[SLL] /etc overwritten; is there any hope?

[Dan Wilder]

You might try patching it back together by hand, using /etc
from a similarly-configured RHEL-4 if you get stuck.  A rescue 
boot like Damn Small Linux could be your friend in this endeavor,
in the worst case.  

Sounds like maybe it boots in non-X mode.  That's a long way 
short of the worst case!

What won't it do, aside from starting X?

On Fri, Jun 29, 2007 at 05:28:04PM -0700, William Kreuter wrote:
> Looks like I really clobbered an RHEL-4 machine pretty
> badly.  I was just finishing up its setup.  As almost
> the last thing to do, I copied some trees from an
> older RHEL-3 machine that the newer one is to replace
> -- and witlessly I copied the /etc tree as well.
> 
> This has smashed up the RHEL-4 machine pretty badly.
> Among what I've tried so far to fix it, without
> success, includes going through the upgrade path on
> the RHEL-4 install disks, and copying the /etc tree
> from another RHEL-4 machine.  Some of what I've
> tried has made it worse.
> 
> X doesn't start at all.
> 
> Is any rescue possible short of a fresh install?  I
> also tried the install path of the RHEL-4 CDs,
> hoping to use an option (which has worked on the
> same machine in the past) to retain user data but
> replace the installation, but I'm getting stuck with
> that, too.
> 
> Of course I didn't back up the /etc tree before
> clobbering it.  Is there any hope?
> 
> Billy
> 

-- 
Dan Wilder <dhwilder at gmail.com>