for 

details. 

cpio: Bad magic number/header. 

Cause 

A cpio(1) archive has either become corrupted or was written out with an 

incompatible version of cpio(1). 

Action 

Use the -k option to cpio(1) to skip I/O errors and corrupted file headers. This 

might permit you to extract other files from the cpio(1) archive. To extract files with 

corrupted headers, try editing the archive with a binary editor such as emacs(1). Each 

cpio(1) file header contains a filename as a string. 

See Also 

For more information on magic numbers, see magic(4). 


cpio : can’t read input : end of file 

encountered prior to expected end of 

archive. 

Cause 

When we try to read a multivolume floppy in bar format using the following 

command: 

# cpio -id -H bar -I /dev/diskette0 

It fails with the message. 

Action 

Kill /usr/sbin/vold by running /etc/init.d/volmgt stop and use the device 

name /dev/rfd0 

Cross-device link 

Cause 

An attempt was made to make a hard link to a file on another device, such as on 

another filesystem. 

Action 

Establish a symbolic link using ln -s instead. Symbolic links are permitted across 

filesystem boundaries. 


The symbolic name for this error is EXDEV, errno=18. 


"D" 

data access exception 

Cause 

This message can result from running an old version of the operating system that 

does not support new hardware, or by running an operating system that is not 

configured for new hardware. It can also result from incorrectly installed DSIMMs or 

from a disk problem. 

Action 

Upgrade your operating system to a version that supports the new hardware or 

machine architecture. For example, upgrading a SPARCstation 2 (with sun4c kernel 

architecture) to a SPARCstation 20 (with sun4m kernel architecture) requires an 

operating system upgrade or reconfiguration. 

See Also 

For more information on upgrades, see the section describing system and device 

configuration in the Solaris 1.x to Solaris 2.x Transition Guide. 

Data fault 

Cause 

This is a kind of bad trap that usually causes a system panic. When this message 

appears after a bad trap message, a system text or data access fault probably 

occurred.¤ In the absence of a bad trap message, this message might indicate a user 

text or data access fault. Data loss is possible if the problem occurs other than at boot 

time. 

Action 

Make sure the machine can reboot, then check the log file /var/adm/messages for 

hints about what went wrong. 


¤ See the message "BAD TRAP" for more information. 

Deadlock situation detected/avoided 

Cause 

A programming deadlock situation was detected and avoided. 

Action 

If the system had not detected and avoided a deadlock, a piece of software would 

have hung. Run the program again. The deadlock might not reoccur. 


This error usually relates to file and record locking, but can also apply to mutexes, 

semaphores, condition variables, and read/write locks. 

The symbolic name for this error is EDEADLK, errno=45. 

See Also 

See the section on deadlock handling in the System Interface Guide. See the section on 

avoiding deadlock in the Multithreaded Programming Guide. 

Destination address required 

Cause 

A required address was omitted from an operation on a transport endpoint. 

Destination address required. 


The symbolic name for this error is EDESTADDRREQ, errno=96. 


dev/fd/int: /dev/fd/int: cannot open 

Cause 

setuid and setgid shell scripts refuse to run - they simply return an error message 

similar to /dev/fd/3: /dev/fd/3: cannot open. (The number following 

/dev/fd/ is not necessarily 3.) The first line of the script properly starts a shell, and 

the filesystem containing the script is not mounted with the nosuid option. 

Running truss on the shell script reveals that a call to open(2) is failing with error 

number 6 (ENXIO): 

open("/dev/fd/3", O_RDONLY) 

Err#6 ENXIO 

Action 

Setuid and setgid shell scripts use the file descriptors in /dev/fd. The contents of 

/dev/fd are a File Descriptor Filesystem (fdfs) on Solaris 2 and have no connection 

with floppy disks! 

Ensure that the fdfs is mounted as /dev/fd. The following line should appear in 

/etc/vfstab exactly like this (with NO initial comment symbol): 

fd - /dev/fd fd - no - 

before the machine is next rebooted. 

It may be possible to remount /dev/fd without rebooting by running the following 

as root: 

# mount fd /dev/fd 

If this fails the machine must be rebooted after editing /etc/vfstab as detailed 

above, before setuid/setgid shell scripts are available. 

Some administrators, unaware of what /dev/fd is for, comment out the entry in 

/etc/vfstab that mounts the fdfs (File Descriptor filesystem). This may go 

unnoticed until an attempt is made to run a setuid or setgid shell script. 


dev/rdsk/c0t6d0s2: No such file or 

directory 

Cause 

When attempting to eject a CD-ROM on a Ultra 450 system, the eject cdrom 

command fails, displaying the error message. 

This is because the CD-ROM is on controller 1 not 0. For the eject(1) command, 

the cdrom "nickname" equates to /dev/rdsk/c0t6d0s2. On an Ultra 450, the 

CD-ROM is /dev/rdsk/c1t6d0s2. So, using cdrom does not work. 

Action 

Use the following command instead: 

# eject cdrom0 

If volume manager (/usr/sbin/vold) is not running, you can use: 

# eject /dev/rdsk/c1t6d0s2 

Note: Make sure that the front panel of the system is unobstructed so that the 

CD-ROM tray is not blocked. Otherwise, the eject(1) command appears to hang 

since the tray is trying to open but is physically blocked. 

Device busy 

Cause 

An attempt was made to mount a device that was already mounted or to unmount a 

device containing an active file (such as an open file, a current directory, a mount 

point, or a running program). This message also occurs when trying to enable 

accounting that is already enabled. 

Action 

To unmount a device containing active processes, close all the files under that mount 

point, quit any programs started from there, and change directories out of that 

hierarchy. Then try to unmount again. 



Mutexes, semaphores, condition variables, and read/write locks set this error 

condition to indicate that a lock is held. 

The symbolic name for this error is EBUSY, errno=16. 

device busy 

Cause 

You eject cdrom and you receive the message device busy. This could be the 

result of a number of problems. Below is a list of things that you can check and do to 

allow ejection of the cd from the device. 

Action 

Ensure that the current directory is not somewhere in the CD: 

% cd 

%eject cdrom 

Step B: As root 

# cd /etc/init.d 

# ./volmgt stop 

# eject cdrom 

If this works 

# ./volmgt start 

If this does not work go to step B. 

Step C: As root 

# fuser /cdrom 

Kill any processes that you feel that you have already terminated. A note of caution: 

If this is a nfs-mounted cdrom and there are other users who access this drive, make 

sure you know what process you are killing and why. 


# ./volmgt stop 

# ps -ef | grep vold 

If vold still exists kill the process. 

# eject cdrom 

If this does not work: 

# cd /vol 

Make sure that dev, dsk, rdsk, rmt are in the directory. If not, most possibly your 

/vol directory is corrupt and a reboot may be needed for proper rebuild. 

Step D: The last three options are: 1) Reboot. 2) If the cd drive is external to the 

system, try power cycling the drive and pressing the eject button. 3) If all else fails 

and the cdrom is external, on the right hand side of the eject button is a small hole 

into which you can insert a small straight device which forces manual ejection of the 

caddy. 

/dev/rdsk/string: CAN’T CHECK FILE 

SYSTEM. 

Cause 

The system cannot automatically clean (preen) this filesystem because it appears to 

be set up incorrectly or is having hard disk problems. This message asks that you 

run fsck(1M) manually, since data corruption might already have occurred. 

Action 

Run fsck to clean the filesystem in question. See the message "/dev/rdsk/int: 

UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY" for proper procedures. 


dev/rdsk/string: UNEXPECTED 

INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY. 

Cause 

At boot time the /etc/rcS script runs the fsck(1M) command to check the 

integrity of filesystems marked "fsck" in /etc/vfstab. If fsck(1M) cannot repair a 

filesystem automatically, it interrupts the boot procedure and produces this message. 

When fsck(1M) gets into this state, it cannot repair a filesystem without losing one 

or more files, so it wants to defer this responsibility to you, the administrator. Data 

corruption has probably already occurred. 

Action 

First run fsck -n on the filesystem, to see how many and what type of problems 

exist. Then run fsck(1M) again to repair the filesystem. If you have a recent backup 

of the filesystem, you can generally answer "y" to all the fsck(1M) questions. It’s a 

good idea to keep a record of all problematic files and inode numbers for later 

reference. To run fsck(1M) yourself, specify options as recommended by the boot 

script. For example: 

# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s0 

Usually the files lost during fsck(1M) repair are these that were created just before 

a crash or power outage, and they cannot be recovered. If you lose important files, 

you can recover them from backup tapes. 

If you don’t have a backup, ask an expert to run fsck(1M) for you. 

See Also 

For more information on file checking, see the section on checking filesystem 

integrity in the System Administration Guide, Volume I. 

Directory not empty 

Cause 

The directory operation that was attempted, such as directory removal with 

rmdir(1), can be performed only on an empty directory. 


Action 

To remove the directory, first remove all the files that it contains. A quick way to 

remove a non-empty directory hierarchy is with the rm -r command. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOTEMPTY, errno=93. 

diskN not unique 

Cause 

During boot, system displays disk0 not unique. The error happens before the 

kernel loads. 

Action 

There are more than 1 devalias entries for disk0. Use devalias at the OK 

prompt to see the entries. 

To remove the duplicate, run the following command at the OK prompt: 

nvunalias disk0 

and reset the system. 

Disc quota exceeded 

Cause 

The user’s disk limit has been exceeded on a user filesystem, usually because a file 

was just created or enlarged beyond the limit. This almost always refers to a 

magnetic disk, and not to an optical disc. Any data created after this condition 

occurs will be lost. 

Action 

The user can delete files to bring disk usage under the limit, or the server 

administrator can use the edquota(1M) command to increase the user’s disk limit. 



The symbolic name for this error is EDQUOT, errno=49. 

driver is already installed 

Cause 

Added the Sunpc 4.1 package and then necessary patches (102924). When trying to 

run sunpc_install, got the error message. prtconf(1M) shows the driver is not 

attached, and modinfo(1M) displays 4 modules. 

Tried to remove the package and back out the patch. Then reinstalled, but still 

received the same error. 

Action 

Sunpc had previously been installed on the system. When removing the package 

with the pkgrm(1M) command, not all components were removed, because 

pkgrm(1M) is not aware of changes made by the sunpc_install script. 

To resolve this problem it is necessary to remove sections pertaining to Sunpc in the 

files: /etc/devlink.tab, /etc/driver_aliases, and 

/etc/rc2.d/S10storekernname, and then reinstall the package. 

DUMP: Cannot open dump device 

‘/dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s1’: Permission denied 

Cause 

When using ufsdump(1M) as user sys (UID 3) on a disk drive in a SSA, the 

ufsdump(1M) command fails with the message. 

Action 

The permissions on the ssd ’instance path’ for disk in an SSA are created with 600 

permissions. They should be 0640 for a non-root user to be able to read them. For 

example, 


# ls -lL /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s1 

crw------- 1 root sys 192,241 Jul 10 1996 /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s1 

Change it so it reads: 

crw-r----- 1 root sys 192,241 Jul 10 1996 /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s1 

You might also want to add the following line 

ssd:* 0640 root sys 

to the /etc/minor_perm file, so subsequently added arrays do not have the 

same problem. 

dumptm: Cannot open ‘/dev/rmt/string’: 

Device busy 

Cause 

During filesystem backup, the dump program cannot open the tape drive because 

some other process is holding it open. 

Action 

Find the process that has the tape drive open, and either kill(1) the process or wait 

for it to finish. 

# ps -ef | grep /dev/rmt 

# kill -9 processID 


DUP/BAD I=i OWNER=o MODE=m SIZE=s 

MTIME=t FILE=f REMOVE? 

Cause 

During phase 1, fsck(1M) found duplicate blocks or bad blocks associated with the 

file or directory specified after FILE=whose inode number appears after I= (with 

other information). 

Action 

To remove this file or directory, answer yes. If you end up removing more than a few 

files in this manner, data loss will result, so it might be preferable to restore the 

filesystem from backup tapes. 

See Also 

For more information on checking filesystems, see the section on checking filesystem 


int DUP I=int 

Cause 

Upon detecting a block that is already claimed by another inode, fsck(1M) prints 

the duplicate block number and its containing inode (after I=). 

Action 

In fsck(1M) phases 2 and 4, you will decide whether or not to clear these bad 

blocks. Before committing to repair with fsck(1M), you could determine which file 

contains this inode by passing the inode number to the ncheck(1M) command: 

# ncheck -iinum filesystem 


See Also 



"E" 

ENOMEM The available data space is not 

large enough to accommodate the shared 

memory segment 

Cause 

ENOMEM errors occur after 80 segments have been allocated by Lotus Notes. 

Action 

The design and implementation of Solaris ISM (Intimate Shared Memory) is what 

caused the ENOMEM failures, from the Lotus Notes application, besause of the limit 

reached on the number of shared memory segments that can be attached to a 

particular process. 

The limit occurs because all shared memory segments are attached in the Intimate 

Shared Memory (ISM) mode courtesy of a system variable they have set in the 

system file called shmsys:share_page_table. 

When a shared memory segment is attached in ISM mode, the OS locks that segment 

into physical memory and arranges the virtual/physical address mappings such that 

only one copy of the mapping information is shared amongst all attaching processes. 

To accomplish this, the OS requires the virtual starting address of the segment be 

aligned on a 16 Meg (hex 0x1000000) = 16777216-bytes address boundary. 

The NULL address lets the system decide what virtual address the segment should 

be attached at. The system also assigns addresses 0x3000000 apart unless forced to 

attach addresses at 0x1000000 apart. 

Doing a few calculations, a sun4d could create and attach up to 220 1-Meg ISM 

segments and a sun4m could create and attach up to 235 1-Meg ISM segments, 

providing the segments were 0x1000000 apart. 

Given that ISM is what causes the limit, what can we do about it? 


First, the limit only gives Lotus Notes the ability to attach a total of 80 Meg of shared 

memory total. By increasing the segment size to 10 Meg, as Lotus has already 

recommended, 8 ISM segments will take care of the load previously needing 80 

1-Meg segments. The load could conceivably grow to 800-meg now without running 

into the ISM addressing limit. 

Secondly, we could have turned off the share_page_table (ISM) flag. This would 

give a sun4m the ability to create in excess of 3000 1-Meg segments. The problem 

here is that ISM does improve the performance of shared memory accesses and if 

your customer intends to move up to 2.5.x, ISM is required to get around another set 

of problems that were discovered with shared memory loads of this kind. 

Thirdly, Lotus could change the Notes server so that it kept track of the attach 

addresses and always attached at 0x1000000 boundary addresses instead of letting 

the system default to the 0x3000000 address boundary. As I’ve already shown, this 

would allow a Notes server to grow to 235 segments on a sun4m. 

error 13 

Cause 

Diskless client boot gave NFS mount error 13 Diskless client boot failed with error: 

nfs mount failed: permission denied error 13 

Cause 

Diskless client fails to boot, NFS error 13 Diskless client fails to boot giving the error 

message: nfs error 13 

error 15 initializing 

Cause 

Bad /boot or 4.1 on ss2 - level 15 interrupt 


Error 76 

Cause 

This error is RFS specific. This is a way for the server to tell the client that a process 

has transferred back from mount point. 


The symbolic name for this error is EDOTDOT, errno=76. 

Error 88 

Cause 

Illegal byte sequence. Handle multiple characters as a single character. 


The symbolic name for this error is EILSEQ, errno=88. 

error: DPS has not initialized or 

server connection failed 

Cause 

This message appears when trying to run AnswerBook with a generic X11 window 

server or on a generic X terminal. 

Action 

Running AnswerBook requires Display PostScript (DPS), or a NeWS server, or the 

Adobe DPS NS remote display software. In addition, a complete LaserWriterII Type-1 

font set (including Palatino) should be installed on the X server. To find out if your X 

server has DPS, run xdpyinfo(1) to verify the presence of an "Adobe-DPS-Extension" 

line. X servers without this line don’t know about DPS. 


Error: Error adding OS service 

Solaris 2.6 sparc sun4u: 

Cause 

While trying to add OS services to a newly installed Solaris 2.6 system using Solstice 

Adminsuite 2.3, the process fails with the following error message: 

Error: Error adding OS service Solaris 2.6 sparc sun4u: 

inconsistent revision, installed package SUNWpppk revision 3.0.1 

does not match revision 11.6.0,REV=1997.07.15.21.46 for sparc 

architecture. 

This is caused by the optional Solstice PPP 3.0.1 packages from the "Solaris Server 

Intranet Extension" CD-ROM installed on the system. 

Action 

The workaround is to remove the PPP 3.0.1 packages and replace them with the PPP 

packages off of the Solaris 2.6 release CD-ROM. For example: 

# pkgrm SUNWlicsw SUNWlit SUNWpppk SUNWpppm SUNWpppr SUNWppps SUNWpppu 

: 

: {package remove info} 

: 

# cd /cdrom/cdrom0/s0/Solaris_2.6/Product 

# pkgadd -d . SUNWapppr SUNWapppu SUNWpppk 

: 

: {package add info} 

: 

then use adminsuite to add the OS services, which should then work without error. 

NOTE: If the Solstice PPP 3.0.1 package is configured and currently in use on the 

system, the user should save any of the previously entered PPP configuration info so 

that it may be restored after the OS services have been installed. ( pkgrm(1M)the 3 

ppp packages installed from the 2.6 release CD, and pkgadd(1M) all of the ppp 

packages from the Intranet Extension cdrom again, then redo config.). If the Solstice 

PPP 3.0.1 package was not used on the system, there is no reason to reinstall it. Use 

/usr/bin/pkginfo to check the installed packages. 

This is documented in Chapter 9 of the Solaris Server Intranet Extension Installation 

and Release Notes Solaris 2.6 manual. 


Error Host Unknown: 

Cause 

On Windows95, running PC-NFSpro2.0, use ping(1M) to reach another computer 

on the network. ping(1M) returns Host Unknown. 

Cause: Name services are not set up correctly. 

Action 

1: Click the Windows 95 Start button, point to Programs, point to PC-NFSpro, then 

click Configuration. 

2: Click TCP/IP and make sure all settings are entered correctly. 

3: If NIS is enabled click Configure NIS and make sure the NIS domain and server 

names are correct. 

4: If DNS is enabled, click Configure DNS and make sure the DNS domain and 

server names are correct. 

5: Click on edit hosts and add the name and IP address of the machine you are 

trying to ping(1M), along with that of your authentication server. 

If you make any changes, click OK, then click Save and Exit on the Configuration 

dialog box. Shut down and restart Windows95. 

ERROR: missing file arg (cm3) 

Cause 

An attempt was made to run some sccs(1) operation that requires a filename, such 

as create, edit, delget, orprt. 

Action 

Supply the appropriate filename after the SCCS operation. 


ERROR [SCCS/s.string]: ‘SCCS/p.string’ 

nonexistent (ut4) 

Cause 

An attempt was made to sccs(1) edit or sccs get a file that is not yet under 

SCCS control. 

Action 

Run sccs(1) create on that file to place it under SCCS control. 

ERROR [SCCS/s.string]: writable ‘string’ 

exists (ge4) 

Cause 

An attempt was made to sccs(1) edit a file that is writable, probably because it is 

already checked out. 

Action 

Run sccs(1) info to see who has the file checked out. If it is you, go ahead and 

edit it. If it is somebody else, ask that person to check in the file. 

Error: you don’t have a license to 

run this program 

Cause 

Customer tries to mount the /export file system with Volume Manager 2.1.1, 

getting the message. 


Action 

Run vxserial -p to print the available volume manager licenses in the system. 

Also, check the /etc/vfstab file to make sure that the filesystem is not a vxfs 

filesystem. 

esp0: data transfer overrun 

Cause 

When a user tries to mount a CD-ROM on a third-party CD drive, mount(1M) fails 

with the above error, followed by the sr0: SCSI transport failed message. 

The CD drive probably comes from a vendor unknown to the system. 

Action 

Third-party CD drives generally have an 8192 block size, as opposed to the 512 block 

size on supported Sun drives. Check with the vendor to see if any special 

configuration is possible to allow the drive to operate on a Sun workstation. 

Event not found 

Cause 

This C shell message indicates that a user tried to repeat a command from the 

history list, but that command or number does not exist in the list. 

Action 

Run the C shell history(1) command to display recent events in the history list. If 

a user often tries to run commands that have disappeared from the history list, make 

the list longer by setting history(1) to a higher value. 

See Also 

For more information about the C shell, see csh(1). 


EXCESSIVE BAD BLKS I=int CONTINUE? 

Cause 

During phase 1, fsck(1M) found more than 10 bad (out-of-range) blocks associated 

with the specified inode number. 

Action 

With this many bad blocks, it might be preferable to restore the filesystem from 

backup tapes. 

See Also 

For more information on bad blocks, see the section on checking filesystem integrity 

in the System Administration Guide, Volume I. If you are using the AnswerBook, "bad 

blocks" is a good search string. 

EXCESSIVE DUP BLKS I=int CONTINUE? 

Cause 

During phase 1, fsck(1M) found more than 10 duplicate (previously claimed) 

blocks associated with the specified inode number. 

Action 

With this many duplicate blocks, it might be preferable to restore the filesystem from 

backup tapes. 

See Also 

For more information on blocks, see the section on checking filesystem integrity in 

the System Administration Guide, Volume I. If you are using the AnswerBook, "bad 

blocks" is a good search string. 


Exec format error 

Cause 

This often happens when trying to run software compiled for different systems or 

architectures, such as when executing Solaris 2 programs on a SunOS 4.1 system, or 

when trying to execute SPARC-specific programs on an x86 machine. On a Solaris 2 

system, it can also occur if the Binary Compatibility Package was not installed. 

Action 

Make sure that the software matches the architecture and system you’re using. The 

file(1) command can help you determine the target architecture. If you’re using 

SunOS 4.1 software on a Solaris 2 system, make sure that the Binary Compatibility 

Package is installed. You can check for it using this command: 

$ pkginfo | grep SUNWbcp 


A request was made to execute a file that, although it has the appropriate 

permissions, does not start with a valid format. 

The symbolic name for this error is ENOEXEC, errno=8. 

See Also 

See the a.out(4) man page for a description of executable files. 

"F" 

failed to initialize adapter 

Cause 

Using an Adaptec AHA-154x Cx SCSI HBA during installation of Solaris 2.x x86, you 

may see the message during the mdb device probe that says 


failed to initialize adapter after the probe has correctly identified the 

card. There are a variety of reasons for this error, but in all cases the error is because 

of misconfiguring the card. 

Action 

To correct the problem, press Ctrl-a during boot of the computer to enter the 154x 

BIOS configuration utility. Choose the 

Configure/View Host Adapter Settings option, then press the F6 key to 

return the adapter to its factory default settings. 

After doing this, reconfigure the adapter per the instructions contained in the x86 

Device Configuration Guide or Driver Update Guide if applicable. It is especially 

important that the adapter be configured to use DMA 6. Note that it defaults to 

DMA 5 and must be changed. 

fbconsole: ioctl SRIOCSREDIR: Device 

Busy. 

Cause 

When starting Openwindows from the command line, the following error message is 

echoed on the Solaris "Welcome" screen: 

fbconsole: ioctl SRIOCSREDIR: Device Busy 

Once inside Openwindows, The following message is displayed in the background 

windows and when starting cmdtool -C: 

SYSTEM WARNING: Object 0x340f8, Device busy, ioctl SRIOCSREDIR 

returned -1, attempt to make tty the console failed (Tty package) 

Action 

Openwindows was probably started in the background (using the "&"). Exit 

Openwindows, and run the command in foreground: 

/usr/openwin/bin/openwin 

If this doesn’t help, then perhaps some daemon or process is "holding" the console. 

Type the command: fuser /dev/console. 

A list of process id’s is returned. Examine these processes to determine if an 

application has hold of the console (using the ps(1) command, will help). 


fd0: unformatted diskette or no 

diskette in the drive 

Cause 

This message appears on the system console to indicate that the floppy driver fd(4) 

could not read the label on a diskette. Usually this is either because a new diskette 

has not yet been formatted, or a formatted diskette has become corrupted. This 

message often appears along with "read failed" and "bad format" messages after 

volcheck(1) is run. 

Action 

If you are certain that the diskette contains no data, run fdformat -d to format the 

diskette in DOS format. (You can also format a diskette in UFS format if you like, 

although then it cannot be transported to most other systems.) When the diskette is 

formatted, you can write on it, if it was not corrupted beyond repair. 

File descriptor in bad state 

Cause 

Either a file descriptor refers to no open file or a read request was made to a file that 

is open only for writing. 


The symbolic name for this error is EBADFD, errno=81. 

File exists 

Cause 

The name of an existing file was mentioned in an inappropriate context. For 

example, establishing a link to an existing file, or overwriting an existing file are not 

allowed when the csh(1) noclobber option is set. 


Action 

Look at the names of files in the directory, then try again with a different name or 

after renaming or removing the existing file. 


The symbolic name for this error is EEXIST, errno=17. 

File locking deadlock 

Cause 

This is a programming problem, in some cases unavoidable. 

Action 

All a user can do is restart the program and hope deadlock does not reoccur. 


In the file locking subsystem, two processes tried to modify some lock at the same 

time. In the multithreading subsystem, two threads became deadlocked and could 

not continue. When a program using the threads library encounters this error, it 

should restart the deadlocked threads. 

The symbolic name for this error is EDEADLOCK, errno=56. 

filemgr: mknod: Permission denied 

Cause 

File Manager issues this message and fails to come up whenever the 

/tmp/.removable directory is owned by another user and is not 1777 mode. This 

can happen, for example, when multiple users share a workstation. 


Action 

Have the original owner change the mode (( chmod(1)) of this file back to 1777, its 

default creation mode. Rebooting the workstation also resolves this problem. 


This is a known problem that was fixed in Solaris 2.4. 

File name too long 

Cause 

The specified file name has too many characters. 

Action 

If a file name or path name component is too long, devise a shorter name. If the total 

path name is longer than PATH_MAX characters, first change to an intermediate 

directory, then specify a shorter path name. Newly-created data will be lost unless 

written to another file with a shorter name. 


In a UFS or NFS-mounted UFS filesystem, the length of a path name component 

exceeds MAXNAMLEN (255) characters, or the total length of the path name exceeds 

PATH_MAX (1024) characters. In a System V filesystem, the length of a path name 

component exceeds NAME_MAX (14) characters while no-truncation mode is in effect. 

These values are defined in the /usr/include/limits.h file. 

The symbolic name for this error is ENAMETOOLONG, errno=78. 

file system full 

Cause 

During login file system full errors are seen and login fails with the message 

No utmpx entry. 


See Also 

See No utmpx entry, below. 

FILE SYSTEM STATE IN SUPERBLOCK IS 

WRONG; FIX? 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command has just checked a filesystem, and has determined that the 

filesystem is clean. The filesystem’s superblock, however, still thinks the filesystem is 

"dirty" in some way. 

Action 

If you believe that the filesystem is adequately repaired, answer yes to mark the 

filesystem as clean. 


Different "dirty" filesystem types are listed in /usr/include/sys/fs/ufs_fs.h, 

and include FSACTIVE, FSBAD, FSFIX, FSLOG, and FSSUSPEND. 

See Also 

For more information on superblocks, see the section on checking filesystem integrity 


superblock" is a good search string. 

File table overflow 

Cause 

The kernel file table is full because too many files are open on the system. 

Temporarily, no more files can be opened. New data created under this condition 

will probably be lost. 


Action 

Simply waiting often gives the system time to close files. However, if this message 

occurs often, reconfigure the kernel to allow more open files. To increase the size of 

the file table in Solaris 2, increase the value of maxusers in the /etc/system file. 

The default maxusers value is the amount of main memory in MB, minus 2. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENFILE, errno=23. 

File too large 

Cause 

The file size exceeded the limit specified by ulimit(1), or the file size exceeds the 

maximum supported by the file system. New data created under this condition will 

probably be lost. 

Action 

In the C shell, use the limit(1) command to see or set the default file size. In the 

Bourne or Korn shells, use the ulimit -a command. Even when the shells claim 

that the file size is unlimited, in fact the system limit is FCHR_MAX (usually 1 

gigabyte). 


The symbolic name for this error is EFBIG, errno=27. 

FREE BLK COUNT(S) WRONG IN SUPERBLK 

SALVAGE? 

Cause 

During phase 5, fsck(1M) detected that the actual number of free blocks in the 

filesystem did not match the superblock’s free block count. The df(1M) command 

accesses this free block count when measuring filesystem capacity. 


Action 

Generally you can answer yes to this question without harming the filesystem. 

See Also 

For more information on superblocks, see the section on checking filesystem integrity 


superblock" is a good search string. 

fsck: Can’t open /dev/dsk/string 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command cannot open the disk device, because although a similar 

filesystem exists, the partition specified does not. 

Action 

Run the mount(1M) or the format(1M) command to see what filesystems are 

configured on the machine. Then run fsck(1M) again on an existing partition. 

fsck: Can’t stat /dev/dsk/string 

Cause 

The fsck(1M) command cannot open the disk device, because the specified 

filesystem does not exist. 

Action 

Run the mount(1M) or the format(1M) command to see what filesystems are 

configured on the machine. Then run fsck(1M) again on an existing filesystem. 


ftp: ftp/tcp: unknown service 

Cause 

The user was getting the error. User was using no naming service and the services 

file looked fine. User could FTP as root but not as a normal user. 

Action 

Permissions on the /etc/services file were wrong. User changed them to read 

access for everyone (644) to correct the problem. 

fw_ipinput: q fc5fddc0:illegal 

interface 

Cause 

The FW-1 kernel module displays the error message when a new network interface 

has been added to the FW-1 system while fwd is running. 

Action 

To resolve this problem, run the following to reinstall the FW kernel and reinstall the 

security policy: 

# fw ctl uninstall 

# fw ctl install 

# fw fetch localhost 


fwm: no license 

Cause 

Firewall-1, version 2.1 and produces the message when the fwstart command is 

issued or fwm is started from the command line. 

There are two possible reasons for this. 

The first is when a firewall module is installed without a control station on the same 

machine, the messages are displayed on the console (under Unix) or in the event log 

(under WinNT) 

The second is that the messages may be legitimate. You may find that fwm has not 

started and you cannot do some crucial tasks. One problem may be that the license is 

issued for the wrong hostid. 

Action 

Check that the license daemon is running on the server. Then... 

Case one: Workaround: Ignore the messages. Solution: Upgrade to 2.1c or above. 

Case two: To check for a misassigned license, run the command hostid(1). Your 

hostid is displayed. 

Now run the command fw printlic. You will see output like this... 

This is FireWall-1 Version 2.1 

Type 

Expiration Features 

id-649f152b never stdlight 

The first field should list the correct hostid. Also check the expiration date and the 

features. A list of what is included with the features is provided in INFODOC 13215. 

If you find any inconsistencies, call the Sun License and Password Center and get a 

license reissued . Have you hostid and serial number ready. 


"G" 

giving up 

Cause 

This message appears in the SCSI log to indicate that a read or write operation has 

been retried until it timed out. With SCSI disk the timeout period is usually 30 

seconds; with tape the period is usually 20 attempts. Timeout periods are generally 

coded into the drivers. 

Action 

Check that all SCSI devices are connected and powered on. Make sure that SCSI 

target numbers are correct and not in conflict. Verify that all cables are no longer 

than six meters, total, and that all SCSI connections are properly terminated. 


The scsi_log(9F) routine usually displays messages on the system console and in 

the /var/adm/messages file. Run the dmesg(1M) command to see the most recent 

message buffer. 

Graphics Adapter device /dev/fb is of 

unknown type 

Cause 

The /dev/fb driver is either missing or corrupted. 

Action 

See "InitOutput: Error loading module for /dev/fb" for details. 


group.org_dir: NIS+ servers 

unreachable 

Cause 

This is the second of three messages that an NIS+ client prints when it cannot locate 

an NIS+ server on the network. 

Action 

See the message "hosts.org_dir: NIS+ servers unreachable" for details. 

"H" 

hang console 

Cause 

Console hangs - but all other operations are working, including rlogin(1) and 

telnet(1). Rebooting the system (via a remote shell) clears the problem. 

This problem occurs if another window is opened with the -C option, causing the 

console to hang. The other window could be another cmdtool window, shelltool 

window, or even an xterm window. Only one console window can be active at a 

time. 

Action 

The window/process that is causing the problem can be located by using the ps(1) 

command (auxw options may be necessary). The process can then be killed. Eliminate 

the console window running with -C, and control returns to the ’real’ console. 

Machine hung in reboot process: when the user is booting the machine, it hangs at 

checking filesystems. 

A possible workaround is: 1. Boot miniroot from tape or CD-ROM, 2. mkdir mnt, 3. 

Mount the root partition to some mountpoint, i.e. /mnt, 4. Change directory to 

/mnt/dev, 5. Check to see if the console is located in the, 6. mnt/dev directory, 7. If 

not, make the device std.: MAKEDEV std, 8. Halt the system and reboot. 


home/string: No such file or directory 

Cause 

An attempt was made to change to a user’s home directory, but either that user does 

not exist or the user’s fileserver has not shared (exported) that filesystem. 

Action 

To check on the existence of a particular user, run the ypmatch(1) or nismatch(1) 

command, specifying the user name and then the passwd(4) map. 

To export filesystems from the remote fileserver, become superuser on that system 

and run the share(1M) command with the appropriate options. If that system is 

sharing (exporting) filesystems for the first time, also invoke 

/etc/init.d/nfs.server start to begin NFS service. 

See Also 

For more information on sharing filesystems, see the share_nfs(1M) man page. 

Host is down 

Cause 

A transport connection failed because the destination host was down. For example, 

mail delivery was attempted over several days, but the destination machine was not 

available during any of these attempts. 

Action 

Report this error to the system administrator for the host. If you are the person 

responsible for this system, check to see if the machine needs repair or rebooting. 


This error results from status information delivered by the underlying 

communication interface. If there is no known connection to the host, a different 

message usually results. See "No route to host" for details. 


The symbolic name for this error is EHOSTDOWN, errno=147. 

host name configuration error 

Cause 

This is an old sendmail(1M) message, which replaced "I refuse to talk to myself" 

and is now replaced by the "Local configuration error" message. 

Action 

See the message "554 string... Local configuration error" for details. 

hosts.org_dir: NIS+ servers unreachable 

Cause 

This is the third of three messages that an NIS+ client prints when it cannot locate an 

NIS+ server on the network. 

Action 

If other NIS+ clients are behaving normally, check the Ethernet cabling on the 

workstation showing this message. On SPARC machines, disconnected network 

cabling also produces a series of "no carrier" messages. On x86 machines, the NIS+ 

messages might be your only indication that network cabling is disconnected. 

If many NIS+ clients on the network are giving this message, go to the NIS+ server 

in question and reboot or repair it, as necessary. When the server machine is back in 

operation, NIS+ clients will give an "NIS server for domain OK" message. 


"I" 

I can’t read your attachments. What 

mailer are you using? 

Cause 

The SunView mailtool(1) and pre-3.3 OpenWindows mailtool(1) produce this message 

when they cannot cope with an attachment. The attachment is probably in MIME 

(Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) format, using base64 encoding. 

Action 

To read a mail message containing MIME attachments, use mailtool(1) from Solaris 2.3 

or later. If you are running an earlier version of Solaris, rlogin(1) to a later version 

of Solaris, set the DISPLAY environment variable back to the first system, and run 

mailtool remotely. If those options prove impossible, ask the originator to send the 

message again using mailtool(1), or using the CDE dtmail compose 

File->SendAs->SunMailTool option. 


Standard MIME attachments with base64 encoding, for example, produce this 

message and fail to display in older mailtool(1)s. 

See Also 

Look into using metamail, available on the Internet, which allows you to send and 

receive MIME attachments. 

Identifier removed 

Cause 

This message indicates an error in a System V IPC facility. Most likely a file 

associated with messaging, semaphores, or shared memory was deleted from the 

filesystem where it had been created. 



This error is returned to processes that resume execution after the removal of an 

identifier from the file system’s name space. See msgctl(2), semctl(2), and 

shmctl(2) for details. 

The symbolic name for this error is EIDRM, errno=36. 

ie0: Ethernet jammed 

Cause 

This message can appear on SPARCservers or x86 machines with an Intel 82586 

Ethernet chip. It indicates that 16 successive transmission attempts failed, causing the 

driver to give up on the current packet. 

Action 

If this error occurs sporadically or at busy times, it probably means that the network 

is saturated. Wait for network traffic to clear. If bottlenecks arise frequently, think 

about reconfiguring the network or adding subnets. 

Another possible cause of this message is a noise source somewhere in the network, 

such as a loose transceiver connection. Use snoop(1M) or a similar program to 

isolate the problem area, then check and tighten network connectors as necessary. 

ie0: no carrier 

Cause 

This message can appear on SPARCservers or x86 machines with an Intel 82586 

Ethernet chip. It indicates that the chip has lost input to its carrier detect pin while 

trying to transmit a packet, causing the packet to be dropped. 

Action 

Check that the Ethernet connector is not loose or disconnected. Other possible causes 

include an open circuit somewhere in the network and noise on the carrier detect 

line from the transceiver. Use snoop(1M) or a similar program to isolate the 

problem area, then check the network connectors and transceivers, as needed. 


ifconfig: bad address 

Cause 

System fails to boot with error message: ifconfig: bad address. Upon coming 

up to multiuser ifconfig -a indicate: 

le0: flags=863 mtu 1500 

inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0 

Once up, command 

# ifconfig le0 inet hostname 

succeeds, and all is well. 

Action 

Check /etc/hostname.* for a possible bad entry. 

/etc/hosts was linked to /var/named/hosts and /var was a separate file 

system. Until system comes up in multiuser to mount /var, hostname could not be 

resolved to proper IP address. 

ifconfig bad address le0 

Cause 

Customer installed the recommended 2.5.1 patches. When he booted, rootuser.sh 

presented the following errors: 

ifconfig bad address le0 

le0 arp - revarp failed no rarp replies 

bad address hme0 

hme0 auto-revarp failed: no rarp replies received. 

Ip address of interface is set to 0.0.0.0 

System fails to: resolve host ip address from /etc/host and no other rarp servers 

responded to the systems request for it’s IP address. 


Action 

The workaround is to put files before dns [NOT FOUND=return] in 

/etc/nsswitch.conf 

This matches bug number 4040423. Its summary is: if dns [NOTFOUND=return] 

appears before files in /etc/nsswitch.conf, at boot-time ifconfig complains 

about bad address. In some cases this can cause the boot to fail. 

If pipe/FIFO, don’t sleep in stream 

head 

Cause 

Streams pipe error (not externally visible). 


The symbolic name for this error is ESTRPIPE, errno=92. 

Illegal Instruction 

Cause 

A process has received a signal indicating that it attempted to execute an instruction 

that is not allowed by the kernel. This usually results from running programs 

compiled for a slightly different machine architecture. This message is usually 

accompanied by a core dump, except on read-only filesystems. 

Action 

If you are booting from CD-ROM or from the net, check README files to make sure 

you are using an image appropriate for your machine architecture. Run df(1M) to 

make sure there is enough swap space on the system; too little swap space can cause 

this error. If you recently upgraded your CPU to a new architecture, replace your 

operating system with one that supports the new architecture (an operating system 

upgrade might be required). 



Sometimes this condition results from a programming error, such as when a program 

attempts to execute data as instructions. This condition can also indicate device file 

corruption on your system. 

Illegal instruction "0xhex" was 

encountered at PC 0xhex 

Cause 

The machine is trying to boot from a non-boot device, or from a boot device for a 

different hardware architecture. 

Action 

If you are booting from the net, check README files to make sure you are using a 

boot image for that architecture. If you are booting from disk, make sure the system 

is looking at the right disk, which is usually SCSI target 3. Failing these solutions, 

connect a CD drive to the system and boot from CD-ROM. 

Illegal seek 

Cause 

Using a pipe ("|") on the command line doesn’t work here. 

Action 

Rather than using a pipe on the command line, redirect the output of the first 

program into a file and run the second program on that file. 


A call to lseek(2) was issued to a pipe. This error condition can also be fixed by 

altering the program to avoid using lseek(2). 

The symbolic name for this error is ESPIPE, errno=29. 


Image Tool: Unable to open XIL Library. 

Cause 

This message follows multiple multi-line "XilDefaultErrorFunc" errors, indicating that 

ImageTool could not locate the X Imaging Library. Many OpenWindows and CDE 

deskset programs require XIL. 

Action 

Run pkginfo(1) to determine what packages are installed on the system. If the 

following packages are not present, install them from CD-ROM or over the net: 

SUNWxildg, SUNWxiler, SUNWxilow, and SUNWxilrt. 

Inappropriate ioctl for device 

Cause 

This is a programming error. 

Action 

Ask the program’s author to fix this condition. The program needs to be changed so 

it employs a device driver that can accept special character device controls. 


The ioctl(2) system call was given as an argument for a file that is not a special 

character device. This message replaces the traditional but puzzling "Not a 

typewriter" message. 

The symbolic name for this error is ENOTTY, errno=25. 


INCORRECT BLOCK COUNT I=int (should be 

int) CORRECT? 

Cause 

During phase 1, fsck(1M) determined that the specified inode pointed to a number 

of bad or duplicate blocks, so the block count should be corrected to the actual 

number shown. 

Action 


See Also 

For more information on bad blocks, see the section on checking filesystem integrity 

in the System Administration Guide, Volume I. 

index failed:full:index preceded by 

saveset name 

Cause 

This is a server which has several clients. It seems when the backup kicks off many 

the savesets are failing with the message listed below. 

godzilla 

* godzilla:index 2 retries attempted 

* godzilla:index sh: save: not found 

index failed:full:index 

Action 

Edit the /etc/init.d/networker file and change the nsrexecd startup line to 

include a -p option to specify the command search path : 

(/usr/sbin/nsr/nsrexecd -s masters -p /usr/sbin/nsr ) 

> /dev/console 


inetd[int]: execv /usr/sbin/in.uucpd: 

No such file or directory 

Cause 

This message indicates that the Internet services daemon inetd(1M) tried to start 

up the UUCP service without the UUCP daemon existing on the system. 

Action 

The SUNWbnuu package must be installed before the machine can run UUCP. Run 

pkgadd(1M) to install this package from the distribution CD-ROM or over the 

network. 

inetd[int]: string/tcp: unknown service 

Cause 

This message indicates that the Internet services daemon inetd(1M) could not 

locate the TCP service specified after the first colon. 

Action 

Check the current machine’s /etc/services file, and the NIS services map, to 

see if the service is described. To start this service, add an appropriate entry into the 

/etc/services file and possibly the services map as well. Note that NIS+ does 

not consult the local /etc/services file unless you put "files" right after "nisplus" 

on the services line of the system’s /etc/nsswitch.conf file. 

If you do not want to start this service, edit the system’s /etc/inetd.conf file and 

delete the entry that tries to start it up. 

See Also 

For more information about NIS+, see the NIS+ and FNS Administration Guide. 


inetd[int]: string/udp: unknown service 

Cause 

This message indicates that the Internet services daemon inetd(1M) could not 

locate the UDP service specified after the first colon. 

Action 

See the message "inetd[int]: string/tcp: unknown service" for a solution. 

inetd: Too many open files 

Cause 

This message can appear when someone runs a command from the shell or uses a 

third-party application. The sar(1) command does not indicate that the system-wide 

open file limit has been exceeded. 

Action 

The probable cause of this message is that the shell limit has been exceeded. The 

default open file limit is 64, but can be raised to 256. 

See the message "Too many open files" for a solution. 

INIT: Cannot create /var/adm/utmp or 

/var/adm/utmpx 

Cause 

This console message indicates that init(1M) cannot write in the /var directory, 

which is usually part of the / (root) filesystem. Some other messages follow, and the 

system usually comes up single-user. The problem is often that / or /var is 

mounted read-only. Sometimes a brief power outage leaves the system believing that 

many filesystems are still mounted. 


Action 

If /var is a separate filesystem on the machine, and is not yet mounted, mount it 

now. If the filesystem containing /var is mounted read-only, remount it read-write 

with a command similar to this: 

# mount -o rw,remount / 

Then type Control-d and try to bring up the system multi-user. If that fails, the root 

filesystem is probably corrupted. Run fsck(1M) on the root filesystem, halt the 

machine, power cycle the CPU, and wait for the system to reboot. Should this 

problem still occur, restore the root filesystem from backup tapes, or re-install the 

system from net or CD-ROM to replace the root filesystem. 

InitOutput: Error loading module for 

/dev/fb 

Cause 

This fatal X server error message indicates that /dev/fb, the "dumb frame buffer," is 

either missing or corrupted. It is usually followed by a "giving up" message and a 

few xinit(1) errors. 

Action 

If other devices on the system are working correctly, the most likely reason for this 

error is that the SUNWdfb package was removed or never installed. Insert the 

installation CD-ROM, change to the Solaris_2.x directory, and run the following 

command to install the packages SUNWdfbh and SUNWdfb (for your machine 

architecture): 

pkgadd -d . 

If other devices on the system are not working correctly, the system might have a 

corrupt /devices directory. Halt the system and boot using the -r (reconfigure) 

option. The system will run fsck(1M) if the /devices filesystem is corrupted, 

most likely fixing the problem. 


Interrupted system call 

Cause 

The user issued an interrupt signal (usually Control-c) while the system was in the 

middle of executing a system call. When network service is slow, interrupting cd(1) 

to a remote-mounted directory can produce this message. 

Action 

Proceed with your work, this message is purely informational. 


An asynchronous signal (such as interrupt or quit), which a program was set up to 

catch, occurred during an internal system call. If execution is resumed after 

processing the signal, it will appear as if the interrupted programming function 

returned this error condition, so the program might exit with an incorrect error 

message. 

The symbolic name for this error is EINTR, errno=4. 

Invalid argument 

Cause 

An invalid parameter was specified that the system cannot interpret. For example, 

trying to mount an uncreated filesystem, printing without sufficient system support, 

or providing an undefined signal to a signal(3C) library function, can all produce 

this message. 

Action 

If you see this message when you are trying to mount a filesystem, make sure that 

you have run newfs(1M) to create the filesystem. If you see this message when you 

are trying to read a diskette, make sure that the diskette was properly formatted with 

fdformat(1), either in DOS format ( pcfs(7FS)) or as a UFS filesystem. If you see 

this message while you are trying to print, make sure that the print service is 

configured correctly. 



The symbolic name for this error is EINVAL, errno=22. 

Invalid null command 

Cause 

This C shell message results from a command line with two pipes (|) in a row or 

from a pipe without a command afterwards. 

Action 

Change the command line so that each pipe is followed by a command. 

Invalid_SS_JWS_HOME:no 

C:\\lib\basicframe.properties 

Cause 

Customer is running WinNT 4.0 and goes to lauch Java Workshop - then gets the 

error message. 

Action 

Removed software loaded on her system from marimba company. The product is 

castanet. Removed the preduct from thesystem and JWS works fine. Apparently, 

product Tuner comes loaded with JDK, and this conflicts with JWS. 

Check out www.marimba.com for more details on marimba products. 

Another possible solution: 

Double-click jws.exe within the: C:\Java-WorkShop\jws\intel-win32\bin\ 

folder. 


I/O error 

Cause 

Some physical Input/Output error has occurred. If the process was writing a file at 

the time, data corruption is possible. 

Action 

First find out which device is experiencing the I/O error. If the device is a tape drive, 

make sure a tape is inserted into the drive. When this error occurs with a tape in the 

drive, it is likely that the tape contains an unrecoverable bad spot. 

If the device is a floppy drive, an unformatted or defective diskette could be at fault. 

Format the diskette, or obtain a replacement. 

If the device is a hard disk drive, you might need to run fsck(1M) and possibly 

even reformat the disk. 


In some cases this error might occur on a call following the one to which it actually 

applies. 

The symbolic name for this error is EIO, errno=5. 

Is a directory 

Cause 

An attempt was made to read or write a directory as if it were a file. 

Action 

Look at a listing of all the files in the current directory and try again, specifying a file 

instead of a directory. 


The symbolic name for this error is EISDIR, errno=21. 


"J" 

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: 

Cause 

When trying to start Java Workshop 2.0 (or some other Java applications) on Solaris 

2, the following error is displayed: 

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: setCursor 

at sun.awt.motif.MComponentPeer.initialize(Compiled Code) 

at sun.awt.motif.MTextAreaPeer.initialize(Compiled Code) 

at sun.awt.motif.MComponentPeer.(Compiled Code) 

at sun.awt.motif.MTextAreaPeer.(Compiled Code) 

at sun.awt.motif.MToolkit.createTextArea(Compiled Code) 

Action 

The LD_LIBRARY_PATH is probably set up to include a Java lib directory that 

doesn’t quite match the java bin command used. For example, on Solaris 2.6: 

LD_LIBRARY_PATH = /usr/openwin/lib results in Java Workshop runing 

properly. But setting: LD_LIBRARY_PATH = /usr/java/lib:/usr/openwin/lib 

results in the error being displayed, since Java Workshop uses its own version of JDK 

and the startup process picks up a mixture of versions. 

The answer is to not include /usr/java/lib in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH since it is 

needed only in rare circumstances, such as if you are using the Java Invocation API. 


"K" 

kernel read error 

Cause 

This message appears when savecore(1M), if activated, tries to copy a debugging 

image of kernel memory to disk but cannot read various kernel data structures 

correctly. Generally this occurs after a system panic has corrupted main memory. 

Data corruption on the system is possible. 

Action 

Look at the kernel error messages that preceded this one to try to determine the 

cause of the problem. Error messages such as BAD TRAP usually indicate faulty 

hardware. Until the problem that caused the kernel panic is resolved, a kernel core 

image cannot be saved for debugging. 

Killed 

Cause 

This message is purely informational. If the killed process was writing a file, some 

data might be lost. 

Action 

Continue with your work. 


This message from the signal handler or various shells indicates that a process has 

been terminated with a SIGKILL. However, if you don’t see this message and cannot 

terminate a process with a SIGKILL, you might have to reboot the machine to get 

rid of that process. 


kmem_free block already free 

Cause 

This is a programming error, probably from a device driver. 

Action 

Determine which driver is giving this message and contact the vendor for a software 

update, as this message indicates a bug in the driver. 


This message is from the DDI programming function kmem_free(9F), which 

releases a block of memory at address addr of size siz that was previously 

allocated by the DDI function kmem_alloc(9F). Both addr and siz must 

correspond to the original allocation. If you have source code for the driver, follow 

kmem_alloc(9F) and kmem_free(p]9F) in the code to make sure they allocate and free 

the same chunk of memory. 

"L" 

last message repeated int times 

Cause 

This message comes from syslogd(1M), the facility that prints messages on the 

console and records them in /var/adm/messages. To reduce the log size and 

minimize buffer usage, syslog collapses any identical messages it sees during a 20 

second period, then prints this message with the number of repetitions. 

Action 

Look above this message to see which message was repeated so often. Then consider 

the repeated message and take action accordingly. If repeated log entries such as 

su ... failed appear, consider the possibility of a security breach. 


ld.so.1 fatal: can’t set protection 

on segment 

Cause 

Applications have recently begun to fail with this error: 

ld.so.1 fatal: can’t set protection on segment. The failures are 

random. 

Action 

This was happening because of the recent introduction of a rogue application that 

consumed most of the swap space on the system. The other applications, which failed 

randomly, were doing so because of insufficient swap space to run. The error from 

ld.so.1 happened because there was no segment on which to set the protections. 

ld.so.1: string: fatal: string: can’t open 

file: errno=2 

Cause 

This message is produced in Solaris 2.5.1 and earlier releases. It is not produced in 

Solaris 2.6, or later releases. 

See the next message, which has the same cause. 

Action 

See the next message, which can be resolved by the same action. 

See Also 

For more information about the Linker, see the Linker and Libraries Guide. 


ld.so.1: string: fatal: string: open 

failed: No such file or directory 

Cause 

This message is produced in Solaris 2.6 and later releases. It is not produced in 

Solaris 2.5.1, or earlier releases. 

This message indicates that the run time linker, ld.so.1(1), while running the 

program specified after the first colon, could not find the shared object specified after 

the third colon. (A shared object is sometimes called a dynamically linked library.) 

Action 

As a workaround, set the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include the 

location of the shared object in question, for example: 

/usr/dt/lib:/usr/openwin/lib 

Better yet, if you have access to source code, recompile the program using the -Rpath 

loader option. Using LD_LIBRARY_PATH slows down performance. 

See Also 


ld.so.1: string: fatal: relocation 

error: symbol not found: string 

Cause 

This message is produced in Solaris 2.5.1 and earlier releases. It is not produced in 

Solaris 2.6, or later releases. 

See the next message, which has the same cause. 

Action 

See the next message, which can be resolved by the same action. 



This error does not necessarily occur when you first bring up an application. It could 

take months to develop, if ordinary use of the application seldom references the 

undefined symbol. 

See Also 


ld.so.1: string: fatal: relocation error: 

string: string: referenced symbol not found 

Cause 

This message is produced in Solaris 2.6 and later releases. It is not produced in 

Solaris 2.5.1, or earlier releases. 

The message from the run time linker ld.so.1(1) indicates that in trying to execute 

the application given after the first colon, the specified symbol could not be found 

for relocation. The message goes on to say in what file the symbol was referenced. 

Since this is a fatal error, the application terminates with this message. 

Action 

Run the ldd -d command on the application to show its shared object dependencies 

and symbols that aren’t found. Probably your system contains an old version of the 

shared object that should contain this symbol. Contact the library vendor or author 

for an update. 


This error does not necessarily occur when you first bring up an application. It could 

take months to develop, if ordinary use of the application seldom references the 

undefined symbol. 

See Also 



le0: Memory error! 

Cause 

This message indicates that the network interface encountered an access time-out 

from the CPU’s main memory. There is probably nothing wrong except system 

overload. 

Action 

If the system is busy with other processes, this error can occur frequently. If possible, 

try to reduce the system load by quitting applications or killing some processes. 


The Lance Ethernet chip timed out while trying to acquire the bus for a DVMA 

transfer. Most network applications wait for a transfer to occur, so generally no data 

gets lost. However, data transfer might fail after too many time-outs. 

See Also 

For more information about the Lance Ethernet chip, see the le(7D) man page. 

le0: No carrier-- cable disconnected 

or hub link test disabled? 

Cause 

Standalone machines with no Ethernet port connection get this error when the system 

tries to access the network. If the Ethernet cable is disconnected, SPARC machines 

with the sun4m architecture usually display this message, whereas machines with 

the sun4c architecture usually display the "le0: No carrier– transceiver cable problem" 

message instead. If the Ethernet cable is connected, this message could result from a 

mismatch between the machine’s NVRAM settings and the Ethernet hub settings. 

Action 

If this message is continuous, try to save any work to local disk. 


When a machine is configured as a networked system, it must be plugged into the 

Ethernet with a twisted pair J45 connector. 

If the Ethernet cable is plugged in, find out whether or not the Ethernet hub does a 

Link Integrity Test. Then become superuser to check and possibly set the machine’s 

NVRAM. If the hub’s Link Integrity Test is disabled, set this variable to false. 

# eeprom | grep tpe 

tpe-link-test?=true 

# eeprom ’tpe-link-test?=false’ 

The default setting is true. If for some reason tpe-link-test? was set to false, 

and the hub’s Link Integrity Test is enabled, reset this variable to true. 

le0: No carrier-- transceiver cable 

problem? 

Cause 

Standalone machines with no Ethernet port connection get this error when the 

system tries to access the network. 

Action 

If this message is continuous, try to save any work to local disk. 

When a machine is configured as a networked system, it must be plugged into the 

Ethernet with either a twisted pair J45 connector or thicknet 10Base-T connector 

(depending on the building’s Ethernet cable type). 


Older workstations have a thicknet connection on the back instead of a twisted pair 

Ethernet connection, so they require a thicknet to twisted pair transceiver to translate 

between cabling types. 


level 15 interrupt 

Cause 

on an SS20 

.lib section in a.out corrupted 

Cause 

Trying to exec(2) an a.out(4) that requires a static shared library (to be linked in) 

and there was erroneous data in the .lib section of the a.out(4). The .lib section 

tells exec(2) which static shared libraries are needed. The a.out(4) is probably 

corrupted. 


The symbolic name for this error is ELIBSCN, errno=85. 

LINK COUNT FILE I=i OWNER=o MODE=m 

SIZE=s MTIME=t COUNT... ADJUST? 

Cause 

During phase 4, fsck(1M) determined that the inode’s link count for the specified 

file is wrong, and asks if you want to adjust it to the value given. 

Action 


See Also 

For more information on fsck(1M), see the section on checking filesystem integrity 

in the System Administration Guide, Volume I. 


Link has been severed 

Cause 

This error occurs when the connection to a remote machine is gone, for example after 

a remote procedure call is interrupted. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOLINK, errno=67. 

LL105W: Protocol error detected. 

Cause 

This error message comes from Lifeline Mail, an unbundled PC compatibility 

application. 

Action 

The likeliest cause for this problem is that someone set up a user account without a 

password. Assign the user a password to solve this problem. 

ln: cannot create /dev/fb: Read-only 

file system 

Cause 

During device reconfiguration at boot time, the system cannot link to the frame 

buffer because /dev is on a read-only filesystem. 

Action 

Check that /dev/fb is a symbolic link to the hardware frame buffer, such as 

cgsix(7D) or tcx(7D). Ensure that the filesystem containing /dev is mounted 

read-write. 


lockd[int]: create_client: no name for 

inet address 0xhex 

Cause 

This lock daemon message usually indicates that the NIS hosts.byname and 

hosts.byaddr maps are not coordinated. 

Action 

Wait a short time for the maps to synchronize. If they don’t, take steps to coordinate 

them. 

See Also 

For information on updating NIS data, see the section on NIS maps in the NIS+ and 

FNS Administration Guide. If you are using the AnswerBook, "hosts.byaddr" is a 

good search string. 

Login incorrect 

Cause 

This message from the login(1) program indicates an incorrect combination of 

login name and password. There is no way to tell whether what’s wrong is the login 

name, the password, or both. Other programs such as ftp(1), rexecd(1M), 

sulogin(1M), and uucp(1C) also give this error under similar conditions. 

Action 

Check the /etc/passwd file and the NIS or NIS+ passwd map on the local system 

to see if an entry exists for this user. If a user has simply forgotten the password, 

su(1M) and set a new one with the passwd(1) username command. This command 

automatically updates the NIS+ passwd map, but with NIS you’ll need to coordinate 

the update with the passwd map. 

The "Login incorrect" problem can also occur with older versions of NIS when the 

user name has more than eight characters. If this is the case, edit the NIS password 

file, change the user name to have eight or fewer characters, and then remake the 

NIS passwd map. 


If you cannot log in to the system as root, despite knowing the proper password, it is 

possible that the /etc/passwd file is corrupted. Try to log in as a regular user and 

su(1M) to root. 

If that doesn’t work, see the message "su: No shell" and follow most of the 

instructions given there. Instead of changing the default shell, make the password 

field blank in /etc/shadow. 

lp hang 

Cause 

On a print server, the queue continues to grow but nothing comes out of the printer. 

The printer daemon is hung. 

Action 

Here is a simple procedure for flushing a hung printing queue: 1. Login or switch 

user to root; 2. Issue the reject(1M) printername command to make sure no one 

sends any job to the printer; 3. Turn off power to the printer; 4. If the active job 

appears to be causing the hang, remove it from the print queue with the cancel(1) 

jobnumber command, and ask the owner to requeue that print job; 5. Shut down the 

print queue with the /usr/lib/lpshut command; 6. Remove the lock file 

/var/spool/lp/SCHEDLOCK and the temporary files /var/spool/lp/tmp/*/*; 

7. Turn the printer back on; 8. Restart the print queue with the /usr/lib/lpsched 

command. 

See Also 

For more information on print queuing, see the System Administration Guide, Volume 

II. If you are using the AnswerBook, "print server" is a good search string. 


"M" 

Machine is not on the network 

Cause 

This error is Remote File Sharing (RFS) specific. It occurs when users try to advertise, 

unadvertise, mount, or unmount remote resources while the machine has not 

properly started a network connect. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENONET, errno=64. 


Permission denied 

Cause 

An attempt was made to send a message with mailtool(1) from a directory where the 

user does not have write permission, and the user’s home directory is currently 

unavailable. 

Action 

Change to another directory and start mailtool(1) again, or use chmod(1) to change 

permissions for the directory (if possible). 



Classing Engine 

Cause 

When a user runs mailtool(1) on a remote machine, setting the DISPLAY environment 

back to the local machine, this message might appear inside a dialog box window. 

The dialog box goes on to say that the Classing Engine must be installed to use 

Attachments. This problem occurs because rlogin(1) does not propagate the user’s 

environment. 

Action 

Exit mailtool(1) and set your OPENWINHOME environment variable to /usr/openwin. 

Then run mailtool(1) again. The error message will not appear, and you will be able 

to use Attachments. 


Classing Engine is a new name for Tool Talk. Earlier versions of mailtool(1) said 

Tool Talk: TT_ERR_NOMP instead of Classing Engine. 


of your Mail File. 

Cause 

This message appears in a pop-up dialog box whenever you ask mailtool(1) to access 

messages after another mail reader has modified your inbox. A request follows: 

"Please Quit this Mail Tool." 

Action 

Click "Continue" to close the dialog box, then exit mailtool(1). If you continue trying 

to read mail, messages deleted by the other mail reader will never appear, and 

mailtool(1) will fail to see any new messages. 



corrupted (Content-length mismatch). 

Cause 

This message comes from mail(1) or mailx(1)(1) whenever it detects messages 

with a different content length than advertised. The mail(1) program tells you 

which message might be truncated or might have another message concatenated to it. 

Two common causes of content length mismatches are the simultaneous use of 

different mail readers (such as mail(1) and mailtool(1)), or using a mail reading 

program (or an editor) that does not update the Content-Length field after altering a 

message. 

Action 

The mailx(1) program can usually recover from this error and delineate mail 

message boundaries correctly. Pay close attention to the message that might be 

truncated or combined with another message, and to all messages after that one. If a 

mail file becomes hopelessly corrupted, run it through a text editor to eliminate all 

Content-Length lines, and ensure that each message has a From (no colon) line for 

each message, preceded by a blank line. 

To avoid mailfile corruption, exit from mailtool(1) without saving changes when you 

are currently running mail(1) or mailx(1). 

Machine is not on the network 

Cause 

This error is Remote File Sharing (RFS) specific. It occurs when users try to advertise, 

unadvertise, mount, or unmount remote resources while the machine has not 

properly started a network connect. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENONET, errno=64. 




Cause 

An attempt was made to send a message with mailtool(1) from a directory where the 

user does not have write permission, and the user’s home directory is currently 

unavailable. 

Action 

Change to another directory and start mailtool(1) again, or use chmod(1) to change 

permissions for the directory (if possible). 


Classing Engine 

Cause 

When a user runs mailtool(1) on a remote machine, setting the DISPLAY environment 

back to the local machine, this message might appear inside a dialog box window. 

The dialog box goes on to say that the Classing Engine must be installed to use 

Attachments. This problem occurs because rlogin(1) does not propagate the user’s 

environment. 

Action 

Exit mailtool(1) and set your OPENWINHOME environment variable to /usr/openwin. 

Then run mailtool(1) again. The error message does not appear, and you can use 

Attachments. 


Classing Engine is a new name for Tool Talk. Earlier versions of mailtool(1) said 

Tool Talk: TT_ERR_NOMP instead of Classing Engine. 



of your Mail File. 

Cause 

This message appears in a pop-up dialog box whenever you ask mailtool(1)(1) to 

access messages after another mail reader has modified your inbox. A request 

follows: "Please Quit this Mail Tool." 

Action 

Click "Continue" to close the dialog box, then exit mailtool(1). If you continue trying 

to read mail, messages deleted by the other mail reader will never appear, and 

mailtool(1) will fail to see any new messages. 


corrupted (Content-length mismatch). 

Cause 

This message comes from mail(1) or mailx(1) whenever it detects messages with a 

different content length than advertised. The mail(1) program tells you which 

message might be truncated or might have another message concatenated to it. 

Two common causes of content length mismatches are the simultaneous use of 

different mail readers (such as mail(1) and mailtool(1)), or using a mail reading 

program (or an editor) that does not update the Content-Length field after altering a 

message. 

Action 

The mailx(1) program can usually recover from this error and delineate mail 

message boundaries correctly. Pay close attention to the message that might be 

truncated or combined with another message, and to all messages after that one. If a 

mail file becomes hopelessly corrupted, run it through a text editor to eliminate all 

Content-Length lines, and ensure that each message has a From (no colon) line for 

each message, preceded by a blank line. 

To avoid mailfile corruption, exit from mailtool(1) without saving changes when you 

are currently running mail(1) or mailx(1). 


file name may contain holes - can’t swap 

on it. 

Cause 

A swapfile was created with the command: 

# mkfile -nv 50m /ab/swap_50mb 

When the user tried to add the file: 

# swap -a /ab/swap_50mb 

It failed with the message: 

/ab/swap_50mb may contain holes - can’t swap on it. 

/ab/swap_50mb: Error 0 

Action 

The -n option was supported on SunOS 4, but on SunOS 5 (Solaris 2) -n works only 

when the file is to be used by NFS. Local swap files cannot be created with the -n 

option. 

mbuf map full 

Cause 

mbuf allocation 

Memory address alignment 

Cause 

This message can occur when printing large files on a SPARCprinter attached to a 

SPARCstation 2. 


Action 

Replace the SPARCstation 2 CPU with one that is at the most recent dash level. 

memory leaks 

Cause 

An application uses up more and more memory, until all swap space is exhausted. 

Action 

Many developers have found that third party software (such as Purify) can help 

identify memory leaks in their applications. If you suspect that you have a memory 

leak, you can use sar(1) to check on the Kernel Memory Allocation (KMA). Any 

driver or module that uses KMA resources, but does not specifically return the 

resources before it exits, can create a memory leak. 

See Also 

For more information on memory leaks, see the section on monitoring system 

activity in the System Administration Guide, Volume II. If you are using the 

AnswerBook, "displaying disk usage" is a good search string. Also, see the section on 

system resource problems in the NIS+ and FNS Administration Guide. 

Message too long 

Cause 

A message sent on a transport provider was larger than the internal message buffer 

or some other network limit. 


The symbolic name for this error is EMSGSIZE, errno=97. 



mounted, /string is busy, or... 

Cause 

While trying to mount a filesystem, the mount(1M) command received a "Device 

busy" (EBUSY) error code. There are several possible reasons: this /dev/dsk 

filesystem is already mounted on a different directory, the busy path name is the 

working directory of an active process, or the system has exceeded its maximum 

number of mount points (unlikely). 

Action 

Run /etc/mount to see if the filesystem is already mounted. If not, check to see if 

any shells are active in the busy directory (did the user cd(1) into the directory?), or 

if any processes in the ps(1) listing are active in that directory. If the reason for the 

error message isn’t obvious, try using a different directory for the mount point. 

mount: giving up on: /string 

Cause 

An existing server did not respond to an NFS mount request, so after retrying a 

number of times (default 1000), the mount(1M) command has given up. Nonexistent 

servers or bad mount points produce different messages. 

Action 

If the RPC: Program not registered message precedes this one, the requested 

mount server probably did not share (export) any filesystems, so it has no NFS 

daemons running. Have the superuser on the mount server share(1M) the 

filesystem, then run /etc/init.d/nfs.server start to begin NFS service. 

If the requested mount server is down or slow to respond, check to see whether the 

machine needs repair or rebooting. 


mount: mount-point /string does not exist. 

Cause 

Someone tried to mount a filesystem onto the specified directory, but there is no such 

directory. 

Action 

If this is the directory name you want, run mkdir(1) to create this directory as a 

mount point. 

mount: the state of /dev/dsk/string is 

not okay 

Cause 

The system was unable to mount the filesystem that was specified because the 

super-block indicates that the filesystem might be corrupted. This is not an 

impediment for read-only mounts. 

Action 

If you don’t need to write on this filesystem, mount(1M) it using the -o ro option. 

Otherwise, do as one of the message continuation lines suggests and run fsck(1M) 

to correct the filesystem state and update the super-block. 

See Also 

For more information on using fsck(1M), see the section on checking filesystem 



Multihop attempted 

Cause 

This error occurs when users try to access remote resources that are not directly 

accessible. 


The symbolic name for this error is EMULTIHOP, errno=74. 

mbuf map full 

Cause 

mbuf allocation 

Memory address alignment 

Cause 

This message can occur when printing large files on a SPARCprinter attached to a 

SPARCstation 2. 

Action 

Replace the SPARCstation 2 CPU with one that is at the most recent dash level. 

memory leaks 

Cause 

An application uses up more and more memory, until all swap space is exhausted. 


Action 

Many developers have found that third party software (such as Purify) can help 

identify memory leaks in their applications. If you suspect that you have a memory 

leak, you can use sar(1) to check on the Kernel Memory Allocation (KMA). Any 

driver or module that uses KMA resources, but does not specifically return the 

resources before it exits, can create a memory leak. 

See Also 

For more information on memory leaks, see the section on monitoring system 

activity in the System Administration Guide, Volume II. If you are using the 

AnswerBook, "displaying disk usage" is a good search string. Also, see the section on 

system resource problems in the NIS+ and FNS Administration Guide. 

Message too long 

Cause 

A message sent on a transport provider was larger than the internal message buffer 

or some other network limit. 


The symbolic name for this error is EMSGSIZE, errno=97. 


mounted, /string is busy, or... 

Cause 

While trying to mount a filesystem, the mount(1M) command received a "Device 

busy" (EBUSY) error code. There are several possible reasons: this /dev/dsk 

filesystem is already mounted on a different directory, the busy path name is the 

working directory of an active process, or the system has exceeded its maximum 

number of mount points (unlikely). 


Action 

Run /etc/mount to see if the filesystem is already mounted. If not, check to see if 

any shells are active in the busy directory (did the user cd(1) into the directory?), or 

if any processes in the ps(1) listing are active in that directory. If the reason for the 

error message isn’t obvious, try using a different directory for the mount point. 

mount: giving up on: /string 

Cause 

An existing server did not respond to an NFS mount request, so after retrying a 

number of times (default 1000), the mount(1M) command has given up. Nonexistent 

servers or bad mount points produce different messages. 

Action 

If the "RPC: Program not registered" message precedes this one, the requested mount 

server probably did not share (export) any filesystems, so it has no NFS daemons 

running. Have the superuser on the mount server share(1M) the filesystem, then 

run /etc/init.d/nfs.server start to begin NFS service. 

If the requested mount server is down or slow to respond, check to see whether the 

machine needs repair or rebooting. 

mount: mount-point /string does not 

exist. 

Cause 

Someone tried to mount a filesystem onto the specified directory, but there is no such 

directory. 

Action 

If this is the directory name you want, run mkdir(1) to create this directory as a 

mount point. 


mount: the state of /dev/dsk/string is 

not okay 

Cause 

The system was unable to mount the filesystem that was specified because the 

super-block indicates that the filesystem might be corrupted. This is not an 

impediment for read-only mounts. 

Action 

If you don’t need to write on this filesystem, mount(1M) it using the -o ro option. 

Otherwise, do as one of the message continuation lines suggests and run fsck(1M) 

to correct the filesystem state and update the super-block. 

See Also 

For more information on using fsck(1M), see the section on checking filesystem 


Multihop attempted 

Cause 

This error occurs when users try to access remote resources that are not directly 

accessible. 


The symbolic name for this error is EMULTIHOP, errno=74. 


"N" 

Name not unique on network 

Cause 

Given log name not unique. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOTUNIQ, errno=80. 

named [pid]: hostname.domainname has CNAME 

and other data (illegal) 

Cause 

On the DNS server, the error message is displayed. 

Action 

This error indicates that an alias (CNAME) is associated with another type of DNS 

record. 

The DNS system allow you to set up an alias to a system using the CNAME record. 

An example of this is: 

alias1 

IN CNAME host1.domain1. 

The alias alias1 cannot appear in any other type of record. Only the actual name of 

the host may be used. So, if you wanted to use this host as a mail exhanger, the 

record: 

alias1 IN MX 10 host2.domain1. 

would be illegal and would produce the error. 

Instead, you should use 


host1 IN MX 10 host2.domain1. 

This goes for all types of records, including HINFO and A records. 

Also, it is possible to get this error without explicitly setting the left hand side of a 

record. The DNS system defaults the left hand side to the last given left hand side. 

So you might have the following in a named database file: 

host1 IN A 123.124.125.126 

IN HINFO Sun Solaris 

alias1 IN CNAME host1.domain1. 

IN MX 10 host2.domain1. 

In this fragment, there is an implied alias1 in the left hand side of the MX record. 

If the alias was added after the database was in use for a while, the error would 

suddenly start showing up. Since the MX record was legal until the CNAME was added 

in front of it. This example could be fixed either by reversing the order of the MX and 

CNAME records, or explicitly giving the host1 in the lefthand side of the MX record. 

/net/string: No such file or directory 

Cause 

A user tried to change directory (for example with cd(1)) to a network partition on 

the system specified after /net/, but this host either does not exist or has not shared 

(exported) any filesystem. 

Action 

To gain access to files on this system, try rlogin(1). 

To export filesystems from the remote system, become superuser on that system and 

run the share(1M) command with the appropriate options. If that system is sharing 

filesystems for the first time, also run /etc/init.d/nfs.server start to begin 

NFS service. 


Network dropped connection because of 

reset 

Cause 

The host you were connected to crashed and rebooted. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENETRESET, errno=129. 

Network is down 

Cause 

A transport connection failed because it encountered a dead network. 

Action 

Report this error to the system administrator for the network. If you are the person 

responsible for this network, check to see why the network is dead and what repairs 

are necessary. 


This error results from status information delivered by the underlying 

communication interface. 

The symbolic name for this error is ENETDOWN, errno=127. 

Network is unreachable 

Cause 

An operational error occurred either because there was no route to the network or 

because negative status information was returned by intermediate gateways or 

switching nodes. 


The returned status is not always sufficient to distinguish between a network that is 

down and a host that is down. See the "No route to host" message. 

Action 

Check the network routers and switches to see if they are disallowing these packet 

transfers. If they are allowing all packet transfers, check network cabling and 

connections. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENETUNREACH, errno=128. 

NFS getattr failed for server string: 

RPC: Timed out 

Cause 

This message appears on an NFS client that requested a service from an NFS server 

whose hardware is failing. Often the message "NFS read failed" appears along with 

this message. If the server were merely down or slow to respond, the "NFS server 

not responding" message would appear instead. Data corruption on the server 

system is possible. 

Action 

Because this message usually indicates server hardware failure, initiate repair 

procedures as soon as possible. Check the memory modules, disk controllers, and 

CPU board. 

See Also 

For more information on NFS tuning, see chapter on monitoring network 

performance in the System Administration Guide, Volume II. 


nfs mount: Couldn’t bind to reserved 

port 

Cause 

This message appears when a client attempts to NFS mount a filesystem from a server 

that has more than one Ethernet interface configured on the same physical subnet. 

Action 

Always connect multiple Ethernet interfaces on one router system to different 

physical subnetworks. 

NFS mounted callog file Unsupported. 

Cause 

After installing Solaris 2.6 on a system, when users try to bring up their calendars 

either with CDE’s calendar manager (/usr/dt/bin/dtcm) or OpenWindow’s 

calendar (/usr/openwin/bin/cm), they see the dialog box: 

Calendar :Informational - NFS mounted callog file Unsupported. 

Your default startup Calendar file appears to be NFS mounted or 

a symlink to the same. This is Not Supported. 

Continue 

The following error is displayed in the console window when the Continue button is 

clicked: 

date time host rpc.cmsd[pid]: rpc.cmsd : 

NFS mounted callog file Not Supported - user@host 

date time host rpc.cmsd[pid]: rpc.cmsd : 

NFS mounted callog file Not Supported - user@host 

The calendars would’ve worked under 2.5.1 or before however. 


Action 

It has long been known that NFS mounted calendars are not supported in Solaris. Of 

the calendar can be corrupted when more than one person uses the calendar at the 

same time. If two rpc.cmsd daemons write to the callog file at the same time, the 

file becomes corrupt. However, two rpc.cmsd daemons could be run simultaneously 

through Solaris 2.5.1 even though this isn’t a supported configuration. 

With Solaris 2.6, this is no longer an option. rpc.cmsd does not allow the user to 

bring up a calendar that is NFS mounted and produces the error message above. 

nfs mount: mount: string: Device busy 

Cause 

This message appears when the superuser attempts to NFS mount on top of an 

active directory. The busy device is actually the working directory of a process. 

Action 

Determine which shell on the workstation is currently located below the mount 

point, and change out of that directory. Be wary of subshells (such as su(1M) shells) 

that could be in different working directories while the parents remain below the 

mount point. 

NFS mount: /string mounted OK 

Cause 

While booting, the system failed to mount the directory specified after the first colon, 

probably because the NFS server involved was down or slow to respond. The mount 

ran in the background and successfully contacted the NFS server. 

Action 

This is a purely informative message to let you know that the mount process has 

completed. 


NFS read failed for server string 

Cause 

This is generally a permissions problem. Perhaps a directory or file permission was 

changed while the client held the file open. Perhaps the filesystem’s share or 

netgroup permissions changed. If the server were down or the network saturated, 

the "NFS server not responding" message would appear instead. 

Action 

Log in to the NFS server and check the permissions of directories leading to the file. 

Make certain that the filesystem is shared with (exported to) the client experiencing 

an NFS read failure. 

See Also 

For more information, see the chapter on NFS troubleshooting in the NFS 

Administration Guide. 

nfs_server: bad getargs for int/int 

Cause 

This message comes from the NFS server when it recieves a request with 

unrecognized or incorrect arguments. Typically, it means the request could not be 

XDR decoded properly. This can result from corruption of the packet over the 

network, or from an implementation bug causing the NFS client to improperly 

encode its arguments. 

Action 

If this message originates from a single client, investigate that machine for NFS client 

software bugs. If this message appears throughout a network, especially accompanied 

by other networking errors, investigate the network cabling and connectors. 


NFS server string not responding still 

trying 

Cause 

In most cases this very common message indicates that the system has requested a 

service from an NFS server that is either down or extremely slow to respond. In 

some cases this message indicates that the network link to this NFS server is broken, 

although usually that condition generates other error messages as well. In a few 

cases this message indicates NFS client set-up problems. 

Action 

Check the non-responding NFS server to see whether the machine needs repair or 

rebooting. Encourage your user community to report such problems quickly but only 

once. 

Should this message appear when booting a diskless client, make sure that the 

client’s /etc/hosts file and the network naming service (NIS, NIS+, or other 

/etc/hosts files on the network) have been updated. 

See Also 



NFS server string ok 

Cause 

This message is the follow-up to the "NFS server not responding" error. It indicates 

that the NFS server is back in operation. 

Action 

When an NFS server first comes up, it is busy fulfilling client requests for a while. Be 

patient and wait for your client system to respond. Making many extraneous 

requests only further slows the NFS server response time. 


NFS string failed for server string: error 

int (string) 

Cause 

The failed NFS operation could be any one of the following: getattr, setattr, lookup, 

access, readlink, read, write, create, mkdir, symlink, mknod, remove, rmdir, rename, 

link, readdir, readdir+, fsstat, fsinfo, pathconf, or commit. 

See Also 

For more information on NFS, see the NFS Administration Guide. 

nfs umount: string: is busy 

Cause 

This message appears when the superuser attempts to unmount an active NFS 

filesystem. The busy point is the working directory of a process. 

Action 

Determine which shell (or process) on the workstation is currently located in the 

remotely mounted filesystem, and change ( cd(1)) out of that directory. Be wary of 

subshells (such as su(1M) shells) that could be in different directories while the 

parent shells remain in the NFS filesystem. 

NFS write error on host string: No space 

left on device. 

Cause 

This console message indicates that an NFS-mounted partition has filled up and 

cannot accept writing of new data. Unfortunately, software that attempts to 

overwrite existing files will usually zero out all data in these files. This is particularly 

destructive on NFS-mounted /home partitions. 


Action 

Find the user or process that is filling up the filesystem, and stop the out-of-control 

process as soon as you can. Then delete files as necessary to create more space on the 

filesystem (large core(4) files are good candidates for deletion). Have users write 

any modified files to local disk if possible. If this error occurs often, redistribute 

directories to ease demand on this partition. 

See Also 

For more information on disk usage, see the System Administration Guide, Volume II. 

If you are using the AnswerBook, "managing disk use" is a good search string. 

NFS write failed for server string: RPC: 

Timed out 

Cause 

This error can occur when a file system is soft-mounted, and server or network 

response time lags. Any data written to the server during this period could be 

corrupted. 

Action 

If you intend to write on a filesystem, never specify the soft mount option. Use the 

default hard mount for all the filesystems that are mounted read-write. 

See Also 




NIS+ authentication failure 

Cause 

This is a Federated Naming Service message. The operation could not be completed 

because the principal making the request could not be authenticated with the name 

service involved. 

Action 

Run the nisdefaults(1) command to verify that you are identified as the correct 

NIS+ principal. Also check that the system has specified the correct public key source. 

See Also 

For more information, see the authentication and authorization overview in the NIS+ 

and FNS Administration Guide. 

nis_cachemgr: Error in reading NIS 

cold start file : 

’/var/nis/NIS_COLD_START’ 

Cause 

After installing patches 104331-04 and 103612-33, nis_cachemgr(1M) failed to 

come up. The symptoms are as follows during the reboot: 

Sep 11 16:34:00 nis_cachemgr: Error in reading NIS cold start file : 

’/var/nis/NIS_COLD_START’ 

and nis_cachemgr(1M) isn’t there after logging in. Trussing nis_cachemgr(1M) 

showed that it is reading /var/nis/NIS_COLD_START and immediately reporting 

an error. Neither reinitializing the client nor copying NIS_COLD_START helps. 

Action 

This is a timing problem. Put a sleep(1) before the NIS+ initialization in 

/etc/init.d/rpc, after rpc.bind has been started. rpc.bind is slow about 


initializing and needs a few extra seconds to get going before nis_cachemgr(1M) 

starts bugging it. 

No buffer space available 

Cause 

An operation on a transport endpoint or pipe was not performed because the system 

lacked sufficient buffer space or because a queue was full. The target system 

probably ran out of memory or swap space. Any data written during this condition 

will probably be lost. 

Action 

To add more swap area, use the swap -a command on the target system. 

Alternatively, reconfigure the target system to have more swap space. As a general 

rule, swap space should be two to three times as large as physical memory. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOBUFS, errno=132. 

No child processes 

Cause 

This message can appear when an application tries to communicate with cooperating 

process that do not exist. 

Action 

Restart the parent process so it can create the child processes again. If that doesn’t 

help, this could be the result of a programming error; contact the vendor or author of 

the program for an update. 



A wait(2) system call was executed by a process that had no existing or 

unwaited-for child processes. The child processes could have exited prematurely, or 

might never have been created. 

The symbolic name for this error is ECHILD, errno=10. 

No default media available 

Cause 

The volume manager issues this message if a user makes an eject(1) request when 

the drives contain no diskette or CD-ROM to eject. 

Action 

Insert a diskette or CD-ROM. If the volume manager is confused and there actually is 

a diskette or CD-ROM in a drive, run volcheck(1) to update the volume manager. 

If the system remains confused, try booting with the -r option to reconfigure devices. 

No directory! Logging in with home=/ 

Cause 

The login(1) program could not find the home directory listed in the password file 

or NIS passwd(4) map, so it deposited the user in the root directory. 

Action 

Check that the user’s home directory is mounted and is owned by and accessible to 

that user. Perhaps the automounter tried to mount the home directory, but the NFS 

server did not respond quickly enough. Try listing the files in /home/username. If the 

NFS server responds to this request, have the user log out and log in again. 

It is possible that the automounter daemon is not running. Run the ps(1) command 

to see if automountd(1M) is present. If not, run the second command; if it appears 

to be wedged, run both these commands: 


# /etc/init.d/autofs stop 

# /etc/init.d/autofs start 

When the automounter daemon is running, verify that the /etc/auto_master file 

has a line like this: 

/home 

auto_home 

Verify that the /etc/auto_home file has a line like this: 

+auto_home 

These entries depend on the NIS auto_home map. 

It is also possible that the NFS server has not shared (exported) this /home directory, 

or that the NFS daemons on the server have disappeared. 

See Also 

For more information on NFS, see the NFS Administration Guide. 

No message of desired type 

Cause 

An attempt was made to receive a message of a type that does not exist on the 

specified message queue. See the msgsnd(2) and msgrcv(2) man pages for details. 

Action 

This indicates an error in the System V IPC message facility. Generally the message 

queue is empty or devoid of the desired message type, while IPC_NOWAIT is set. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOMSG, errno=35. 


No recipients specified 

Cause 

This message comes from the mailx(1) command whenever a user doesn’t provide 

an address in the To: field. 

Action 

See the message "Recipient names must be specified" for details. 

No record locks available 

Cause 

No more record locks are available. The system lock table is full. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOLCK, errno=46. 

Perhaps a process called fcntl(2) with the F_SETLK or F_SETLKW option, and the 

system maximum was exceeded. The system contains several different locking 

subsystems, including fcntl(2), the NFS lock daemon, and mail locking, all of 

which can produce this error. 

Action 

Try again later, when more locks might be available. 

No route to host 

Cause 

An operational error occurred because there was no route to the destination host, or 

because of status information returned by intermediate gateways or switching nodes. 

The returned status is not always sufficient to distinguish between a host that is 

down and a network that is down. See the "Network is unreachable" message. 


Action 

Check the network routers and switches to see if they are disallowing these packet 

transfers. If they are allowing all packet transfers, check network cabling and 

connections. 


The symbolic name for this error is EHOSTUNREACH, errno=148. 

No shell Connection closed 

Cause 

A user has attempted to a remote login to the system, and has a valid account name 

and password, but the shell specified for their account is not available on that 

system. For example, the seventh field could request the GNU Bourne-again shell 

/bin/bash, which does not exist on standard Solaris distributions. 

Action 

If you have a copy of the requested shell, become superuser and install the missing 

shell on that system. Otherwise, change the user’s password file entry (perhaps only 

in the NIS+ or NIS passwd(4) map) to specify an available shell such as /bin/csh 

or /bin/ksh. 

No space left on device 

Cause 

While writing an ordinary file or creating a directory entry, there was no free space 

left on the device. The disk, tape, or diskette is full of data. Any data written to that 

device during this condition will be lost. 

Action 

Remove unneeded files from the hard disk or diskette until there is space for all the 

data you are writing. It might be advisable to move some directories onto another 


filesystem and create symbolic links accordingly. When a tape is full, continue on 

another one, use a higher density setting, or obtain a higher-capacity tape. 

To create multi-volume tapes or diskettes, use the pax(1) or cpio(1) command; 

tar(1) is still limited to a single volume. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOSPC, errno=28. 

No such device 

Cause 

An attempt was made to apply an operation to an inappropriate device, such as 

writing to a nonexistent device. 

Action 

Look in the /devices directory to see why this device does not exist, or why the 

program expects it to exist. The similar "No such device or address" message tends 

to indicate I/O problems with an existing device, whereas this message tends to 

indicate a device that does not exist at all. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENODEV, errno=19. 

No such device or address 

Cause 

This error can occur when a tape drive is off-line or when a device has been 

powered off or removed from the system. 


Action 

For tape drives, make sure the device is connected, powered on, and toggled online 

(if applicable). For disk and CD-ROM drives, check that the device is connected and 

powered on. 

With all SCSI devices, ensure that the target switch or dial is set to the number 

where the system originally mounted it. To inform the system of a change to the 

target device number, reboot using the -r (reconfigure) option. 


This message results from I/O to a special file’s subdevice that either does not exist 

or that exists beyond the limit of the device. 

The symbolic name for this error is ENXIO, errno=6. 

No such file or directory 

Cause 

The specified file or directory does not exist. Either the file name or path name was 

entered incorrectly. 

Action 

Check the file name and path name for correctness and try again. If the specified file 

or directory is a symbolic link, it probably points to a nonexistent file or directory. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOENT, errno=2. 

no such map in server’s domain 

Cause 

A user or an application tried to look up something using Network Information 

Services (NIS), but NIS has no corresponding database for this request. 


Action 

Make sure the NIS map name is spelled correctly. To see a list of nicknames for the 

various NIS maps, run the ypcat -x command. To see a full list of the various NIS 

maps (databases), run the ypwhich -m command. If the NIS service were not 

running on the current machine, these commands would result in a "can’t 

communicate with ypbind" message. 

No such process 

Cause 

This process cannot be found. The process could have finished execution and 

disappeared, or it might still be in the system under a different numeric ID. 

Action 

Use the ps(1) command to check that the process ID you’re supplying is correct. 


No process corresponds to the specified process ID (PID), light-weight process ID, or 

thread_t. 

The symbolic name for this error is ESRCH, errno=3. 

No such user as string-- cron entries 

not created 

Cause 

A file exists in /var/spool/cron/crontabs for the specified user, but this user is 

not in /etc/passwd or the NIS passwd(4) map. The system cannot create 

cron(1M) entries for nonexistent users. 


Action 

To eliminate this message at boot time, remove the cron file for the nonexistent user, 

or rename it if the user’s login name has changed. If this is a valid user, create an 

appropriate password entry for this name. 

Not a data message 

Cause 

During a read(2), getmsg(2), or ioctl(2) I_RECVFD call to a STREAMS device, 

something has come to the head of the queue that can’t be processed. That something 

depends on the call: 1. read(2): control information or passed file descriptor; 2. 

getmsg(2): passed file descriptor; 3. ioctl(2): control or data information. 


The symbolic name for this error is EBADMSG, errno=77. 

Not a directory 

Cause 

A non-directory was specified where a directory is required, such as in a path prefix 

or as an argument to the chdir(2) call. 

Action 

Look at a listing of all the files in the current directory and try again, specifying a 

directory instead of a file. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOTDIR, errno=20. 


Not a stream device 

Cause 

A putmsg(2) or getmsg(2) system call was attempted on a file descriptor that is 

not a STREAMS device. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOSTR, errno=60. 

Not enough space 

Cause 

This message indicates that the system is running many large applications 

simultaneously, and has run out of swap space (virtual memory). It could also 

indicate that applications failed without freeing pages from the swap area. Swap 

space is an area of disk set aside to store portions of applications and data not 

immediately required in memory. Any data written during this condition will 

probably be lost. 

Action 

Reinstall or reconfigure the system to have more swap space. A general rule of 

thumb is that swap space should be two to three times as large as physical memory. 

Alternatively, use mkfile(1M) and swap(1M) to add more swap area. This 

example shows how to add 16 MB of virtual memory in the /usr/swap file (any 

filesystem with enough free space would work): 

# mkfile 16m /usr/swap 

# swap -a /usr/swap 

To make this automatic at boot time, add the following line to the /etc/vfstab file: 

/usr/swap - - swap - no - 



In calling the fork(2), exec(2), sbrk(2), or malloc(3C) routine, a program asked 

for more memory than the system could supply. This is not a temporary condition; 

swap space is a system parameter. 

The symbolic name for this error is ENOMEM, errno=12. 

not found 

Cause 

This message indicates that the Bourne shell could not find the program name given 

as a command. 

Action 

Check the form and spelling of the command line. If that looks correct, echo $PATH 

to see if the user’s search path is correct. When communications are garbled, it is 

possible to unset a search path to such an extent that only built-in shell commands 

are available. Here is a command to reset a basic search path: 

$ PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:. 

If the search path looks correct, check the directory contents along the search path to 

see if programs are missing or if directories are not mounted. 

NOTICE: vxvm: unexpected status on 

close 

Cause 

Everytime system boots (or is shut down), the message is displayed on the console. 

Sometimes, the following message is also displayed on the console and in the 

/var/adm/messages file: 

WARNING: 

/iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/SUNW,soc@2,0/SUNW,pln@a0000000,74127a/ssd@4,2 

(continued) 



(ssd22): 

Error for Command: Error Level: Fatal 

Requested Block: 0 Error Block: 0 

Vendor: CONNER 

Serial Number: 93081LPT 

Sense Key: Aborted Command 

ASC: 0xb3 (), ASCQ: 0x0, FRU: 0x0 

WARNING: 

/iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/SUNW,soc@2,0/SUNW,pln@a0000000,74127a/ssd@4,2 

(ssd22): ssd_synchronize_cache failed (5) 

Action 

In a High Availability system with NVRAM, this would be caused by unprocessed 

data in a NVRAM cache of the active logical host that has been down and come up 

later. Because of this, NVRAM should not be used in an HA system. The problem 

can be solved in this case by getting rid of the NVRAM on the HA system. 

In a non-HA system, this can also be caused by stale data in the NVRAM cache. (The 

example commands below assume the controller for the array is c1.) To fix for a 

non-HA system: 

1. Turn off all fast writes on this array and sync any remaining pending writes. 

# ssaadm fast_write -d c1 

# ssaadm sync_cache c1 

2. When you sync the fast writes to the array, all pending writes are physically made 

to the disks. Anything that is left in the cache is stale, and thus, it is safe to purge it. 

Run the command: 

# ssaadm purge c1 

3. Turn the fast writes for the disks back on. This command MAY be different on 

your system, depending on the disks on which you want fast writes enabled and the 

types of fast writes you want: 

# ssaadm fast_write -s -e c1 


NOTICE: /string: out of inodes 

Cause 

The filesystem specified after the first colon probably contains many small files, 

exceeding the per-filesystem limit for inodes (file information nodes). 

Action 

If many small files were created unintentionally, removing them resolves the problem. 

Otherwise, follow these steps to increase filesystem capacity for small files. Make 

several backup copies of the filesystem on different tapes (for safety), then bring the 

machine down to single-user mode. Use the newfs(1M) command with the -i 

option to increase inode density for this filesystem. Here is an example: 

# newfs -i 1024 /dev/rdsk/partition 

Finally, restore the filesystem from a backup tape. Note that increasing the inode 

density slightly reduces total filesystem capacity. 

Not login shell 

Cause 

This message results when a user tries to logout(1) from a shell other than the one 

started at login time. 

Action 

To quit a non-login shell, use the exit(1) command. Continue doing so until you 

have logged out. 

See Also 

For more general information on the login shell, see the section on customizing your 

work environment in the Solaris Advanced User’s Guide. 


Not on system console 

Cause 

A user tried to login(1) to a system as the superuser (uid=0, which is not 

necessarily root) from a terminal other than the console. 

Action 

Login to that system as a normal user, then run su(1M) to become superuser. To 

allow superuser logins from any terminal, comment out the CONSOLE line in 

/etc/default/login (this is not recommended for security reasons). 

Not owner 

Cause 

Either an ordinary user tried to do something reserved for the superuser, or the user 

tried to modify a file in a way restricted to the file’s owner or to the superuser. 

Action 

Switch user to root and try again. 


The symbolic name for this error is EPERM, errno=1. 

Not supported 

Cause 

This version of the system does not support the feature requested, although future 

versions of the system might provide support. 


Action 

This is generally not a system message from the kernel, but an error returned by an 

application. Contact the vendor or author of the application for an update. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOTSUP, errno=48. 

No utmpx entry 

Cause 

During login file system full errors are seen and login fails with the message 

No utmpx entry. 

This is caused by a full file system so that the system has no space to write its utmpx 

(login info) entry. 

Action 

To get around this condition the system must be booted into single user mode. Then 

clear (do not delete) the files: /var/adm/utmp and /var/adm/utmpx. This can be 

done by typing: 

#cat /dev/null > /var/adm/utmp 

#cat /dev/null > /var/adm/utmpx 

These commands zero out the files but keep it with the correct permissions. 

In some cases after clearing these files the /var filesystem may still be full. In this 

case type: 

du -askd /var |sort -nr |more 

This will give you a listing of the files from largest to smallest in the /var filesystem. 

To create space you can zero the files: /var/cron/log, /var/spool/lp/logs, and 

/var/adm/messages. You can also check /.wastebasket for large files to delete. 


6/04/98 7:27:54 nsrck: SYSTEM error, 

more space needed to compress [client] 

index, 8.1 MB required 

Cause 

In networker, cannot use the Remove Oldest Cycle feature because the /nsr 

filesystem is too full to perform a remove. An error message appears in the console 

window indicating that the file system is full. 

Action 

1. Stop the networker daemons so that some of the indices can be moved. In 

SunOS 5, use /etc/init.d/networker stop. In SunOS 4, use 

ps -ef | grep nsr and kill(1) the processes. 

2. Find a filesystem with enough space to move one of the client’s indices. Only one 

of the client’s indices should be moved, not the networker server’s index. To find 

the size of a client’s index, go to /nsr/index/client name/db and list the contents 

using ls -l. The data base file can be very large (possibly over 500 MB). 

3. Move the contents of a client’s index to the other filesystem and check that /nsr 

has freed the space to use. It may be necessary to unmount and remount /nsr, or 

even to reboot to designate the space freed by the move as available. 

4. Once the space is available, restart the daemons. 

5. Go into nwadmin. Under Clients--Indexes, select a client and use 

Remove Oldest Cycle to free more space. 

Use Reclaim Space to reclaim the space from the removed cycles. After a few of 

the old cycles have been removed, there should be enough space in the filesystem to 

move the removed client’s index back. 

6. Stop the daemons, and move the client’s index back to /nsr/index/clientname. 

7. Restart the daemons. Remove oldest cycles for the client that was just moved. 

Tweaking of the browse policy and retention policy may be necessary to prevent this 

situation from happening in the future. 

Other, long term solutions are to add more hard disk and run growfs or move /nsr 

to a drive with more space on it. 


"O" 

Object is remote 

Cause 

This error occurs when users try to share a resource that is not on the local machine, 

or try to mount/unmount a device or path name that is on a remote machine. 


The symbolic name for this error is EREMOTE, errno=66. 

ok 

Cause 

This is the OpenBoot PROM monitor prompt. From this prompt, you can boot the 

system (from disk, CD-ROM, or net), or you can use the go command to continue 

where you left off. 

Action 

If you suddenly see this prompt, look at the messages above it to see if the system 

crashed. If no other messages appear, and you just typed Stop-A or plugged in a 

new keyboard, type go to continue. You might need to Refresh the window system 

from its Workspace Menu. 


Never invoke sync from the ok prompt without first running the fsck(1M) command, 

especially if the filesystem has changed. 


Operation already in progress 

Cause 

An operation was attempted on a non-blocking object that already had an operation 

in progress. 


The symbolic name for this error is EALREADY, errno=149. 

Operation canceled 

Cause 

The associated asynchronous operation was canceled before completion. 


The symbolic name for this error is ECANCELED, errno=47. 

operation failed [error 185], unknown 

group error 0, string 

Cause 

When you use admintool to add a user to a newly-created group, admintool issues this 

error. 

Action 

Apply patch 101384-05 to fix bug ID 1151837 and to provide a workaround for bug 

ID 1153087. 


Operation not applicable 

Cause 

This error indicates that no system support exists for some function that the 

application requested. 

Action 

Ask the system vendor for an upgrade, or contact the vendor or author of the 

application for an update. 


This message indicates that no system support exists for an operation. Many 

modules set this error when a programming function is not yet implemented. If you 

are writing a program that produces this message while calling a system library, try 

to find and use an alternative library function. Future versions of the system might 

support this operation; check system release notes for further information. 

The symbolic name for this error is ENOSYS, errno=89. 

Operation not supported on transport 

endpoint 

Cause 

For example, trying to accept a connection on a datagram transport endpoint. 


The symbolic name for this error is EOPNOTSUPP, errno=122. 


Operation now in progress 

Cause 

An operation that takes a long time to complete (such as a connect) was attempted on 

a non-blocking object. 


The symbolic name for this error is EINPROGRESS, errno=150. 

/opt/bin/jws: /solaris/bin/locate_dirs: 

not found 

Cause 

This error message occurred when the customer used the link from /opt/bin/jws 

to /opt/SUNWjws/JWS/sparc-S2/bin/jws, to start Java Workshop. Typing in the 

full pathname works fine, typing jws gives the error. 

Action 

This happens because /opt/bin/jws is not 

/opt/SUNWjws/JWS/sparc-S2/bin/jws, which a script that runs another script: 

$_SS_JWS_HOME/solaris/bin/locate_dirs. 

So whatever /opt/bin/jws is, it is not setting $_SS_JWS_HOME correctly. Take that 

out of your path and put /opt/SUNWjws/JWS/sparc-S2/bin/jws in your path 

so which jws returns: /opt/SUNWjws/JWS/sparc-S2/bin/jws. 

Option not supported by protocol 

Cause 

A bad option or level was specified when getting or setting options for a protocol. 



The symbolic name for this error is ENOPROTOOPT, errno=99. 

out of memory 

Cause 

Hundreds of different programs can produce this message when the system is 

running many large applications simultaneously. This message usually means that 

the system has run out of swap space (virtual memory). 

Action 

See the message "Not enough space" for details. Any data written during this 

condition will probably be lost. 

Out of stream resources 

Cause 

During a STREAMS open, either no STREAMS queues or no STREAMS head data 

structures were available. This is a temporary condition; one may recover from it if 

other processes release resources. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOSR, errno=63. 

overlapping swap volume 

Cause 

After creating volumes in rootdg to be used as additional swap and adding these to 

the /etc/vfstab file, an error message is displayed at boot time complaining about 

overlapping swap volumes. 


Action 

Change the names of these volumes to read swap1, swap2, etc... 

If you still get this message after making the above change, edit the 

/sbin/swapadd script. Find the line: 

c=‘$SWAP -l | grep -c ’\\’‘ 

and change it to 

=‘$SWAP -l | grep -c ’’${special}’’‘ 

Also see bug number 1215062 for more information on this behavior. 

"P" 

Package not installed 

Cause 

This error occurs when users attempt to use a system call from a package which has 

not been installed. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOPKG, errno=65. 

panic -boot: Could not mount 

filesystem 

Cause 

The primary problem is that jumpstart gives the following error: 

2ec00 RPC: Can’t decode result. 

whoami RPC call failed with rpc status: 2 

(continued) 



panic - boot: Could not mount filesystem. 

program terminated 

ok 

Normally this is a result of the bootparams not being able to get to the install 

image. 

The second problem is that other users have had the same error message, with the 

additional message: 

’Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet...’ 

Action 

To solve the first problem: 

1. Check how the dfstab(4) (/etc/dfs/dfstab on the install image NFS server) 

looks: 

share -F nfs -o ro,anon=o /jumpstart-dir 

2. Run share(1M) command on the installed image NFS server, to make sure it is 

shared properly. 

3. Check /etc/bootparams file on the net install server. Look for entries with 

incorrect boot path. 

4. Make sure that /usr/sbin/rpc.bootparamd is running on the boot server. If 

necessary, kill and restart it. 

5. Check /etc/ethers on the boot server for duplicate or conflicting entries 

6. At OK prompt, run test net /test-net and/or watch net /watch-net to test the 

network connectivity 

A workaround for the second problem is to check the nsswitch.conf(4) file. If 

some of the entries point to NIS such as: 

rpc nis files 

hosts nis files 

ethers nis files 

bootparams files 

nis 


change all of these entries to files first: 

rpc files nis 

hosts files nis 

ethers files nis 

bootparams files nis 

Note - You may have to manually update these files if they do not contain info on 

the client machine you are trying to jumpstart. 

Then remove the client with rm_install_client(1M), remove the contents of 

tftpboot, and re-add the client: 

add_install_client -c /jumpstart-dir/profiles ’client name’ ’arch’ 

panic: mutex_adaptive_exit 

Cause 

CD-ROM boot gets error:panic: mutex_adaptive_exit Documented above under 

message "panic_mutex". Same SRDB ID. 

Panic 

Cause 

A system panics and crashes when a program exercises an operating system bug. 

Although the crash might seem unfriendly to a user, the sudden stop actually 

safeguards the system and its data from further corruption. 

Along with bringing the operating system to a stop, the panic routine copies the 

memory contents in use to a dump device, recording critical information about the 

current state of the CPU from which the panic routine was called. 

Because the primary swap device is usually the default dump device, the primary 

swap device should be large enough to hold a complete image of memory. The 

system tries to reboot after the memory image is saved. 

If the system does not reboot successfully, consider these possibilities: 

1. Catastrophic hardware failure, such as faulty memory or a crashed disk; 


2. Major kernel configuration faults, such as a buggy device driver; 

3. Major kernel tuning errors, such as a too-large value for maxusers; 

4. Data corruption, including corruption of the operating system files; 

5. Manual intervention is needed, as when fsck(1M) expects answers to its queries. 

Action 

To find out why a system crashed, you can 

1. Look in the /var/adm/message* log files; 

Action 

Of these methods, using savecore(1M) is the most informative. The 

savecore(1M) command transfers the system crash dump image generated by the 

panic routine from the dump device to a file system. The image can then be analyzed 

with a debugger such as adb(1). 

See Also 

Correctly setting up savecore(1M) and interpreting its results can be difficult. For 

more information about debugging system panics, refer to Panic! UNIX System 

Crash Dump Analysis by Chris Drake and Kimberley Brown (ISBN 0-13-149386-8). 

PARTIALLY ALLOCATED INODE I=int CLEAR? 

Cause 

During phase 1, fsck(1M) found that the specified inode was neither allocated nor 

unallocated. The reason is probably that the system crashed in the middle of a 

sync(2) or write(2) operation. 

Action 

Should you answer yes to this question, "UNALLOCATED" messages might result 

during phase 2, if any directory entries point to this inode. If you are being careful, 

exit fsck(1M) and run ncheck(1M) (specifying the inode number after the -i 

option) to determine which file or directory is involved here. You might be able 

restore this file or directory from another system. It is also possible that fsck(1M) 

will copy this file to the lost+found directory in a later phase. 


See Also 



passwd: Changing password for string 

Cause 

If you put the following lines into /etc/nsswitch.conf 

passwd: compat 

passwd_compat: nis 

Then when you run passwd, it fails as follows: 

server1% passwd 

passwd: Changing password for khh 

server1% 

NOTE: passwd exits before you get the opportunity to enter a password. 

Action 

If you read the man page for passwd very carefully, you will see the following: 

If all requirements are met, by default, the passwd command will consult 

/etc/nsswitch.conf to determine in which repositories to perform password 

update. It searches the passwd(4) and passwd_compat entries. The sources 

(repositories) associated with these entries will be updated. However, the password 

update configurations supported are limited to the following 5 cases. Failure to 

comply with the configurations will prevent users from logging onto the system. 

o passwd: files 

o passwd: files nis 

o passwd: files nisplus 

o passwd: compat (==> files nis) 

o passwd: compat (==> files nisplus) 

passwd_compat: nisplus 


NOTE: It does *not* say that you can use the line: passwd_compat: nis. If you 

conform exactly to what’s written in the man page, then passwd(1) works. 

passwd.org_dir: NIS+ servers 

unreachable 

Cause 

This is the first of three messages that an NIS+ client prints when it cannot locate an 

NIS+ server on the network. 

Action 

See the message "hosts.org_dir: NIS+ servers unreachable" for details. 

Password does not decrypt secret key 

for unix.uid@string 

Cause 

This message appears at login time when a user’s password is not identical to the 

user’s keylogin(1) network password. When a system is running NIS+, the login 

program first performs UNIX authentication, and then attempts a keylogin(1) for 

secure RPC authentication. 

Action 

To gain credentials for secure RPC, users can run keylogin(1) (after login) and 

type in their secret key. To stop this message from appearing at login time, users can 

run the chkey -p command and set their network password to be the same as their 

NIS+ password. If a user doesn’t remember the network password, the system 

administrator should delete and re-create the user’s credentials table entry so the 

user can establish a new network password with chkey(1). 



Cause 

An attempt was made to access a file in a way forbidden by the protection system. 

Action 

Check the ownership and protection mode of the file (with a long listing from the 

ls -l command) to see who is allowed to access the file. Then change the file or 

directory permissions as needed. 


The symbolic name for this error is EACCES, errno=13. 

Please specify a recipient. 

Cause 

With mailtool(1), this message comes up in a dialog box whenever a user tries to 

deliver a message with no address in the To: field. 

Action 

See the message "Recipient names must be specified" for details. 

Protocol error 

Cause 

Some protocol error occurred. This error is device specific, but is generally not 

related to a hardware failure. 


The symbolic name for this error is EPROTO, errno=71. 


protocol error, string closed connection 

Cause 

rlogin(1) fails on SunOS machine. 

Action 

1. Check the permissions on in.rlogind on the machine you are trying to connect to. 

The permissions should look like this: 

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root staff 16384 Jan 20 1994 /usr/etc/in.rlogind 

2. Check the login line in the /etc/inetd.conf file. It should look like the following: 

login stream tcp nowait root /usr/etc/in.rlogind in.rlogind 

3. Check /etc/passwd to see if an invalid login shell has been substituted in the 

entry for the login id. 

Protocol family not supported 

Cause 

The protocol family has not been configured into the system or no implementation 

for it exists. Used for the Internet protocols. 


The symbolic name for this error is EPFNOSUPPORT, errno=123. 


Protocol not supported 

Cause 

The requested networking protocol has not been configured into the system, or no 

implementation for it exists. (A protocol is a formal description of the messages to be 

exchanged and the rules to be followed when systems exchange information.) 

Action 

Verify that the protocol is in the /etc/inet/protocols file and in the NIS 

protocols map, if applicable. If the protocol is not listed, and you want to permit its 

use, configure the protocol as documented or as required. 


The symbolic name for this error is EPROTONOSUPPORT, errno=120. 

Protocol wrong type for socket 

Cause 

This message indicates either an application programming error, or badly configured 

protocols. 

Action 

Make sure that the /etc/protocols file corresponds number-for-number with the 

NIS protocols(4) map. It it does, ask the vendor or author of the application for 

an update. 


A protocol was specified that does not support the semantics of the socket type 

requested. This amounts to a request for an unsupported type of socket. Look at the 

source code that made this socket request and check that it requested one of the 

types specified in /usr/include/sys/socket.h. 

The symbolic name for this error is EPROTOTYPE, errno=98. 


"Q" 

quotactl: open Is a directory 

Cause 

Using edquota to set users limits the command displays the error. 

edquota updates all quota files that are on a mounted filesystem. So, a directory 

named quotas causes it to fail. 

Action 

In one of the mounted filesystems, there is a directory named quotas. To fix the 

problem, move the directory off the mounted filesystem, rename it, or delete it. 

For example: If you have /usr/quotas/old_info The directory /usr/quotas is 

going to cause edquota to fail. Either move /usr/quotas to /usr/old_quotas 

or delete the directory. 

"R" 

Read error from network: Connection 

reset by peer 

Cause 

This message appears when a user logs remotely into a machine that crashes or s 

rebooted during the rlogin(1) or rsh(1) session. Any data changes that were not 

saved are probably lost. Sometimes this message appears only when the user types 

something, even though the system went down hours before. 

Action 

Try to rlogin(1) again, perhaps after waiting a few minutes for the system to reboot. 


Read-only file system 

Cause 

Files and directories on filesystems that are mounted read-only cannot be changed. 

Action 

If you only modify these files and directories occasionally, rlogin(1) to the servers 

from which the filesystems are mounted and change the files or directories there. If 

you change these files and directories frequently, mount(1M) the filesystems read/ 

write. 


The symbolic name for this error is EROFS, errno=30. 

rebooting... 

Cause 

This message appears on the console to indicate that the machine is booting, either 

after the superuser issued a reboot(1M) command, or after a system panic if the 

EEPROM’s watchdog-reboot? variable is set to true. 

Action 

Allow the machine to boot itself. In case of a system panic, look above this message 

for other indications of what went wrong. 

Recipient names must be specified 

Cause 

Somebody sent mail without a valid recipient in the To: field, so sendmail(1M) 

could not deliver the mail message. Using mail(1), the recipient’s address might 

have been specified using spaces or non-alphanumeric characters. The mailtool(1) and 


mailx(1) commands try to prevent this by issuing "Please specify a recipient" or "No 

recipients specified" messages instead. If there is at least one valid recipient, each 

invalid recipient address will generate a "User unknown" message. 

Action 

Look in the sender’s dead.letter file for the automatically saved message, and 

have the originator send it again, this time specifying a recipient. 

See Also 

For more information about sendmail(1M), see the Mail Administration Guide. 

Reset tty pgrp from int to int 

Cause 

The C shell sometimes issues this message when it clears away the window process 

group after the user exits the window system. This can happen when the window 

system doesn’t clean up after itself. 

Action 

Proceed with your work. This message is only informational. 

Resource temporarily unavailable 

Cause 

This indicates that the fork(2) system call failed because the system’s process table 

is full, or that a system call failed because of insufficient memory or swap space. It is 

also possible that a user is not allowed to create any more processes. 

Action 

Simply waiting often gives the system time to free resources. However if this 

message occurs often on a system, reconfigure the kernel and allow more processes. 


To increase the size of the process table in Solaris 2, increase the value of maxusers 

in the /etc/system file. The default maxusers value is the amount of main 

memory in MB, minus 2. 

If one user is not allowed to create any more processes, that user has probably 

exceeded the memory size limit; see the limit(1) man page for details. 


The symbolic name for this error is EAGAIN, errno=11. 

Restartable system call 

Cause 

Interrupted system call should be restarted. 


The symbolic name for this error is ESTART, errno=91. 

Result too large 

Cause 

This is a programming error or a data input error. 

Action 

Ask the program’s author to fix this condition. 


This indicates an attempt to evaluate a mathematical programming function at a 

point where its value would overflow or underflow. The value of a programming 

function in the math package (3M) is not representable within machine precision. 

This could occur after floating point overflow or underflow (either single or double 

precision), or after total loss of numeric significance in Bessel functions. 


This message can indicate "Result too small" in the case of floating point underflow. 

To help pinpoint a program’s math errors, use the matherr(3M) facility. 

The symbolic name for this error is ERANGE, errno=34. 

rlogin: no directory! connection 

closed 

Cause 

When user tries to remotely login to a machine, he gets the error. 

The machine that the customer was trying to rlogin(1) to had permissions of 700 

on its root directory. The permissions on root should be 755. 

Once the user changed the rootpermissions to 755, he was able to get farther when 

attempting a rlogin, but it still failed: 

Last login: Fri Aug 29 10:24:43 from machinename 

no shell 

connection closed 

Action 

The machine that the user was trying to rlogin into had the permissions set to 700 on 

both the root and /usr/bin directories. For both directories, the permissions 

should be 775. Once the user changed the permissions to 775, rlogin(1) was 

successful. 

Another possibility is to check the user’s >passwd(1) entry in the NIS/NIS+ map. A 

login shell such as /usr/dist/exe/tcsh or /net/lab/.../csh could cause the 

failure because of NFS mount permission. 


mdir: string: Directory not empty 

Cause 

The rmdir(1) command can remove empty directories only. The directory whose 

name appears after the first colon in the message still contains some files or 

directories. 

Action 

Use rm(1) instead of rmdir(1). To remove this directory and everything underneath 

it, use the rm -ir command to recursively descend the directory, being asked if you 

want to delete each element. To remove the directory and all its contents without 

being asked for approval, use the rm -r command. 

ROOT LOGIN /dev/console 

Cause 

This syslog message indicates that someone has logged in as root on the system 

console. 

Action 

If you have just logged in as root, don’t worry. If this is not you, consider the 

possibility of a security breach. The best site-wide policy is for all system 

administrators to su(1M) instead of logging in as root. 

ROOT LOGIN /dev/pts/int FROM string 

Cause 

This syslog message indicates that someone has logged in remotely as root on a 

pseudo-terminal from the system specified after the FROM keyword. 


Action 

For security reasons, it is a bad idea to allow root logins from anywhere other than 

the console. To restrict superuser logins to the console, remove the comment from the 

CONSOLE line in /etc/default/login. 

RPC: Program not registered 

Cause 

Check the rpc.bynumber NIS map. 

rx framing error 

Cause 

Usually this error indicates a hardware problem. 

Action 

Check the Ethernet cabling and connectors to locate a problem. 


A framing error occurs when the Ethernet I/O driver receives a non-integral unit of 

octets, such as 63 bytes and then 3 bits. (Ethernet specifies the use of octets.) Framing 

errors are caused by corruption of the starting or ending frame delimiters. These can 

be corrupted by some violation of the encoding scheme. 

Framing errors are a subset of CRC errors, which are usually caused by anomalies on 

the physical media. An "alignment/framing error" is a type of CRC error where octet 

boundaries do not line up. 


"S" 

save: SYSTEM error, Arg list too long 

Cause 

save fails with the error. The cause of this error is that the data base (index) file for 

the client is greater than 2 Gbytes. With Solaris 2.6 and SBU 5.0.1 this is no longer a 

problem. 

Action 

However, with earlier versions of Solaris you need to bring up nwadmin -> indexes 

-> select appropriate client -> select appropriate fs -> remove oldes cycle -> reclaim 

space. 

This may have to be repeated a few times to reclaim enough space. The indexes can 

be recreated later if necessary by using scanner. 

SCSI bus DATA IN phase parity error 

Cause 

The most common cause of this problem is unapproved hardware. Some SCSI 

devices for the PC market do not meet the high I/O speed requirements for the 

UNIX market. Other possible causes of this problem are improper cabling or 

termination, and power fluctuations. Data corruption is possible but unlikely to 

occur, because this parity error prevents data transfer. 

Action 

Check that all SCSI devices on the bus are Sun-approved hardware. Then verify that 

all cables measure no longer than six meters, total, and that all SCSI connections are 

properly terminated. If power fluctuations are occurring, invest in an uninterruptible 

power supply. 


SCSI transport failed: reason ’reset’ 

Cause 

This message indicates that the system sent data over the SCSI bus, but the data 

never reached its destination because of a SCSI bus reset. The most common cause of 

this condition is conflicting SCSI targets.¤ Data corruption is possible but unlikely to 

occur, because this failure prevents data transfer. 

Action 

Verify that all cables measure no longer than six meters, total, and that all SCSI 

connections are properly terminated. If power surges are a problem, acquire a surge 

suppressor or uninterruptible power supply. 

A machine’s internal disk drive is usually SCSI target 3. Make sure that external and 

secondary disk drives are targeted to 1, 2, or 0, and do not conflict with each other. 

Also make sure that tape drives are targeted to 4 or 5, and CD drives to 6, avoiding 

any conflict with each other or with disk drives. If the targeting of the internal disk 

drive is in question, power off the machine, remove all external drives, turn the 

power on, and from the PROM monitor run the probe-scsi-all or probe-scsi 

command. 

If SCSI device targeting is acceptable, memory configuration could be the problem, 

especially for machines with the sun4c architecture. Ensure that high-capacity 

memory chips (such as 4MB SIMMs) are in lower banks, while lower-capacity 

memory chips (such as 1MB SIMMs) are in the upper banks. 

SPARC systems do not always support third party CD-ROM drives, and may 

generate a similar "unknown vendor" error message. Check with the CD-ROM 

vendor for specific configuration requirements. 

Some third-party disk drives have a read-ahead cache that interferes with Solaris 

device drivers. Make sure that any existing read-ahead cache facility is turned off. 

See Also 

¤ For more information on SCSI targets, see the section on device naming 

conventions in the Solaris 1.x to Solaris 2.x Transition Guide. If you are using the 

AnswerBook, "scsi targets" is a good search string. 


Security exception on host string. USER 

ACCESS DENIED. 

Cause 

When trying to create a user via Adminsuite, placing the home directory on a 

system remote from the nisplus server, customer gets error message: 

Security exception on host hostname. USER ACCESS DENIED. 

The user identity (555)username was received, but that user 

is not authorized to execute the requested functionality 

on this system. Is this user a member of an appropriate 

security group on this system ? 

(Function: class directory method create_dir) 

User can rsh(1) to the remote machine and create a home directory on the system. 

Action 

The user was not in the sysadmin group NIS+ tables. 

# niscat group.org_dir | grep sysadmin 

sysadmin::14: 

Add the username to the sysadmin group. 

Segmentation Fault 

Cause 

Segmentation faults usually result from programming error. This message is usually 

accompanied by a core dump, except on read-only filesystems. 

Action 

To see which program produced a core(4) file, run either the file(1) command or 

the adb(1) command. The following examples show the output of the file(1) and 

adb(1) commands on a core file from the dtmail program. 


$ file core 

core: ELF 32-bit MSB core file SPARC Version 1, from ‘dtmail’ 

$ adb core 

core file = core -- program ‘dtmail’ 

SIGSEGV 11: segmentation violation 

^D (use Control-d to quit the adb rogram) 

Ask the vendor or author of this program for a debugged version. 


A process has received a signal indicating that it attempted to access an area of 

memory that is protected or that does not exist. The two most common causes of 

segmentation faults are attempting to dereference a null pointer or indexing past the 

bounds of an array. 


server "dns" or 


server "nis" 

Cause 

The following entry in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file: 

sendmailvars: dns nis files causes the messages to appear in the console 

window. 

Action 

The sendmailvars database can only be used with local files and/or NIS+. So, if 

you do not have this database setup, the default sendmailvars entry should look 

as follows in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file: 

sendmailvars: files 


sendmail[int]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR: net hang 

reading from string 

Cause 

This is a sendmail(1M) message that appears on the console and in the log file 

/var/adm/messages. If this message occurs once for a particular user, it is possible 

that a mail message from this user ends with a partial line (having no terminating 

newline character). If this message appears frequently or at busy times, especially 

along with other networking errors, it could indicate network problems. 

Action 

Check the user’s mail spool file to see if a message ends without a newline character. 

If so, talk with the user and determine how to prevent the problem from occurring 

again. If these messages are the result of network problems, you could try moving 

the mail spool directory to another machine with a faster network interface. 


During the SMTP receipt of DATA phase, a message-terminating period on a line of 

its own never arrived, so sendmail(1M) timed out and produced this error. 

Service wouldn’t let us acquire 

selection 

Cause 

This message indicates that the OpenWindows selection service failed to seize the 

requested selection from /tmp/winselection. Some diagnostics follow: the 

requested selection could be 0 for unknown, 1 for caret, 2 for primary, 3 for 

secondary, or 4 for clipboard. The result could be 0 for failure, 2 for nonexistent, 3 for 

didn’t have, 4 for wrong rank, 5 for continued, 6 for cancelled, or 7 for unrecognized. 


setmnt: Cannot open /etc/mnttab for 

writing 

Cause 

The system is having problems writing to /etc/mnttab. The filesystem containing 

/etc may be mounted read-only, or is not mounted at all. 

Action 

Check that this file exists and is writable by root. If so, ensure that the /etc 

filesystem has been mounted, and is mounted read-write rather than read-only. 

share_nfs: /home: Operation not 

applicable 

Cause 

This message usually indicates that the system has a local filesystem mounted on 

/home, which is where the automounter usually mounts users’ home directories. 

Action 

When a system is running the automounter, do not mount local filesystems on the 

/home directory. Mount them on another directory, such as /disk2, which on most 

systems you will have to create. You could also change the automounter auto_home 

entry, but that is a more difficult solution. 

Slice c0t1d0s0 is too small to contain 

1 replicas 

Cause 

When trying to add a state replica using metatool to cylinder 0 of a disk, the 

following error message appears: 


Your attempt to attach metastate database 

replicas on slice "c?t?d?s?" failed for the 

following reason: Slice c?t?d?s? is too small 

to contain 1 replicas. 

This is because metatool masks out the very first cylinder to protect the disk label. 

On disksuite v4.1, metatool does allow adding the databases to cylinder 0 on 

2.1gb disks or larger. 

Action 

The workaround is not to start at cylinder 0 but at cylinder 1, or use the command 

line (metadb -a). 

Socket type not supported 

Cause 

The support for the socket type has not been configured into the system or no 

implementation for it exists. 


The symbolic name for this error is ESOCKTNOSUPPORT, errno=121. 

Soft error rate (int%) during writing 

was too high 

Cause 

This message from the SCSI tape drive appears when Exabyte or DAT tapes generate 

too many soft (recoverable) errors. It is followed by the advisory "Please, replace tape 

cartridge" message. Soft errors are an indication that hard errors could soon occur, 

causing data corruption. 


Action 

First clean the tape head with a cleaning tape as recommended by the manufacturer. 

If that doesn’t work, replace the tape cartridge. You might need to replace the tape 

drive if the problem still occurs with new tape cartridges. 

Soft error rate (retries = int) during 

writing was too high 

Cause 

This message from the SCSI tape drive appears when Archive tapes generate too 

many soft (recoverable) errors. It is followed by the advisory "Periodic head cleaning 

required and/or replace tape cartridge" message. Soft errors are an indication that 

hard errors could soon occur, causing data corruption. 

Action 

First clean the tape head with a cleaning tape as recommended by the manufacturer. 

If that doesn’t work, replace the tape cartridge. You might need to replace the tape 

drive if the problem still occurs with new tape cartridges. 

Software caused connection abort 

Cause 

A connection abort was caused internal to your host machine. 


The symbolic name for this error is ECONNABORTED, errno=130. 


Srmount error 

Cause 

This error is RFS specific. It occurs when an attempt is made to stop RFS while 

resources are still mounted by remote machines, or when a resource is readvertised 

with a client list that does not include a remote machine with the resource currently 

mounted. 


The symbolic name for this error is ESRMNT, errno=69. 

Stale NFS file handle 

Cause 

A file or directory that was opened by an NFS client was either removed or replaced 

on the server. 

Action 

If you were editing this file, write it to a local filesystem instead. Try remounting the 

filesystem on top of itself or shutting down any client processes that refer to stale file 

handles. If neither of these solutions works, reboot the system. 


The original vnode is no longer valid. The only way to get rid of this error is to 

force the NFS server and client to renegotiate file handles. 

The symbolic name for this error is ESTALE, errno=151. 


statd: cannot talk to statd at string 

Cause 

This message comes from the NFS status monitor daemon statd(1M), which 

provides crash recovery services for the NFS lock daemon lockd(1M). The message 

indicates that statd(1M) has left old references in the /var/statmon/sm and 

/var/statmon/sm.bak directories. After a user has removed or modified a host in 

the hosts database, statd(1M) might not properly purge files in these directories, 

which results in its trying to communicate with a nonexistent host. 

Action 

Remove the file named variable (where variable is the hostname) from both the 

/var/statmon/sm and /var/statmon/sm.bak directories. Then kill the statd 

daemon and restart it. If that doesn’t get rid of the message, kill and restart 

lockd(1M) as well. If that doesn’t work, reboot the machine at your convenience. 

stty: TCGETS: Operation not supported 

on socket 

Cause 

This message results when a user tries to remote copy with rcp(1) or remote shell 

with rsh(1) from one machine to another, but has an stty(1) command in the 

remote .cshrc file. This error results in failure of the rcp(1) or rsh(1) command. 

Action 

The solution is to move the invokation of the stty(1) command to the user’s 

.login (or equivalent) file. Alternatively, execute the stty(1) command in .cshrc 

only when the shell is interactive. Here is a test to do that: 

if ($?prompt) stty ... 



The rcp(1) and rsh(1) commands make a connection using sockets, which do not 

support stty(1)’s TCGETS ioctl. 

su: No shell 

Cause 

This message indicates that someone changed the default login shell for root to a 

program that is missing from the system. For example, the final colon-separated field 

in /etc/passwd could have been changed from /sbin/sh to /usr/bin/bash, 

which does not exist in that location. Possibly an extra space was appended at the 

end of the line. The outcome is that you cannot login as root or switch user to 

root, and so cannot directly fix this problem. 

Action 

The only solution is to reboot the system from another source, then edit the 

password file to correct this problem. Invoke sync(1M) several times, then halt the 

machine by typing Stop-A or by pressing the reset button. Reboot single-user from 

CD-ROM, the net, or diskette, such as by typing boot cdrom -s at the ok prompt. 

After the system comes up and gives you a # prompt, mount the device 

corresponding to the original / partition somewhere, such as with a mount(1M) 

command similar to the one below. Then run an editor on the newly-mounted 

system password file (use ed(1) if terminal support is lacking): 

# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 /mnt 

# ed /mnt/etc/passwd 

Use the editor to change the password file’s root entry to call an existing shell, such 

as /usr/bin/csh or /usr/bin/ksh. 


To keep the "No shell" problem from happening, habitually use admintool or 

/usr/ucb/vipw to edit the password file. These tools make it difficult to change 

password entries in ways that make the system unusable. 


SunPC may NOT run correctly as root 

Cause 

With SunPC 4.1 and the 102924 jumbo patch installed: when a user attempts to run 

SunPC, the following error message is displayed: 

SunPC may NOT run correctly as root. 

Please run in user mode. 

SunPC script is exiting 

Yet, the user is not root. 

The user’s primary group id is probably root. For example: 

$ /usr/bin/id 

uid=33650(gruff) gid=0(root) 

Action 

Change the user’s primary group to another group, such as 10, and, the user still 

needs to be in teh root group, add the root group to the user’s secondary group list. 

su: ’su root’ failed for string on 

/dev/pts/int 

Cause 

The user specified after "for" tried to become superuser, but typed the wrong 

password. 

Action 

If the user is supposed to know the root password, wait to see if the correct 

password is supplied. If the user is not supposed to know the root password, ask 

why he or she is attempting to become superuser. 


su: ’su root’ succeeded for string on 

/dev/pts/int 

Cause 

The user specified after "for" just became superuser by typing the root password. 

Action 

If the user is supposed to know the root password, this message is only 

informational. If the user is not supposed to know the root password, change this 

password immediately and ask how the user learned it. 

syncing file systems... 

Cause 

This indicates that the kernel is updating the super-blocks before taking the system 

down, to ensure filesystem integrity. This message appears after a halt(1M) or 

reboot(1M) command. It can also appear after a system panic, in which case the 

system might contain corrupted data. 

Action 

If you just halted or rebooted the machine, don’t worry– this message is normal. In 

case of a system panic, look up the panic messages that appear above this one. Your 

system vendor might be able to help diagnose the problem. So that you can describe 

the panic to the vendor, either leave your system in its panicked state or be sure that 

you can reproduce the problem. 


Numbers that sometimes display after the three dots in the message show the count 

of dirty pages that are being written out. Numbers in brackets show an estimate of 

the number of busy buffers in the system. 


SYSLOGD CAUSES SYSTEM HANGS 

Cause 

(Over and Over again = installpatch problems) 

syslog service starting. 

Cause 

During system reboot, this message might appear and the boot seems to hang. After 

starting syslogd(1M) service, the system runs /etc/rc2.d/S75cron, which in 

turn calls ps(1). Sometimes after an abrupt system crash /dev/bd.off becomes a 

link to nowhere, causing the ps(1) command to hang indefinitely. 

Action 

Reboot single user (for example with boot -s) and run ls -l /dev/bd* to see if 

this is the problem. If so, remove /dev/bd.off, then run bdconfig off or reboot 

with the -r (reconfigure) option. 

This is the most commonly reported situation that causes ps(1) to hang. 

System booting after fatal error FATAL 

Cause 

The system reboots automatically. Afterward, the messages file contains 

System booting after fatal error FATAL. 

The message is issued during a reboot after the system detects a hardware error. 

Things which can cause this are: UPA address parity error, Master queue overflows, 

DTAG parity errors, E-Cache tag parity errors, and Coherence errors. 

Action 

Use prtdiag(1M) to help identify failed hardware components. The errors indicate 

either have a bad CPU module or a bad system board. 


system hang 

Cause 

4.1.3C SBUS cards suffer system freeze 

SYSTEM HANGS DURING BOOT 

Cause 

When the user boots a system, it hangs after the boot up messages "root on," "swap 

on," and "dump on." After the system displays these messages, the LEDs will flash 

and the system hangs. 

This is the result of an earlier fsck that deleted devices under the /dev directory. 

Check for the /dev/console device and if it is missing, make one. 

"T" 

tar: /dev/rmt/0: No such file or 

directory 

Cause 

The default tape device /dev/rmt/0, or possibly the device specified by the TAPE 

environment variable, is not currently connected to the system, is not configured, or 

its hardware symbolic link is broken. 

Action 

List the files in the /dev/rmt directory to see which tape devices are currently 

configured. If none are configured, ensure that a tape device is correctly attached to 

the system, and reboot with the -r option to reconfigure devices. 

If tape devices other than /dev/rmt/0 are configured, you could specify one of 

them after the -f option of tar(1). 


tar: directory checksum error 

Cause 

This error message from tar(1) indicates that the checksum of the directory and the 

files it has read from tape does not match the checksum advertised in the header 

block. Usually this indicates the wrong blocking factor, although it could indicate 

corrupt data on tape. 

Action 

To resolve this problem, make certain that the blocking factor you specify on the 

command line (after -b) matches the blocking factor originally specified. If in doubt, 

leave out the block size and let tar(1) determine it automatically. If that doesn’t 

help, tape data could be corrupted. 

tar: tape write error 

Cause 

A physical write error has occurred on the tar(1) output file, which is usually a 

tape, although it could be a diskette or disk file. Look on the system console, where 

the device driver should provide the actual error condition. This might be a 

write-protected tape, a physical I/O error, an end-of-tape condition, or a file too large 

limitation. 

Action 

In the case of write-protected tapes, enable the write switch. For physical I/O errors, 

the best course of action is to replace the tape with a new one. For end-of-tape 

conditions, try using a higher density if the device supports one, or use cpio(1) or 

pax(1) for their multi-volume support. When encountering file too large limitations, 

use the parent shell’s limit(1) or ulimit(1) facility to increase the maximum file 

size. 

See Also 

For more information on tar tapes, see the section on copying UFS files in the System 



Text file busy 

Cause 

This can occur when an attempt was made to execute a pure-procedure program that 

is currently open for writing. It also occurs because of attempts to open for writing 

or to remove a pure-procedure program that is being executed. (This message is 

obsolete.) 


The symbolic name for this error is ETXTBSY, errno=26. 

Text is lost because the maximum edit 

log size has been exceeded. 

Cause 

This message appears at the beginning of a cmdtool(1) session after 100,000 characters 

have gone by in the scrolling window. Clicking on the top rectangle of the scrollbar 

might display this message. No data were lost, but the user cannot scroll back before 

this wraparound point. 

Action 

To increase the maximum size of the Command Tool log file, use cmdtool -M, 

specifying more than 100,000 bytes. 

THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEM(S) HAD AN 

UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY: 

Cause 

At boot time the /etc/rcS script runs the fsck(1M) command to check the 

integrity of filesystems marked "fsck" in /etc/vfstab. If fsck(1M) cannot repair a 

filesystem automatically, it interrupts the boot procedure and produces this message. 

When fsck(1M) gets into this state, it cannot repair filesystems without losing one 


or more files, so it wants to defer this responsibility to you, the administrator. Data 

corruption has probably already occurred. 

Action 

First run fsck -n on the filesystem, to see how many and what type of problems 

exist. Then run fsck(1M) again to repair the filesystem. If you have a backup of the 

filesystem, you can generally answer "y" to all the fsck(1M) questions. It’s a good 

idea to keep a record of all problematic files and inode numbers for later reference. 

To run fsck(1M) yourself, specify options as recommended by the boot script. For 

example: 

# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s0 

Usually, files lost during fsck(1M) repair were created just before a crash or power 

outage, and cannot be recovered. If important files are lost, you can recover them 

from backup tapes. 

If you don’t have a backup, ask an expert to run fsck(1M) for you. 

See Also 

For more information, see the section on checking filesystem integrity in the System 


The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an 

external device is turned off. 

Cause 

This message appears near the beginning of rebooting, immediately after a "Boot 

device: ..." message, then the system hangs. The problem is conflicting SCSI targets 

for a non-boot device. Having an external device turned off is unlikely to cause this 

problem. 

Action 

See the message "Boot device: /iommu/sbus/string/string/sd@3,0" for a solution. 


See Also 

For more information, see the section on halting and booting in the System 


THE SYSTEM IS BEING SHUT DOWN NOW !!! 

Cause 

This message means the system is going down immediately and it’s too late to save 

any changes. 

Action 

This message is often preceded by messages telling you that the system is going 

down in 15 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on. When you see these initial broadcast 

shutdown messages, save all your work, send any email you’re working on, and 

close your files. Fortunately vi(1) sessions are automatically saved for later recovery, 

but many other applications have no crash protection mechanism. Data loss is likely. 

See Also 

For more information on shutting down the system, see the System Administration 

Guide, Volume I. If you are using the AnswerBook, "halting the system" is a good 

search string. 

The system will be shut down in int 

minutes 

Cause 

This message from the system shutdown(1M) script informs you that the superuser 

is taking down the system. 

Action 

Save all changes now or your work will be lost. Write out any files you were 

changing, send any email messages you were composing, and close your files. 


See Also 

For more information on shutting down the system, see the System Administration 

Guide, Volume I. If you are using the AnswerBook, "halting the system" is a good 

search string. 

This gateway does not support Unix 

Password. 

Cause 

While using Firewall v2.0, the following sequence happpens: 

# telnet firewall-machine 

Trying 192.29.174.60 ... 

Connected to firewall-machine 

Escape character is ’^]’. 

CheckPoint FireWall-1 authenticated Telnet server running on 

firewall-machine 

Login: testuser 

This gateway does not support Unix Password. 

Action 

Under Network Objects, edit your Gateway object, Host Properties Auth Schemes 

and select Unix Password. UNIX Password is not checked by default as it is 

considered an unsecure method of authentication. 

This mail file has been changed by 

another mail reader. 

Cause 

This message appears in a pop-up dialog box whenever you start mailtool(1) while 

another mail reader has the inbox locked. A question follows: "Do you wish to ask 

that mail reader to save the changes?" You are given three choices. 


Action 

If you choose "Save Changes," mailtool(1) requests the other mail reader to relinquish 

its lock and write out any changes it has made to your inbox. If you choose "Ignore," 

mailtool(1) reads your inbox without locking it. If you choose "Cancel" mailtool(1) exits. 

Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet 

Cause 

This problem can occur while booting from the net, and indicates a network 

connection problem. 

Action 

Make sure the Ethernet cable is connected to the network. Check that this system has 

an entry in the NIS ethers(4) map or locally on the boot server. Then check the IP 

address of the server and the client to make sure they are on the same subnet. Local 

/etc/hosts files must agree with one another and with the NIS hosts(4) map. 

If those conditions are not causing the problem, go to the system’s PROM monitor 

ok prompt and run test net to test the network connection. (On older PROM 

monitors, use test-net instead.) If the network test fails, check the Ethernet port, 

card, fuse, and cable, replacing them if necessary. Also check the twisted pair port to 

make sure it is patched to the correct subnet. 

See Also 

For more information on packets, see SPARC: Installing Solaris Software. If you are 

using the AnswerBook, "ARP/RARP" is a good search string. 

Timer expired 

Cause 

The timer set for a STREAMS ioctl call has expired. The cause of this error is 

device specific and could indicate either a hardware or software failure, or perhaps a 

timeout value that is too short for the specific operation. The status of the ioctl(2) 

operation is indeterminate. This is also returned in the case of 

_lwp_cond_timedwait(2) or cond_timedwait(3T). 



The symbolic name for this error is ETIME, errno=62. 

token ring hangs 

Cause 

4.1.3C SBUS cards suffer system freeze 

Too many links 

Cause 

An attempt was made to create more than the maximum number of hard links 

(LINK_MAX, by default 32767) to a file. Because each subdirectory is a link to its 

parent directory, the same error results from trying to create too many subdirectories. 

Action 

Check to see why the file has so many links to it. To get more than the maximum 

number of hard links, use symbolic links instead. 


The symbolic name for this error is EMLINK, errno=31. 

Too many open files 

Cause 

A process has too many files open at once. The system imposes a per-process soft 

limit on open files, OPEN_MAX (usually 64), which can be increased, and a 

per-process hard limit (usually 1024), which cannot be increased. 


Action 

You can control the soft limit from the shell. In the C shell, use the limit(1) 

command to increase the number of descriptors. In the Bourne or Korn shells, 

use the ulimit -n command to increase the number of file descriptors. 

If the window system refuses to start new applications because of this error, increase 

the open file limit in your login shell before starting the window system. 


The symbolic name for this error is EMFILE, errno=24. 

Transport endpoint is already 

connected 

Cause 

A connect request was made on an already connected transport endpoint; or, a 

sendto(3XN) or sendmsg(3XN) transport endpoint specified a destination when 

already connected. 


The symbolic name for this error is EISCONN, errno=133. 

Transport endpoint is not connected 

Cause 

A request to send or receive data was disallowed because the transport endpoint is 

not connected and (when sending a datagram) no address was supplied. 


The symbolic name for this error is ENOTCONN, errno=134. 


TRAP 3E 

Cause 

Ultra system fails to boot with TRAP 3E. The system sometimes also displays bad 

magic number errors. 

This is caused by a bad superblock on the boot disk. Which, in turn, could have beee 

caused by a SCSI configuration problem. 

Action 

To fix: 

1. Check SCSI bus for illegal configuration, bad cables, and duplicate SCSI addresses; 

2. Boot from cdrom in single user. 

OK boot cdrom -sw 

3. Attempt to fsck(1M) boot disk. This will probably fail with a superblock error. 

# fsck /dev/rdsk/device 

4. Find out locations of alternate superblocks. BE SURE TO USE AN UPPERCASE 

-N. For example: 

# newfs -N /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 

/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0: 2048960 sectors in 1348 cylinders of 19 tracks, 

80 sectors 1000.5MB in 85 cyl groups (16 c/g, 11.88MB/g, 5696 i/g) 

super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at: 

32, 24432, 48832, 73232, 97632, 122032, 146432, 170832, 195232, 219632, 

244032, 268432, 292832, 317232, 341632, 366032, 390432, 414832, 439232, 

463632, 488032, 512432, 536832, 561232, 585632, 610032, 634432, 658832, 

683232, 707632, 732032, 756432, 778272, 802672, 827072, 851472, 875872, 

900272, 924672, 949072, 973472, 997872, 1022272, 1290672, ... 

5. Using an alternate superblock, fsck(1M) the disk. You may have to try more than 

one alternate superblock to get this to work. Pick a couple from the beginning, the 

middle, and the end. 

# fsck -o b= /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 


6. The boot block is probably bad too. Restore it while we are booted from the cdrom. 

# /usr/sbin/installboot /usr/platform/architecture/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 

7. Reboot the O.S. Should come up now. 

# reboot 

"U" 

ufsdump 4mm commands 

Cause 

Dump syntax used with autoloader 

umount: warning: /string not in mnttab 

Cause 

This message results from the superuser attempting to unmount a filesystem that is 

not mounted. Subdirectories of filesystems, such as /var, cannot be unmounted. 

Action 

Run the mount(1M) or df(1M) command to see what filesystems are mounted. If 

you really want to unmount one of them, specify the existing mount point. 


Unable to connect to license server. 

Inconsistent encryption code. 

Cause 

User receives the following error message. The only thing that had changed was the 

IP address of the machine. 

Action 

The IP address defined with ifconfig(1M) must match that in /etc/hosts. That 

is, if you change the machine’s IP address with ifconfig(1M) you must also 

change the machine’s entry in the /etc/hosts file. 

For machines with multiple interfaces, you must check and possibly update 

/etc/hostname.*. 

unable to get pty! 

Cause 

When trying to bring up a Terminal window (dtterm) in CDE, a popup appears 

stating: Unable to get pty!. 

Action 

This error is because dtterm is not able to open /dev/pts/int (where int is an 

integer). The reason they cannot open this file is grantpt(3C) failed to change the 

permissions on the file. grantpt(3C) failed because the binary 

/usr/lib/pt_chmod is not setuid root. The permissions on /usr/lib/pt_chmod 

must be 4111. 

To restore the correct permissions to pt_chmod, use the following command: (as 

root) 

# chmod 4111 /usr/lib/pt_chmod 


Unable to install/attach driver ’string’ 

Cause 

These messages appear in /var/adm/messages at boot time, when the system tries 

to load drivers for devices the machine does not have. 

Action 

Despite the alarmist tone, this message is intended as only informational. You 

probably don’t want all these device drivers, because they make your system kernel 

larger, requiring more memory. 

Unable to open nwrecover, Error: 

nwrecover: NSR: please start a server 

on client_name 

Cause 

While trying to open the graphical recovery interface by running nwrecover from 

the client, the error was displayed. 

Action 

In this case, multiple networker servers existed and nwrecover could not determine 

which network server to use for the client. 

The server can be specified to the nwrecover command with the -s option. 

nwrecover -c client_name -s server_name 

Where -s server_name sets the NetWorker server and -c 

NetWorker client index. 

client_name sets the 


uname: error writing name when booting 

Cause 

Error is as follows: uname: error writing name when booting System cannot 

bootstrap. 

Action 

Boot off CD-ROM and check /etc/nodename. The file must contain exactly one line 

with the name of the system. No blank, or other, lines are allowed. 

undefined control 

Cause 

This message, prefaced by the file name and line number involved, is from the C 

preprocessor /usr/ccs/lib/cpp, and indicates a line starting with a sharp (#) but 

not followed by a valid keyword such as define or include. 

Action 

A piece of software might be running the C preprocessor on an initialization file that 

you thought was interpreted by a shell. In most shells, the sharp (#) indicates a 

comment. The C preprocessor considers comments to be anything between /* and */ 

delimiters. 

Unmatched ‘ 

Cause 

This message from the C shell csh(1) indicates that a user typed a command 

containing a backquote symbol (‘) without a closing backquote. Similar messages 

result from an unmatched single quote (’) or an unmatched double quote ("). Other 

shells generally give a continuation prompt when a command line contains an 

unmatched quote symbol. 


Action 

Correct the command line and try again. To continue typing on another line, give the 

C shell a backslash right before the newline. 

UNREF FILE I=i OWNER=o MODE=m SIZE=s 

MTIME=t CLEAR? 

Cause 

During phase 4, fsck(1M) discovered that the specified file was orphaned because 

the inode had no record of its pathname. In other words, the file was not connected 

with any directory. 

Action 

Answer yes to reconnect the file into the lost+found directory. Then contact the 

file’s owner to ask if you should send it back, and where to place it. 

See Also 



Use "logout" to logout. 

Cause 

This C shell message might come as a surprise to Bourne or Korn shell users 

accustomed to logging out with a Control-d. 

Action 

When ignoreeof is set, the C shell requires users to logout by typing logout(1) 

or exit(1). Write any modified files to disk before exiting. 


user unknown 

Cause 

When trying to mail to a user, the error Username... User unknown is displayed. 

The user is on the same system. 

Action 

Check for typo the entered e-mail address. Or, the user could be aliased to a 

non-existant e-mail address in /etc/mail/aliases or the user’s .mailrc file. 

You cannot mail to a user that has capital letters in its name. sendmail(1M) 

converts all the capital letters to lowercase before attempting to find the user. Since 

UNIX is case sensitive, it finds no username on the system with all lowercase letters, 

so it displays the User unknown message. 

Workaround: Make sure all usernames are composed of *only* lowercase letters. 

/usr/dt/bin/rpc.ttdbserverd:Child 

Status’ changed 

Cause 

While running CDE, the error in the console or /var/adm/messages file: 

Oct 19 04:41:00 darkcastle last message repeated 393 times 

Oct 19 04:41:01 darkcastle inetd[120]: /usr/dt/bin/rpc.ttdbserverd:Child Status Changed 

Action 

The fix is to create the following soft links: 

ln -s /usr/openwin/bin/rpc.ttdbserver /usr/dt/bin/rpc.ttdbserver 

ln -s /usr/openwin/bin/rpc.ttdbserverd /usr/dt/bin/rpc.ttdbserverd 


usr/openwin/bin/xinit: connection to 

X server lost 

Cause 

This means that the xinit(1) program, which sets up X11 resources and starts a 

window manager, failed to locate the X server process. Perhaps the user interrupted 

window system startup, or exited abnormally from OpenWindows (for example, by 

killing processes or by rebooting). It is possible that the X server crashed. Data loss is 

possible in some cases. Depending on process timing, this message might be normal 

when OpenWindows exits during a system reboot. 

Action 

The only solution is to exit and restart OpenWindows. You do not need to reboot the 

system unless it hangs and fails to give you a console prompt. To exit 

OpenWindows, select Workspace->Exit. To restart OpenWindows, type openwin(1) at 

the system prompt. 

/usr/ucb/cc: language optional software 

package not installed 

Cause 

When compiling some code for BSD compatibility the error happened after invoking 

usr/ucb/cc. The unbundled compiler (SPARCworks Professional C product) was 

installed in /opt. 

/usr/ucb/cc is a script which checks for the file /usr/ccs/bin/ucbcc and, if 

found, invokes it with appropriate library flags for BSD-compatibility compilation. 

/usr/ucb/cc is part of the package SUNWscpu. /usr/ccs/bin/ucbcc is 

supposed to be a symbolic link to /opt/SUNWspro/bin/acc, which is created 

during installation of the unbundled C compiler, SPROcc. 

Action 

Verify that you have the essential OS-bundled Developer packages, SUNWscpu, 

SUNWbtool, and the unbundled C compiler:- SPROcc. However, /usr/ccs/bin/ 


ucbcc was missing on customer’s system. Evidently somewhere along the line this 

link was removed. 

Solve the problem by creating a new symbolic link: 

# ln -s /opt/SUNWspro/bin/acc /usr/ccs/bin/ucbcc 

Invoke usr/ucb/cc to verify this worked. 

Commands used to identify which packages contain particular components involved: 

craterlake% grep ucb/cc /var/sadm/install/contents 

/usr/ucb/cc f none 0555 bin bin 3084 50323 814621113 *SUNWscpu 

craterlake% ls -l /usr/ucb/cc 

-r-xr-xr-x 1 bin bin 3084 Oct 25 1995 /usr/ucb/cc 

craterlake% file !$ 

file /usr/ucb/cc 

/usr/ucb/cc: executable /usr/bin/sh script 

craterlake% grep ucbcc /var/sadm/install/contents 

/usr/ccs/bin/ucbcc=/opt1/40/SUNWspro/SC4.0/bin/acc s none SPROcc SPROcc.2 SPROcc.5 

craterlake% file /usr/ccs/bin/ucbcc 

/usr/ccs/bin/ 

ucbcc: ELF 32-bit MSB executable SPARC Version 1, dynamically linked, stripped 

craterlake% ls -l /usr/ccs/bin/ucbcc 

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root other 31 Aug 23 1996 /usr/ccs/bin/ucbcc -> /opt1/40/SUNWspro/SC4.0/bin/ 

acc 

UX: userdel: error: Cannot update 

system files login cannot be deleted 

Cause 

When using userdel to delete a user: 

userdel -r userid 

If the root (/) filesystem is full, the error is displayed. 

Action 

Free up space on root (/) filesystem. 


"V" 

Value too large for defined data type 

Cause 

The user ID or group ID of an IPC object or file system object was too large to be 

stored in an appropriate member of the caller-provided structure. 

Action 

Run the application on a newer system, or ask the program’s author to fix this 

condition. 


This error occurs only on systems that support a larger range of user or group ID 

values than a declared member structure can support. This condition usually occurs 

because the IPC or file system object resides on a remote machine with a larger value 

of type uid_t, off_t, orgid_t than that of the local system. 

The symbolic name for this error is EOVERFLOW, errno=79. 

Volume Manager reports error: 

Cause 

After upgrading from VxVM 2.0 or 2.1 to 2.3, when attempting to run vxva, the 

volume manager GUI, you get the message: 

Volume Manager reports error: 

Configuration daemon can’t speak protocol version 

This message indicates that there is a version mismatch between the version of the 

volume manager daemon (vxconfigd) and the GUI (vxva) you are trying to run. 


For example, you are running the 2.3 version of vxconfigd, and trying to run an 

old (2.1) version of vxva. 

The most likely reason for this to happen is because the you are using the wrong 

path for vxva. For vxva versions 2.1 and below, the binary was found in 

/opt/vxva/bin, but starting with 2.1.1, the location was changed to 

/opt/SUNWvxva/bin. 

If you did not remove the old SUNWvxva package before installing the new 2.3 

version (which is a normal thing; you don’t NEED to remove the old package), you 

probably still have the old /opt/vxva/bin in your $PATH, and thus, you’re 

attempting to run the older version of vxva. 

Action 

Run the newer vxva program: /opt/SUNWvxva/bin/vxva. If that does work and 

you do not get the error message, simply remove /opt/vxva/bin/vxva from your 

path statement or remove the old version of vxva and create a symbolic link to the 

new version with the following two commands: 

# rm /opt/vxva/bin/vxva 

# ln -s /opt/SUNWvxva/bin/vxva /opt/vxva/bin/vxva 

vxconfigd error: segmentation fault 

Cause 

When the system boots, the vxconfid fails to start. It fails with a segmentation fault 

(core dump). 

vxconfigd error: segmentation fault 

[ vxvm warning: _illegal vminor encountered ] 


Action 

Check the date on the system using date(1) (/bin/date or /usr/bin/date). If 

the date on the system is very old (like 1970) or very far out in the future (like 2010), 

vxconfigd core dumps. 

Change the date on the system using /bin/date or /usr/bin/date and the 

vxconfigd will start like a champ. 

vxvm:vxslicer:ERROR unsupported disk 

layout 

Cause 

When trying to encapsulate a disk you get this error. 

Action 

You must meet the minimum requirements to encapsulate a disk: 

1. You must have two free, zero length, slices on the disk (no cylinders should be 

assigned to these slices.) 

2. You must have two free cylinders on the disk. These 2 cylinders must not be in 

use by any slice other than slice two. 

3. The two free cylinders must be located at the beginning or end of the drive. 

"W" 

WARNING: add_spec: No major number 

for sf 

Cause 

The system prints the following warning message while booting: 

SunOS Release 5.5.1 Version Generic_103640-03 [UNIX(R) 

System V Release 4.0] 



Copyright (c) 1983-1996, Sun Microsystems, Inc. 

WARNING: add_spec: No major number for sf 

The sf(7D) driver is specific for a Sun Enterprise Network Array (SENA), also 

known as a "photon". 

Action 

If there is no SENA attached to the system, the message can be safely ignored. To 

stop seeing the message comment out the last line in /kernel/drv/ssd.conf that 

references sf(7D). 

If you do this, and then later attach a SENA to your system, please remember to 

uncomment this line again. 

WARNING: Clock gained int days-- CHECK 

AND RESET THE DATE! 

Cause 

Each workstation contains an internal clock powered by a rechargeable battery. After 

the system is halted and turned off, the internal clock continues to keep time. When 

the system is powered on and reboots, the system notices that the internal clock has 

gained time since the workstation was halted. 

Action 

In most cases, especially if the power has been off for less than a month, the internal 

clock keeps the correct time, and you do not have to reset the date. Use the date(1) 

command to check the date and time on your system. If the date or time is wrong, 

become superuser and use the date(1) command to reset them. 


WARNING: No network locking on string: 

contact admin to install server change 

Cause 

The Solaris 2 mount(1M) command issues this message whenever it mounts a 

filesystem that doesn’t have NFS locking, such as a standard SunOS 4.1 exported 

filesytem. Data loss is possible in applications that depend on locking. 

Action 

On the remote SunOS 4.1 system, install the appropriate rpc.lockd jumbo patch to 

implement NFS locking. For SunOS 4.1.4, install patch #102264; for SunOS 4.1.3, 

install patch #100075; for earlier 4.1 releases, install patch #101817. 

WARNING: processor level 4 interrupt 

not serviced 

Cause 

This message is basically a diagnostic from the SCSI driver. Especially on machines 

with the sun4c architecture, it can appear on the console every 10 minutes or so. 

Action 

To reduce the frequency of this message, add this line near the bottom of the 

/etc/system file and reboot: 

set esp:esp_use_poll_loop=0 


You might also see this message repeatedly after manually removing a CD when it 

was busy. Don’t do this! To get the system back to normal, reboot the system with 

the -r (reconfigure) option. 


WARNING: /tmp: File system full, swap 

space limit exceeded 

Cause 

The system swap area (virtual memory) has filled up. You need to reduce swap 

space consumption by killing some processes or possibly by rebooting the system. 

Action 

See the message "Not enough space" for information about increasing swap space. 

WARNING: TOD clock not initialized-- 

CHECK AND RESET THE DATE! 

Cause 

This message indicates that the Time Of Day (TOD) clock reads zero, so its time is 

the beginning of the UNIX epoch: midnight 31 December 1969. On a brand-new 

system, the manufacturer might have neglected to initialize the system clock. On 

older systems it is more likely that the rechargeable battery has run out and requires 

replacement. 

Action 

First replace the battery according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Then become 

superuser and use the date(1) command to set the time and date. On SPARC 

systems the clock is powered by the same battery as the NVRAM, so a dead battery 

also causes loss of the machine’s Ethernet address and host ID, which are more 

serious problems for networked systems. 


WARNING: Unable to repair the / 

filesystem. Run fsck 

Cause 

This message comes at boot time from the /etc/rcS script whenever it gets a bad 

return code from fsck(1M) after checking a filesystem. The message recommends 

an fsck(1M) command line, and instructs you to exit the shell when done to 

continue booting. Then the script places the system in single-user mode so 

fsck(1M) can be run effectively. 

Action 

See "/dev/rdsk/variable: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY" for information about 

repairing UFS filesystems. 

See "THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEM(S) HAD AN UNEXPECTED 

INCONSISTENCY" for information about repairing non-UFS filesystems. 

Watchdog Reset 

Cause 

This fatal error usually indicates some kind of hardware problem. Data corruption on 

the system is possible. 

Action 

Look for some other message that might help diagnose the problem. By itself, a 

watchdog reset doesn’t provide enough information; because traps are disabled, all 

information has been lost. If all that appears on the console is an ok prompt, issue 

the PROM command below to view the final messages that occurred just before 

system failure: 

ok f8002010 wector p 

Yes, that word is wector, not vector. 

The result is a display of messages similar to those produced by the dmesg(1M) 

command. These messages can be useful in finding the cause of system failure. 



This message doesn’t come from the kernel, but from the OpenBoot PROM monitor, 

a piece of Forth software that gives you the ok prompt before you boot UNIX. If the 

CPU detects a trap when traps are disabled (an unrecoverable error), it signals a 

watchdog. The OpenBoot PROM monitor detects the watchdog, issues this message, 

and brings down the system. 

Who are you? 

Cause 

Many networking programs can print this message, including from(1B), lpr(1B), 

lprm(1B), mailx(1), rdist(1), sendmail(1M), talk(1), and rsh(1). The 

command prints this message when it cannot locate a password file entry for the 

current user. This might occur if a user logged in just before the superuser deleted 

that user’s password entry, or if the network naming service fails for a user who has 

no entry in the local password file. 

Action 

If a user’s password file entry was accidentally deleted, restore it from backups or 

from another password file. If a user’s login name or user ID was changed, ask that 

user to logout and login again. If the network naming service failed, check the NIS 

server(s) and repair or reboot as necessary. 


There is a known problem (bug 1138025) with starting hundreds of rsh(1) processes 

on another machine. This message appears because rsh(1) hangs while binding to a 

reserved port, and responds too slowly to interact with the network naming service. 

Window Underflow 

Cause 

This message often occurs at boot time, sometimes along with a "Watchdog Reset" 

error. It comes from the OpenBoot PROM monitor, which was passed a processor 

trap from the hardware. This error indicates that some program tried to access a 

SPARC register window that wasn’t accessible from the processor. 


Action 

On some system architectures, specifically sun4c, the problem could be that different 

capacity memory chips are mixed together. Someone might have placed 1MB SIMMs 

in the same bank with 4MB SIMMs. If this is so, rearrange the memory chips. Make 

sure to put higher-capacity SIMMs in the first bank(s), and lower-capacity SIMMs in 

the remaining bank(s); never mix different capacity SIMMs in the same bank. 

The problem could also be that cache memory on the motherboard has gone bad and 

needs replacement. If main memory is installed correctly, try swapping the 

motherboard. 


The best way to isolate the problem is to look at the %pc register to see where it got 

its arguments, and why the arguments were bad. If you can reproduce the condition 

causing this message, your system vendor might be able to help diagnose the 

problem. 

"X" 

X connection to string:0.0 broken 

(explicit kill or server shutdown). 

Cause 

This means that the client has lost its connection to the X server. The "0.0" represents 

the display device, which is usually the console. This message can appear when a 

user is running an X application on a remote system with the DISPLAY set back to 

the original system and the remote system’s X server disappears, perhaps because 

someone exited X windows or rebooted the machine. It sometimes appears locally 

when a user exits the window system. Data loss is possible if applications were 

killed before saving files. 

Action 

Try to run the application again in a few minutes after the system has rebooted and 

the window system is running. 


xinit: not found 

Cause 

OpenWindows was probably not installed properly, and the openwin(1) program 

could not find xinit(1) to start the X windows system. If the user is running another 

version of X windows, such as the MIT X11 distribution, the startx program serves 

the same function as xinit(1). 

Action 

Check the PATH environment variable to make sure it contains the appropriate X 

windows install directory. Verify that xinit(1) is in this directory as an executable 

program. 

XIO: fatal IO error 32 (Broken pipe) 

on X server "string:0.0" 

Cause 

This means that I/O with the X server has been broken. The "0.0" represents the 

display device, which is usually the console. This message can appear when a user is 

running Display PostScript applications and the X server disappears or the client is 

shut down. Data loss is possible if applications disappeared before saving files. 

Action 

Try to run the application again in a few minutes after the system has rebooted and 

the window system is running. 

Xlib: connection to "string:0.0" refused 

by server 

Cause 

This message is immediately followed by the "Xlib: Client is not authorized to 

connect to Server" message. These messages indicate that an X windows application 


tried to run on the X server specified inside double quotes, which did not allow the 

request. The "0.0" represents the display device, which is usually the console. If no 

server name appears, the superuser probably tried to run an X application on the 

current machine in an X session that was owned by somebody else. 

Action 

To allow this client to connect to the X server, run xhost(1) +clientname on the X 

server system. Only the owner of the current X session (who is not necessarily the 

superuser) is allowed to run the xhost(1) command. If somebody else is running X 

windows on the server, ask them to log out and then start your own X session on 

that server; remote X connections are usually allowed for the same user ID. 

Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on 

display "0.0" 

Cause 

Install OpenGL 1.0 and test the configuration by running 

/usr/openwin/demo/GL/ogl_install_check which results in following: 

# ./ogl_install_check 

Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display "0.0". 



can’t find visual 

Action 

First check that the installation has worked correctly by running the package check 

utility on the runtime package: # pkgchk SUNWglrt. This should result in an error 

message such as: 

ERROR: /usr/openwin/server/etc/OWconfig 

file size expected actual 

file cksum expected actual 


(The numbers might be different but there should be only 1 file.) If other errors 

result, re-install OpenGL, especially the SUNWglrt package. 

Assuming that is fine, look at the process owner for the Xsun process using: 

# ps -aef | grep Xsun | grep -v grep 

nobody 20022 225 0 11:36:22 ? 0:34 /usr/openwin/bin/Xsun :0 -nobanner 

If the owner is not root, that is most likely the problem since there will be a 

permission issue loading the graphic pipelines. 

If you are are using CDE, ensure that the Xservers file has the form 

:0 Local local_uid@console root /usr/openwin/bin/Xsun :0 -nobanner 

The Xservers file will be found in /usr/dt/config if you haven’t done any 

customization but more likely /etc/dt/config/. Additional arguments after the 

-nobanner option are acceptable. 

Another way of proving this is to run OpenWindows from the command line as root. 

It will ensure that the Xsun process is owned by root. 

Another possibility is that the system is NOT a Creator 3D. You can only run 

openGL 1.0 on an Ultra with a Creator 3D graphics card. If you install this 

application on an Ultra with a Creator framebuffer and NOT a Creator 3D you’ll see 

these same error messages. 

xterm: fatal IO error 32 (Broken Pipe) 

or KillClient on X server "string:0.0" 

Cause 

This means that xterm(1) has lost its connection to the X server. The "0.0" represents 

the display device, which is usually the console. This message can appear when a 

user is running xterm and the X server disappears or the client gets shut down. 

Data loss is possible if applications were killed before saving files. 

Action 

Try to run the terminal emulator again in a few minutes after the system has 

rebooted and the window system is running. 


XView warning: Cannot load font set 

’string’ (Font Package) 

Cause 

This message from the XView library warns that a requested font is not installed on 

the X server. Often multiple warnings are displayed for the same font. The set of 

available fonts can vary from release to release. 

Action 

To see which fonts are available on the X server, run the xlsfonts(1) program. Then 

specify another font name that you see in the output of xlsfonts(1). Sometimes it is 

possible to locate a similar font from a different vendor. 


There are two packages of X windows fonts: the common but not required fonts 

(SUNWxwcft), and the optional fonts (SUNWxwoft). Run pkginfo(1) to see if both 

packages are installed, and add them to the system as you want. 

"Y" 

yp_all RPC clnt_call (transport level) 

failure 

Cause 

At random times, a slave NIS server has a problem that causes ypbind(1M) to 

report: ypserver not responding and the machine must be rebooted. The 

syslog contains: 

Dec 14 07:11:03 rahab syslog: yp_all - 

RPC clnt_call (transport level) failure: 

RPC: Unable to receive; An event requires attention 


Action 

To workaround, increase the file descriptor limit in the yp startup script, 

/etc/rc2.d/S71rpc. Add this to the script before ypserv is started: 

ulimit -n 256 

ypbind[int]: NIS server for domain 

"string" OK 

Cause 

This message appears after an "NIS server not responding" message to indicate that 

ypbind(1M) is able to communicate with an NIS server again. 

Action 

Proceed with your work. This message is purely informational. 

ypbind[int]: NIS server not responding 

for domain " string "; still trying 

Cause 

This means that the NIS client daemon ypbind(1M) cannot communicate with an 

NIS server for the specified domain. This message appears when a workstation 

running the NIS naming service has become disconnected from the network, or 

when NIS servers are down or extremely slow to respond. 

Action 

If other NIS clients are behaving normally, check the Ethernet cabling on the 

workstation that is getting this message. On SPARC machines, disconnected network 

cabling also produces a series of "no carrier" messages. On x86 machines, the above 

message might be your only indication that network cabling is disconnected. 

If many NIS clients on the network are giving this message, go to the NIS server in 

question and reboot or repair as necessary. To locate the NIS server for a domain, run 


the ypwhich(1) command. When the server machine comes back in operation, NIS 

clients give an "NIS server for domain OK" message. 

See Also 

For more information about ypbind(1M), see the section on administering secure 

NFS in the NFS Administration Guide. 

ypwhich: can’t communicate with ypbind 

Cause 

This message from the ypwhich(1) command indicates that the NIS binder process 

ypbind(1M) is not running on the local machine. 

Action 

If the system is not configured to use NIS, this message is normal and expected. 

Configure the system to use NIS if necessary. 

If the system is configured to use NIS, but the ypbind(1M) process is not running, 

invoke the following command to start it up: 

# /usr/lib/netsvc/yp/ypbind -broadcast 

"Z" 

zsint: silo overflow 

Cause 

This message means that the Zilog 8530 character input silo (or serial port FIFO) 

overflowed before it could be serviced. The zs(7D) driver, which talks to a Zilog 

Z8530 chip, is reporting that the FIFO (holding about two characters) has been 

overrun. The number after zs(7D) shows which serial port experienced an overflow: 


zs0 - tty serial port 0 (/dev/ttya) 

zs1 - tty serial port 1 (/dev/ttyb) 

zs2 - keyboard port (/dev/kbd) 

zs3 - mouse port (/dev/mouse) 

Action 

Silo overflows indicate that data in the respective serial port FIFO has been lost. 

However, consequences of silo overflows might be negligible if the overflows occur 

infrequently, if data loss is not catastrophic, or if data can be recovered or reproduced. 

For example, although a silo overflow on the mouse driver (zs3) indicates that the 

system could not process mouse events quickly enough, the user can perform mouse 

motions again. Similarly, lost data from a silo overflow on a serial port with a 

modem connection transferring data using uucp(1C) is recovered when uucp(1C) 

discovers the loss of data and requests retransmission of the corrupted packet. 

Frequent silo overflow messages can indicate a zs(7D) hardware FIFO problem, a 

serial driver software problem, or abnormal data or system activity. For example, the 

system ignores interrupts during system panics, so mouse and keyboard activity 

result in silo overflows. 

If the serial ports experiencing silo overflows are not being used, a silo overflow 

could indicate the onset of a hardware problem. 


Another type of silo overflow is one that occurs during reboot when an HDLC line is 

connected to any of the terminal ports. For example, an X.25 network could be 

sending frames before the kernel has been told to expect them. Such overflow 

messages can be ignored.

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