[mythtv-users] OT: SATA errors

[Ian Clark]

2009/7/10 Harry Devine <lifter89 at comcast.net>

> Calvin Harrigan wrote:
>
>> Have you tried running the brand specific diagnostic software for the
>> drive?  It's usually a bootable CD.
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>>
>>  OK, here's an update on what I've done and where I'm currently at:
> [snip steps]
> [snip passwd troubles]
>
> Sooooooooooo: Is the problem with my Motherboard?  Or did something go
> horribly wrong and make some key system files corrupt?  Can I some how boot
> to the rescue mode on the LiveCD and repair them?  Maybe grub got corrupted
> somehow?


It sounds like you've had a hardware issue (maybe a loose cable or similar)
which has lead to a disc corruption. If your harddisc isn't getting any
worse, and it sounds like it isn't then it's probably physically ok.

It also sounds like the problems aren't hardware related as I'm assuming
that:

a) your system was working, you've not mentioned any changes you did, and
things just don't generally 'stop working' (even though the complexity of
PCs make it seem that way. ;) )
b) Your seeing reproducable and consistant errors, hardware failing
generally fails ever so slightly differently every time. (if it was memory
for instance I would expect to see more random crashes.)

You say you can mount the drive on another machine, and /etc/passwd exists
and seems to be ok. Can you check for /etc/shadow? this is where the real
password has is stored (as /etc/passwd is historically read by some
utilities it is necessary, but often contains a dummy password entry.)

Looking at my mythbox I have a 'shadow-' file too, which looks like it's an
auto generated backup copy.

If /etc/shadow isn't there, or is empty, and the other one exists try
copying the - version over the other one (or vice versa)

FWIW, here are the permissions on my files:

pvr:/etc# ls -l /etc/shadow*
-rw-r----- 1 root shadow 864 2009-07-11 23:20 /etc/shadow
-rw------- 1 root root   864 2009-07-11 23:20 /etc/shadow-
pvr:/etc#


This is a debian 5 system so should be similar to Ubuntu you are using.
However this is one of those areas where different distros do slightly
different things I suspect (eg, on my NetBSD box it's passwd.shadow for the
file name.) The concept is fairly universal though.

If you needed to regenerate this, then at an absolute pinch you could copy
one from the live CD (of the same version as ubuntu) possibly, but then you
would have to add users manually.

You might also get away copying /etc/passwd to /etc/shadow and using passwd
to explicity set any passwords you need. (this may require a bit of checking
to ensure you don't leave system users with an empty password though;
although for a home myth box this level of security may be unnecessary and
not a problem, This will depend on your firewall/network configuration
though and how 'precious' the contents of the mythbox are.)

Cheers,

Ian
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