Re: Installed - how to configure?

[Anthony Hilton <ajh%tinshill.f9.co.uk@localhost>]

In <URL:news:local.netbsd.acorn32> on Sat 22 Mar, David Brownlee wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Mar 2008, Anthony Hilton wrote:
> 
> >>> Are there any other editors I can use? I'm not really comfortable with
> >>> vi (I have used it a couple of times but need usage notes in front of
> >>> me).
> >>
> >> There are other editors, but you'll need to compile them, as I don't
> >> think anyone has produced packages on arm for a number of years.
> >
> > That is definitely for later then!
> 
>       There are a few precompiled binaries at
>       ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/arm/4.0/editors/
> 
>       I would strongly recommend 15 minutes in vilearn so you're less
>       likely to be "all at sea" next time you have to use vi :)

I shall do that. The problem, of course, is that while learning and using a
tool familiarity builds but not touching it again for a few months undoes all
the learning.
 
> > ... when NetBSD boots into multi-user mode it gets to "starting
> > virecover" and then gets stuck reporting:
> >
> > Postdrop: warning: mail_queue_enter: create file maildrop/97359.248: No
> > such file or directory
> >
> > this message is repeated with different filenames until the machine is
> > reset or powered off.
> >
> > I googled and saw others report similar and that control-c stopped the
> > messages about postdrop and allowed boot to continue. Another
> > recommendation was Alt-F2 to get an alternative console to work on. I
> > find that most key presses generate repeated characters until Esc or
> > Backspace are pressed - Control generates repeated tttttt and Alt
> > generates repeated wwwww
> >
> > I think I'll try a re-install and hope it gets me back to single-user
> > boot so that I can get in and edit rc.conf as necessary - including sshd.
> > I'll also set up another user as a member of the wheel group so that I
> > can attempt an ssh remote session.
> 
>       You should be able to tell the system to boot into single
>       user mode, I'm sorry but I don't recall how to do this with
>       the acorn32 bootloader offhand :/
> 
>       One variation might be to boot the install media, then exit from
>       sysinst into a shell and try:
> 
>           mount /dev/wd0a /mnt
>           echo virecover=NO >> /mnt/etc/rc.conf
>           umount /mnt
> 
>       Which *should* mount the installed root filesystem on '/mnt' and then
>       append (note the '>>') 'virecover=NO' to the end of the rc.conf file,
>       after which a reboot should skip the virecover
> 
>       If that doesn't help you should be able to do the same but with
>       rc_configured=NO to force the system to boot into single user mode.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I wasn't sure whether it was virecover which had
triggered the repeating error messages. As you will see from another post I
have re-installed. At first boot after the install I was surprised to find it
booted to multi-user mode and rc.conf already had rc_configured=YES.

I'll continue learning.

Anthony

-- 
ajh%tinshill.f9.co.uk@localhost