/etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory -sh-2.05b#

[Micky]

It's me again. I put the previous Mac in the other room to make room
for the other one my friend had, and I've been working on that.

All the problems below are solved, but I feel like telling you my tale
of woe. Oh, and yes, I do have one question that follows the line of
**********

Started up fine at my friend's apartment, but gave one error after
another before completion of startup at my place. Each time I had to
hold down the On button to get it to turn off, and then try again.

Finally it started up and I was able to look at his files and his
email so far, but coudlnt' connect to the net (another story, largely
my mistake). But it was so hard to start, I left it on all night.

The screen stayed at full brightness all night and all day,

And when, or maybe soon after, I started to use it, the mouse stopped
moving (and I didn't know any keyboard commands to use). I tried
another mouse and another, and not only wouldnt' they move the cursor,
their lasers didn't even light up. I also tried all 3 of the USB
ports, but no change.

So I gave up and turned it off.

When I turned it on the next day, it gave

/etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory
-sh-2.05b#

6 times in a row!! Very early in startup.

Restarting a 6th time didn't seem like it would help so I googled the
error message, and a couple hits just said, Take it for repair. A
couple more gave detailed instructions for fixing it. As follows:

1. Start up in single-user mode by pressing and holding Apple S
2. Type: mount -uw /
3. Press Return
3a Type: cd /
Type: ls -la
4. Type: ln -s /private/etc/ etc
5. Press Return
6. [not needed, no complaint about var] Type: mv /var /var.delete
[not needed for etc because there was no etc, not even a bad one]
7. [not needed] Press Return
8. [not needed] Type: ln -s /private/var var
9. [not needed] Press Return
10. [not used. Other instructions gave alternate, 10a]
Type: ls -l | grep ">" note: the character before the grep is a pipe
character ("|"), which is usually located above the Return key.
10a Type ls -la
10b Examine, lines should look like this

lrwxrwxrwx-t 1 root admin (date) etc -> /private/etc
lrwxrwxrwx-t 1 root admin (date) var -> /private/var

And except for missing spaces, they did.

12. Type reboot
13. Press Return
Mostly from
http://www.polk-fl.net/staff/technology/itvteachers/documents/troubleshooting/Etc-PrivateMasterPasswd.pdf
Partly from the link below. Above steps are a combination. I actually
used the link below, but they shared most steps including Step 8.

******************
Step 8 sort of amazes me: Type: ln -s /private/var var
Is that all that is needed to recreate a file that was missing, a
"symbolic link, the UNIX equivalent of a Mac alias or Windows short
cut"?????? Seems like it creates the file, but no contents for
it!!!!! If it's a link, what does it link to?

And why did it disappear? Why does this file and var disappear so
commonly that there are several webpages saying how to recreate them?


****
The link below are the instructions I used, but to be easily readable,
they require manual editing of Word characters, usually replacing them
with single quotes. Especially the hyphens are easy to ignore and
without the url above I might have missed them.
http://www.it-guy.com/2007/02/etcmasterpasswd-no-such-file-or-directory/

After I did all this, it started right up. I'd fixed my wifi problem
so I was able to get all the email he had gotten since Jan 19th,
nothing very helpful but at least I tried.

I"m waiting for a friend of his to tell me where to send the files.

I also sent away for an adapter for the other Mac's bad monitor, $4,
and it came in 3 days and it fits the computer and clearly will fit
the monitor. I only have so much room on the desk, and I have to take
this Mac away and make room for another monitor. I guess I can just
move the modem and the electric and phone wires, and put it in front
of the other Mac.

[Neill Massello]

Micky <NONONObobb...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Step 8 sort of amazes me: Type: ln -s /private/var var
> Is that all that is needed to recreate a file that was missing, a
> "symbolic link, the UNIX equivalent of a Mac alias or Windows short
> cut"?????? Seems like it creates the file, but no contents for
> it!!!!! If it's a link, what does it link to?

Many moons ago, Apple moved etc, tmp, and var into a "private" directory
at the root level. For compatibility with software that expects to find
them in their traditional locations, Apple added symbolic links to
private's subdirectories at the root level.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2016-04-09, Micky <NONONObobb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It's me again. I put the previous Mac in the other room to make room
> for the other one my friend had, and I've been working on that.
>
> All the problems below are solved, but I feel like telling you my tale
> of woe. Oh, and yes, I do have one question that follows the line of
> **********
>
> Started up fine at my friend's apartment, but gave one error after
> another before completion of startup at my place. Each time I had to
> hold down the On button to get it to turn off, and then try again.
>
> Finally it started up and I was able to look at his files and his
> email so far, but coudlnt' connect to the net (another story, largely
> my mistake). But it was so hard to start, I left it on all night.
>
> The screen stayed at full brightness all night and all day,
>
> And when, or maybe soon after, I started to use it, the mouse stopped
> moving (and I didn't know any keyboard commands to use). I tried
> another mouse and another, and not only wouldnt' they move the cursor,
> their lasers didn't even light up. I also tried all 3 of the USB
> ports, but no change.
>
> So I gave up and turned it off.
>
> When I turned it on the next day, it gave
>
> /etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory
> -sh-2.05b#

If you are seeing command-line message during boot, either you started
up the computer in verbose mode manually by holding down Command-V
during startup, or the system is set to always boot in verbose mode. The
latter is done through a command-line utility called nvram that sets a
special firmware variable named boot-args to -v (for verbose mode).

Enable: sudo nvram boot-args="-v"
Disable: sudo nvram boot-args=

Anyhow, at this point, I would have checked to see if /etc/master.passwd
in fact did not exist.

Several items - including /etc - are soft links to directories in
/private.

> 6 times in a row!! Very early in startup.

Not a good sign.

> Restarting a 6th time didn't seem like it would help so I googled the
> error message, and a couple hits just said, Take it for repair. A
> couple more gave detailed instructions for fixing it. As follows:
>

> [snip]

>
> Step 8 sort of amazes me: Type: ln -s /private/var var
> Is that all that is needed to recreate a file that was missing, a
> "symbolic link, the UNIX equivalent of a Mac alias or Windows short
> cut"?????? Seems like it creates the file, but no contents for
> it!!!!! If it's a link, what does it link to?

You can think of links in Unix as roughly equivalent in function to
aliases in Mac OS. It's a file that points to some other file or
directory. If it points to a directory, then in most cases it behaves
like that directory - namely, if you cd into it or use ls to list the
contents, you see the contents of the target directory to which the link
points. Note that links are not as robust or flexible as Mac OS aliases in some
important ways. Anyhow, the ln command-line tool is what creates a link.
Besides the -s switch that tells ln to create a *soft* link rather than
a hard one, the command takes two arguments: the target file/directory
to which you want the link to point, and then the path name of the new
link you want to create.

> And why did it disappear?

Your friend somehow deleted it.

> Why does this file and var disappear so commonly that there are
> several webpages saying how to recreate them?

It's not common at all. My guess is those people deleted them by
accident or out of ignorance. Perhaps they deleted it while viewing
files that are normally invisible in Finder windows. Or perhaps they
deleted it accidentally while typing commands in a terminal window. The
command-line in Unix systems can be extremely powerful; one wrong entry
can cause serious data loss. ; )

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[Micky]

I didn't do that.

But it's a good thing I saw the message or I'd have had no idea what
to do!

> or the system is set to always boot in verbose mode. The
>latter is done through a command-line utility called nvram that sets a
>special firmware variable named boot-args to -v (for verbose mode).
>
>Enable: sudo nvram boot-args="-v"
>Disable: sudo nvram boot-args=
>
>Anyhow, at this point, I would have checked to see if /etc/master.passwd
>in fact did not exist.
>
>Several items - including /etc - are soft links to directories in
>/private.
>
>> 6 times in a row!! Very early in startup.
>
>Not a good sign.

No, it's not.

>
>> Restarting a 6th time didn't seem like it would help so I googled the
>> error message, and a couple hits just said, Take it for repair. A
>> couple more gave detailed instructions for fixing it. As follows:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> Step 8 sort of amazes me: Type: ln -s /private/var var
>> Is that all that is needed to recreate a file that was missing, a
>> "symbolic link, the UNIX equivalent of a Mac alias or Windows short
>> cut"?????? Seems like it creates the file, but no contents for
>> it!!!!! If it's a link, what does it link to?
>
>You can think of links in Unix as roughly equivalent in function to
>aliases in Mac OS.

Doesn't help, I only know PC's, but he says it's like a shortcut
there. That I understand.

> It's a file that points to some other file or
>directory. If it points to a directory, then in most cases it behaves
>like that directory - namely, if you cd into it or use ls to list the
>contents, you see the contents of the target directory to which the link
>points. Note that links are not as robust or flexible as Mac OS aliases in some
>important ways. Anyhow, the ln command-line tool is what creates a link.
>Besides the -s switch that tells ln to create a *soft* link rather than
>a hard one, the command takes two arguments: the target file/directory
>to which you want the link to point, and then the path name of the new
>link you want to create.

The first is /private/var and
the latter is var, I guess.

>> And why did it disappear?
>
>Your friend somehow deleted it.

No, it worked after he died. Until I moved it here, but I was as
gentle as I coudl be doing that. All I did here was try to log on,
and then when it wouldnt' finish, I held the On button down for 6
seconds until it turned off.

>
>> Why does this file and var disappear so commonly that there are
>> several webpages saying how to recreate them?
>
>It's not common at all. My guess is those people deleted them by
>accident or out of ignorance. Perhaps they deleted it while viewing
>files that are normally invisible in Finder windows. Or perhaps they
>deleted it accidentally while typing commands in a terminal window. The
>command-line in Unix systems can be extremely powerful; one wrong entry
>can cause serious data loss. ; )

All I did is click on the Mail icon, then click on a half dozen emails
and read them, then click on the red circle and close them. And I
used Find in the upper right corner maybe to find a particular email.

Well, I also scrolled up and down the Finder window some.

And I also did clicked on Dropbox a few times. I chose Quit instead
of Cancel or something like that so it asked again. Why is it so
eager to get me to connect with Dropbox? Such that it asks almost
immediately and every time I start the computer. Isn't that
something like GoogleDrive or other cloud storage services. Most
people don't need that.

I also tried a half-dozen times to connect to wifi, and even though my
WAN was listed, it didn't connect. It dawned on me that I had MAC
filtering on, so I went to my computer and tried to find the MAC id of
the Mac, but I coudlnt' so I turned off MAC filtering, and it still
didn't work. (so I went looking for a cable, but went to sleep
instead) The next day it didnt' want to connect either, so again I
looked at my computer, and MAC filtering was still on, even though I'm
sure I turned if off. (Well I was sure then, but 4 more days have
gone by and just because I'm farther away now, I'm not sure anymore.)

And I looked at the Date/time utility box.

I didn't do anything at all with a command line. I never even saw a
command line.

[Micky]

I think I get it. So it was var and now it links to /private/var.

[Jolly Roger]

On 2016-04-09, Micky <NONONObobb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9 Apr 2016 21:22:21 GMT, Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>>On 2016-04-09, Micky <NONONObobb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> When I turned it on the next day, it gave
>>>
>>> /etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory
>>> -sh-2.05b#
>>
>>If you are seeing command-line message during boot, either you started
>>up the computer in verbose mode manually by holding down Command-V
>>during startup,
>
> I didn't do that.
>
> But it's a good thing I saw the message or I'd have had no idea what
> to do!

Then it's enabled in firmware.

>>> Step 8 sort of amazes me: Type: ln -s /private/var var Is that all
>>> that is needed to recreate a file that was missing, a "symbolic
>>> link, the UNIX equivalent of a Mac alias or Windows short cut"??????
>>> Seems like it creates the file, but no contents for it!!!!! If it's
>>> a link, what does it link to?
>>
>>You can think of links in Unix as roughly equivalent in function to
>>aliases in Mac OS.
>
> Doesn't help, I only know PC's, but he says it's like a shortcut
> there. That I understand.

Yes, sorry. I should have mentioned Windows shortcuts.

>> It's a file that points to some other file or
>>directory. If it points to a directory, then in most cases it behaves
>>like that directory - namely, if you cd into it or use ls to list the
>>contents, you see the contents of the target directory to which the
>>link points. Note that links are not as robust or flexible as Mac OS
>>aliases in some important ways. Anyhow, the ln command-line tool is
>>what creates a link. Besides the -s switch that tells ln to create a
>>*soft* link rather than a hard one, the command takes two arguments:
>>the target file/directory to which you want the link to point, and
>>then the path name of the new link you want to create.
>
> The first is /private/var and the latter is var, I guess.

Right: ln -s /private/var /var

>>> And why did it disappear?
>>
>>Your friend somehow deleted it.
>
> No, it worked after he died. Until I moved it here, but I was as
> gentle as I coudl be doing that. All I did here was try to log on,
> and then when it wouldnt' finish, I held the On button down for 6
> seconds until it turned off.

Hard to say. It's possible he hadn't restarted it in a while and just
didn't know there was a problem. It also could be the hard drive is
failing and there is directory corruption. If you want to find out, run
/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and tell it to "Verify Disk" (not
to be confused with "Verify Permissions" which won't tell you if the
hard drive is failing.

>>> Why does this file and var disappear so commonly that there are
>>> several webpages saying how to recreate them?
>>
>>It's not common at all. My guess is those people deleted them by
>>accident or out of ignorance. Perhaps they deleted it while viewing
>>files that are normally invisible in Finder windows. Or perhaps they
>>deleted it accidentally while typing commands in a terminal window.
>>The command-line in Unix systems can be extremely powerful; one wrong
>>entry can cause serious data loss. ; )
>
> All I did is click on the Mail icon, then click on a half dozen emails
> and read them, then click on the red circle and close them. And I
> used Find in the upper right corner maybe to find a particular email.
>
> Well, I also scrolled up and down the Finder window some.

Unless you were messing around on the command line, I doubt you caused
it. Did you install anything or delete anything on the machine?

> And I also did clicked on Dropbox a few times. I chose Quit instead
> of Cancel or something like that so it asked again. Why is it so
> eager to get me to connect with Dropbox? Such that it asks almost
> immediately and every time I start the computer. Isn't that
> something like GoogleDrive or other cloud storage services. Most
> people don't need that.

You'd have to ask DropBox since they created the app. It doesn't come
pre-installed in OS X. You could uninstall it:

<https://www.dropbox.com/help/41>

> I also tried a half-dozen times to connect to wifi, and even though my
> WAN was listed, it didn't connect. It dawned on me that I had MAC
> filtering on, so I went to my computer and tried to find the MAC id of
> the Mac, but I coudlnt' so I turned off MAC filtering, and it still
> didn't work. (so I went looking for a cable, but went to sleep
> instead) The next day it didnt' want to connect either, so again I
> looked at my computer, and MAC filtering was still on, even though I'm
> sure I turned if off. (Well I was sure then, but 4 more days have
> gone by and just because I'm farther away now, I'm not sure anymore.)

You can find the MAC address by choosing About This Mac from the Apple
menu at the top-left corner of the screen, clicking System Report in the
about window, then looking in the Network > WiFi section for "MAC
Address".

> And I looked at the Date/time utility box.
>
> I didn't do anything at all with a command line. I never even saw a
> command line.

Like I said, the damage may have already been done before you moved the
machine.

[Lewis]

In message <kij7gbd3mv140hrta...@4ax.com>

Micky <NONONObobb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ******************
> Step 8 sort of amazes me: Type: ln -s /private/var var
> Is that all that is needed to recreate a file that was missing, a
> "symbolic link, the UNIX equivalent of a Mac alias or Windows short
> cut"?????? Seems like it creates the file, but no contents for
> it!!!!! If it's a link, what does it link to?

The standard UNIX directories /etc /tmp and /var are not used in OS X,
instead they are placed in a directory /private and then links to the
"usual" places are created.

$ ls -lsd /etc /var /tmp
8 lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Sep 30 2015 /etc -> private/etc
8 lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Sep 30 2015 /tmp -> private/tmp
8 lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Sep 30 2015 /var -> private/var

If these links do not exist, things break.

--
You have severe reading comprehension problems that I can not be held
responsible for.

[Happy.Hobo]

On 04-10-2016 02:08, Jolly Roger wrote:
>> > And I also did clicked on Dropbox a few times. I chose Quit instead
>> > of Cancel or something like that so it asked again. Why is it so
>> > eager to get me to connect with Dropbox? Such that it asks almost
>> > immediately and every time I start the computer. Isn't that
>> > something like GoogleDrive or other cloud storage services. Most
>> > people don't need that.
> You'd have to ask DropBox since they created the app. It doesn't come
> pre-installed in OS X. You could uninstall it:

It's a "login item" -- it starts as soon as you log in.

If you actually use Dropbox, that's useful. If not,

System Preferences
Users & Groups
select the user you login as
Login Items
select Dropbox
click the "minus" to remove it

As long as it's there, it will ask you to login to a Dropbox account
until you do so the first time. After that, it remembers the
authentication info.

[Micky]

Thanks a lot. I'll do that. I've taken a hiatus on this project. It
took weeks to find out if the guy my friend was volunteering for had a
new volunteer, and he doesn't. In fact he suggested very mildly and
politely that I might do it. Maybe as a tribute to my late friend I
should, but I don't want to. I'll have everything done for him
before he gets a new volunteer I'm pretty sure, and he'll call me if
he's first and I'll rush then.