Server Unbootable?

[pleeman]

I was trying to enable FTP access to different share points. I believe I set my startup disk to be a share point. I was also turning on and off
NFS. Now when I restart the beginning progress bar goes by and then the screen just flickers. Like it is trying to load something incorrectly configured. I went to an OS9 client and it can see the server. Although not in the way I had it previously configured. Is there a way to boot without starting the services? If I could get back in I think I could undo the mistaken settings. Is it possible to click around in the beautiful aqua gui and make your server unbootable to the point YOU MUST REINSTALL everything? I am affraid thats where I am at.

[mervTormel]

this method provides limited startup on the OSX client; let us know if it works for the server.

the following is paraphrased from Dr. Mac at osxfaq.com:

reboot

When the window with the progress bar and "Mac OS X" on it appears, press and hold the Shift key. timing is critical. If you press the Shift key too soon or too late, nothing will happen.

If Mac OS X is set up to display the Login Window, when it appears, release the Shift key long enough to type your username and password and log in. Then press and hold the Shift down again until the desktop appears. When it does, you can release the Shift key.

If Mac OS X is set up to automatically log in, just keep holding down the Shift key until the desktop appears. When it does, you can release the Shift key.

[pleeman]

What if the shift key won't work? Can I access something remotely? I have it sitting on a lan with several other machines. I am not a unix guru by any means. I just gui-fed things up a bit!
Can I start off the server cd? Norton 7?
How about boot into last known good configuration? Whats the key command for that?

Trying to laugh so I don't cry in Florida

p.s. Don't hate me because I am ignorant, we can't even VOTE down here!

[pleeman]

Well the shift key did not work for me. It seems I had made a couple of KILLER mistakes.

#1-I was joyriding the settings in NFS- Danger Will Robinson the GUI can make things unbootable!

#2-While trying to assign permissions to the FTP server I changed the permissions on my startup drive to EVERYONE-NONE "GENIUS"!
I know... Well even the kind Apple techs who walked me through command line hell thought that should be grayed out--- then I joked that they then would not able to charge $199 per incident to help poor slobs like me! Well they took pity on THIS poor slob and comped me ($400!) for these issues. I am going to turn an Imac in to a Server X crash test dummy. If anyone knows a good book to learn troubleshooting command line issues for Server X please reply.

[snokarver]

ah man, glad you got it working. I did something similar a few weeks ago and got nothing but a broken sys icon on boot. I ended up doing a clean install. I keep that drive mirrored now.

[rcalhoun]

>#2-While trying to assign permissions to the FTP server I changed the permissions on my startup drive to EVERYONE-NONE "GENIUS"!

I did this once, also while setting share permissions. (I was trying to make my "Swap" partition not show up as a share, but I somehow changed my "System" partition permissions by accident!) As you've discovered, Mac OS X can't work if the root directory items aren't world-readable.

I wanted to point out that you can both break your machine and fix it using Server Admin from another machine. Just copy Server Admin over to another OS X box. You can run it from the other machine and change permissions on the shares even when the OS X machine can't boot right. (Obviously you have to grab Server Admin BEFORE your machine can't boot!)

Anyway, good you got it working again.