Home directory, other prefs gone

[itry2hide]

I hadn't booted into OS X Server for a couple of days. When I did today, I got an error message saying the home directory could not be found and then something about it being on a network server and the server not being available.

Also, when I opened the system preferences panel, no applications showed.

BTW, my home directory is right on the hard drive, so I guess some pointers or something got corrupted. Any ideas?

Thanks

Steve

[Craig R. Arko]

First, I'd try logging in as root and see if the problem repeats. If it does, try Disk First Aid off the CD. If that doesn't help, then either restoring the NetInfo DB from a known good backup, trying to repair the NetInfo DB from the command line in single user mode or trashing and re-creating the NetInfo DB might be my next steps (pun intended).

Write back with your progress.

PS - are you dual booting between OS X and OS X Server? If so, do you use the same home directories?

[itry2hide]

I found out the problem had to do with my NetInfo DB. Silly me, I usually hook up to the network throught the ethernet port, but was somehow redirected to the airport network. Since both have different IP addresses, the NetInfo manager could not connect to the server with that uses the ethernet IP address. I changed the IP address in NetInfo db. Now I need to figure out why I logged in using the airport network and not the ethernet network.....