Solaris / Unix error messages are very short and often we need some more information about the origin of an error and a possible steps to fix the issues.
Here is a list of Solaris / Unix error messages for your reference, most of the error messages are generic Unix error messages but many are specific Solaris Error Messages. Please comment if you can provide some more details about these errors.
For other parts please scroll down to related posts section.
This is a multi part document , this is last part covering error messages from T to Z
Please scroll down to related posts section for other parts of this document.
U
202. tar: /dev/rmt/0: No such file or directory
203. tar: directory checksum error
204. tar: tape write error
205. Text is lost because the maximum edit log size has been exceeded.
206. THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEM(S) HAD AN UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY:
207. The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an external device is turned off.
208. THE SYSTEM IS BEING SHUT DOWN NOW !!!
209. The system will be shut down in N minutes
210. This mail file has been changed by another mail reader.
211. Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
212. timeout waiting for input during variable
213. Too many links
214. Too many open files
U
215. umount: warning: /variable not in mnttab
216. Unable to install/attach driver ‘variable’
217. undefined control
218. Unmatched `
219. UNREF FILE I=i OWNER=o MODE=m SIZE=s MTIME=t CLEAR?
220. Use “logout” to logout.
221. /usr/openwin/bin/xinit: connection to X server lost
V 222. Value too large for defined data type
223. variable… Host unknown
224. variable… User unknown
225. variable… Local configuration error
W 226. WARNING: Clock gained N days– CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
227. WARNING: No network locking on variable: contact adminto install server change228. WARNING: processorlevel 4 interrupt not serviced
229. WARNING: /tmp: File system full, swap space limit exceeded
230. WARNING: TOD clock not initialized–CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
231. WARNING:Unable to repair the / filesystem. Run fsck
232. Watchdog Reset
233. Watchdog Reset, Rebooting.
234. Who are you?
235. Window Underflow
X 236. X connection to variable:0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
237. xinit: not found
238. XIO: fatal IO error 32 (Broken pipe) on X server “variable:0.0”
239. Xlib: Client is not authorized to connect to Server
240. Xlib: connection to “variable:0.0” refused by server
241. xterm: fatal IO error 32 (Broken Pipe)or Kill Client on X server ” variable:0.0″
242. XView warning: Cannot load font set ‘variable'(Font Package)
Y 243. ypbind[N]: NIS server for domain “variable” OK
244. ypbind[N]: NIS server not responding for domain “variable”; still trying
245. ypwhich: can’t communicate with ypbind
Z 246. zsN: silo overflow
<a
tar: /dev/rmt/0: No such file or directory
The default tape device /dev/rmt/0, or possibly the device
specified by the TAPE environment variable, is not currently
connected to the system, is not configured, or its hardware
symbolic link is broken.
List the files in the /dev/rmt directory to see which tape
devices are currently configured. If none are configured,
ensure
that a tape device is correctly attached to the system, and
reboot with the -r option to reconfigure devices.
If tape devices other than /dev/rmt/0 are configured, you
could
specify one of them after the -f option of tar(1).
This error message from tar(1) indicates that the checksum of the
directory and the files it has read from tape does not match the
checksum advertised in the header block. Usually this indicates
the wrong blocking factor, although it could indicate corrupt
data on tape.
To resolve this problem, make certain that the blocking factor
you specify on the command line (after -b) matches the blocking
factor originally specified. If in doubt, leave out the block
size and let tar determine it automatically. If that doesn’t
help, tape data could be corrupted.
A physical write error has occurred on the tar(1) output file,
which is usually a tape, although it could be a diskette or disk
file. Look on the system console, where the device driver should
provide the actual error condition. This might be a write-
protected tape, a physical I/O error, an end-of-tape condition,
or a File too large limitation.
In the case of write-protectedtapes, enable the write switch.
For physical I/O errors, the best course of action is to replace
the tape with a new one. For end-of-tape conditions, try using a
higher density if the device supports one, or use cpio(1) or pax
(1) for their multi-volume support., When encountering File too
large limitations, use the parent shell’slimit(1) or ulimit
facility to increase the maximum file size.
For more information on tar tapes, see the section on copying UFS
files in the System Administration Guide,Volume I.
Text is lost because the maximum edit log size has been exceeded.
This message appears at the beginning of a cmdtool(1) session
after 100,000 characters have gone by in the scrolling window.
Clicking on the top rectangle of the scrollbar might display this
message. No data were lost, but the user cannot scroll back
before this wraparound point.
To increase the maximum size of the Command Tool log file, use
cmdtool with the-M option, specifying more than 100,000 bytes.
THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEM(S) HAD AN UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY:
At boot time the /etc/rcS script runs the fsck(1M) command to
check the integrity of filesystems marked “fsck” in /etc/vfstab.
If fsck cannot repair a filesystem automatically, it interrupts
the boot procedure and produces this message. When fsck gets into
this state, it cannot repair filesystems without losing one or
more files, so it wants to defer this responsibility to you, the
administrator. Data corruption has probably already occurred.
First run fsck -n on the filesystem, to see how many and what
type of problems exist. Then run fsck again to repair the
filesystem. If you have a backup of the filesystem, you can
generally answer “y” to all the fsck questions. It’s a good idea
to keep a record of all problematic files and inode numbers for
later reference. To run fsck yourself, specify options as
recommended by the boot script. For example:
# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s0
Usually, files lost during fsck repair were created just before a
crash or power outage, and cannot be recovered. If important
files are lost, you can recover them from backup tapes.
If you don’t havea backup, ask an expert to run fsck for you.
For more information, see the sectionon checking filesystem
integrity in the System Administration Guide, Volume I.
The SCSI bus is hung. Perhaps an external device is turned off.
This message appears near the beginning of rebooting, immediately
after a “Boot device: …” message, and then the system hangs.
The problem is conflicting SCSI targets for a non-boot device.
Having an external device turned off is unlikely to cause this
problem.
See the message “Boot device:
/iommu/sbus/variable/variable/sd@3,0” for a solution.
For more information, see the section on halting and booting in
the System Administration Guide, Volume I.
THE SYSTEM IS BEING SHUT DOWN NOW !!!
This message means the system is going down immediately and it’s
too late to save any changes.
This message is often preceded by messages telling you that the
system is going down in 15 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on. When
you see these initial broadcast shutdown messages, save all your
work, send any e-mail you’re working on, and close your files.
Fortunately vi sessions are automatically saved for later
recovery, but many otherapplications have no crash protection
mechanism. Data loss is likely.
For more information on shutting down the system, see the System
Administration Guide, Volume I. If you are using the AnswerBook,
“halting the system” is a good search string.
The system will be shut down in N minutes
Thismessage from the system shutdown(1M) script informs you that
the superuser is taking down the system.
Save all changes now or your work will be lost. Write out any
files you were changing, send any e-mail messages you were
composing, and close your files.
For more information on shutting down the system, see the System
Administration Guide, Volume I. If you are using the AnswerBook,
“halting the system” is a good search string.
This mail file has been changed by another mail reader.
This message appears in a pop-up dialog box whenever you start
mailtool(1) while another mail reader has the inbox locked. A
question follows: “Do you wish to ask that mail reader to save
the changes?” You are given three choices.
If you choose “Save Changes” mailtool will request the other mail
reader to relinquish its lock and write out any changes it has
made to your inbox. If you choose “Ignore” mailtool will read
your inbox without locking it. If you choose “Cancel” mailtool
will exit.
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
This problem can occur while booting from the net, and indicates
a network connection problem.
Make sure the Ethernet cable is connected to the network. Check
that this system has an entry in the NIS ethers map or locally on
the boot server. Then check the IP address of the server and the
client to make sure they are on the same subnet. Local /etc/hosts
files must agree with each other and withthe NIS hosts map.
If those are not causing the problem, go to the system’s PROM
monitor ok prompt and run test net to test the network
connection. (On older PROM monitors, use test-net instead.) If
the network test fails, check the Ethernet port, card, fuse, and
cable, replacing them if necessary. Also check the twisted pair
port to make sure it is patched to the correct subnet.
For more information on packets, see SPARC: Installing Solaris
Software. If you are using the AnswerBook, “ARP/RARP” isa good
search string.
An attempt was made to create more than the maximum number of
hard links (LINK_MAX, by default 32767) to a file. Because each
subdirectory is a link to its parent directory, the same error
results from trying to create too many subdirectories.
Check to see why there are so many links to the same file. To get
more than the maximum number of hard links, use symbolic links
instead.
The symbolic name for this error is EMLINK, errno=31.
A process has too many files open at once. The system imposes a
per-process soft limit on open files, OPEN_MAX (usually 64),
which can be increased, and a per-process hard limit (usually
1024), which cannot be increased.
You can control the soft limit from the shell. In the C shell,
use the limit command to increase the number of descriptors. In
the Bourne or Korn shells, use the ulimit command with the -n
option to increase the number of file descriptors.
If the window system refuses to start new applications because of
this error, increase the open file limit in your login shell
before starting the window system.
The symbolic name for this error is EMFILE, errno=24.
umount: warning: /variable not in mnttab
This message results when the superuser attempts to unmount a
filesystem that is not mounted. Note that subdirectories of
filesystems,such as /var, cannot be unmounted.
Run the mount(1M) or df(1M) command to see what filesystems are
mounted. If you really want to unmount one of them, specify the
existing mount point.
Unable to install/attach driver ‘variable’
These messages appear in /var/adm/messages at boot time, when the
system tries to load drivers for devices the machine does not
have.
Despite the alarmist tone, this message is intended as purely
informational. You probably don’t want all these device drivers,
because they make your system kernel larger, requiring more
memory.
This message, prefaced by the file name and line number involved,
is from the C preprocessor /usr/ccs/lib/cpp, and indicates a line
starting with a sharp (#) but not followed by a valid keyword
such as define or include.
A piece of software might be running the C preprocessor on an
initialization file that you thought was interpreted by a shell.
In most shells, the sharp (#) indicates a comment. The C
preprocessor considers comments to be anythingbetween /* and */
delimiters.
This message from the C shell csh(1) indicates that a user typed
a command containing a backquote symbol (`) without a closeing
backquote. Similar messages result from an unmatched single quote
(‘) or an unmatched double quote (“). Other shells generally give
a continuation prompt when a command line contains an unmatched
quote symbol.
Correct the command line and try again. To continue typing on
another line, give the C shell a backslash right before the
newline.
UNREF FILE I=i OWNER=o MODE=m SIZE=s MTIME=t
= CLEAR?
During phase 4, fsck(1M) discovered that the specified file was
orphaned because the inode had no record of its pathname. In
other words, the file was not connected into any directory.
Answer yes to reconnect the file into the lost+found directory.
Then contact the file’s owner to ask whether they want it back,
and where they want you to place it.
For more information, see the chapter on checking filesystem
integrity in the System Administration Guide, Volume I.
This C shell message might come as a surprise to Bourne or Korn
shell users accustomed to logging out with a Control-d.
When ignoreeof is set, the C shell requires users to logout by
typing logout or exit. Write any modified files to disk before
exiting.
/usr/openwin/bin/xinit: connection to X server lost
This means that the xinit(1) program, which sets up X11 resources
and starts a window manager, failed to locate the X server
process. Perhaps the user interrupted window system startup, or
exited abnormally from OpenWindows (for example, by killing
processes or by rebooting). It is possible that the X server
crashed. Data loss is possible in some cases. Depending on
process timing, this message might be normal when OpenWindows
exits during a system reboot.
The only solution is to exit and restart OpenWindows. You do not
need to reboot the system unless it hangs and fails to give you a
console prompt. To exit OpenWindows, select Workspace->Exit. To
restart OpenWindows, type openwin at the system prompt.
Value too large for defined data type
The user ID or group ID of an IPC object or file system object
was too large to be stored in an appropriate member of the
caller-provided structure.
Run the application on a newer system, or ask the program’s
author to fix this condition.
This error occurs only on systems that support a larger range of
user or group ID values than a declared member structure can
support. This condition usually occurs because the IPC or file
system object resides on a remote machine with a larger value of
type uid_t, off_t, or gid_t than that of the local system.
The symbolic name for this error is EOVERFLOW, errno=79.
WARNING: Clock gained N days– CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
Each workstation contains an internal clock powered by a
rechargeable battery. After the system is halted and turned off,
the internal clock continues to keep time. When the system is
powered on and reboots, the system notices that the internal
clock has gained time since the workstation was halted.
In most cases, especially if the power has been off for less than
a month, the internal clock keeps the correct time, and you do
not have to reset the date. Use the date(1) command to check the
date andtime on your system. If the date or time is wrong,
become superuser and use the date(1) command to reset them.
WARNING: No network locking on variable:
contact adminto install server change
The Solaris 2.x mount(1M) command issues this message whenever it
mounts a filesystem that doesn’t have NFS locking, such as a
standard SunOS 4.1.x exported filesytem. Data loss is possible in
applications that depend on locking.
On the remote SunOS 4.1.x system, install the appropriate
rpc.lockd jumbo patch to implement NFS locking. For SunOS 4.1.4,
install patch #102264; for SunOS 4.1.3, install patch #100075;
for earlier 4.1 releases, install patch #101817.
WARNING: processorlevel 4 interrupt not serviced
This message is basically a diagnostic from the SCSI driver.
Especially on machineswith the sun4c architecture, it can appear
on the console every 10 minutes or so.
To reduce the frequency of this message, add this line near the
bottom of the /etc/system file and reboot:
set esp:esp_use_poll_loop=0
You might also see this message repeatedly after manually
removing a CD when it was busy. Don’t do this! To get the system
back to normal, reboot the system with the -r (reconfigure)
option.
WARNING: /tmp: File system full, swap space limit exceeded
The system swap area (virtual memory) has filled up. You needto
reduce swap space consumption by killing some processes or
possibly by rebooting the system.
See the message “Not enough space” for information about
increasingswap space.
WARNING: TOD clock not initialized– CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
–
This message indicates that the Time Of Day (TOD) clock reads
zero, so its time is the beginning of the UNIX epoch: midnight 31
December 1969. On a brand-new system, the manufacturer might have
neglected to initialize the system clock. On older systems it is
more likely that the rechargeable battery has run out and
requires replacement.
First replace the batteryaccording to the manufacturer’s
instructions. Then become superuser and use the date(1) command
to set the time and date. On SPARC systems the clock is powered
by the same battery as the NVRAM, so a dead battery also causes
loss of the machine’s Ethernet address and host ID, which are
more serious problems for networked systems.
WARNING:Unable to repair the / filesystem. Run fsck
This message comes at boot time from the /etc/rcS script whenever
it gets a bad return code from fsck(1) after checking a
filesystem. The message recommends an fsck command line, and
instructs you to exit the shell when done to continue booting.
Then the script places the system in single-user mode so fsck can
be run effectively.
See “/dev/rdsk/variable: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY” for
information about repairing UFS filesystems.
See “THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEM(S) HAD AN UNEXPECTED
INCONSISTENCY” for information about repairing non-UFS
filesystems.
This fatal error usually indicates some kind of hardware problem.
Data corruption on the system is possible.
Look for some other message that might help diagnose the problem.
By itself, a watchdog reset doesn’t provide enough information;
because traps are disabled, all information has been lost. If all
that appears on the console is an ok prompt, issue the PROM
command below to view the final messages that occurred just
before system failure:
ok f8002010 wector p
Yes, that word iswector, not vector.
The result is a display of messages similar to those produced by
the dmesg(1M) command. These messages can be useful in finding
the cause of system failure.
This message doesn’t come from the kernel, but from the OpenBoot
PROM monitor, a piece of Forth software that gives you the ok
prompt before you boot UNIX. If the CPU detects a trap when traps
are disabled (an unrecoverable error), it signals a watchdog. The
OpenBoot PROM monitor detects the watchdog, issues this message,
and brings down the system.
See the message “Watchdog Reset” for details. This rebooting
message occurs under the same conditions, but when the EEPROM’s
watchdog-reboot? variable is set to true, causing the machine to
automatically reboot itself. Data corruption on the system is
possible.
Many networking programs can print this message, including
from(1B), lpr(1B), lprm(1B), mailx(1), rdist(1), sendmail(1M),
talk(1), and rsh(1). The command prints this message when it
cannot locate a password file entry for the current user. This
might occur if a user logged in just before the superuser deleted
that user’s password entry, or if the network naming service
fails for a user who has no entry in the local password file.
If a user’s password file entry was accidentally deleted, restore
it from backups or from another password file. If a user’s login
name or user ID was changed, ask that user to logout and login
again. If the network naming service failed, check the NIS
server(s) and repair or reboot as necessary.
There is a known problem (bug 1138025) with starting hundreds of
rsh processes on another machine. This message appears because
rsh hangs while binding to a reserved port, and responds too
slowly to interact with the network naming service.
This message often occurs at boot time, sometimes along with a
“Watchdog Reset” error. It comes from the OpenBoot PROM monitor,
which was passed a processor trap from the hardware. This error
indicates that some programtried to access a SPARC register
window that wasn’t accessible from the processor.
On some system architectures, specifically sun4c, the problem
could be that different capacity memory chips are mixed together.
Someone might have placed 1MB SIMMs in the same bank with 4MB
SIMMs. If this is so, rearrange the memory chips. Make sure to
put higher-capacity SIMMs in the first bank(s), and lower-
capacity SIMMs inthe remaining bank(s); never mix different
capacity SIMMs in the same bank.
The problem could also be that cache memory on the motherboard
has gone bad and needs replacement. If main memory is installed
correctly, try swapping the motherboard.
The best way to isolate the problem is to look at the %pc
register to see where it got its arguments from, and why the
arguments were bad. If you can reproduce the condition causing
this message, your system vendor might be able to help diagnose
the problem.
X connection to variable:0.0 broken (explicit kill or
This means that the client has lost its connection to the X
server. The “0.0” represents the display device, which is usually
the console. This message can appear when a user is running an X
application on a remote system with the DISPLAY set back to the
original system and the remote system’s X server disappears,
perhaps because someone exited X windows orrebooted the machine.
It sometimes appears locally when a user exits the window system.
Dataloss is possible if applications were killed before saving
files.
Try to run the application again in a few minutes after the
system has rebooted and the window system is running.
OpenWindows was probably not installed properly, and the
openwin(1) program could not find xinit(1) to start up the X
windows system. If the user is running another version of X
windows, such as the MIT X11 distribution, the startx program
serves the same function as xinit.
Check the PATH environment variable to make sure it contains the
appropriate X windows install directory. Verify that xinit is in
this directory as an executable program.
XIO: fatal IO error 32 (Broken pipe) on X server “variable:0.0”
This means that I/O with the X server has been broken. The “0.0”
represents the display device, which is usually the console. This
message can appear when a user is running Display PostScript
applications and the X server disappears or the client is shut
down. Data loss is possible if applications disappeared before
saving files.
Try to run the application again in a few minutes after the
system has rebooted and the window system is running.
Xlib: Client is not authorized to connect to Server
See the message “Xlib: connection to … refused by server” for
details.
Xlib: connection to “variable:0.0” refused by server
This message is immediately followed by the “Xlib: Client is not
authorized to connect to Server” message. These messages indicate
that an X windows application tried to run on the X server
specified inside double quotes, which did not allow the request.
The “0.0” represents the display device, which is usually the
console. If no server name appears, the superuser probably tried
to run an X application on the current machine in an X session
that was owned by somebody else.
To allow this client to connect to the X server, run xhost
+clientname on the X server system. Only the owner of the current
X session (who is not necessarily the superuser) isallowed to
run the xhost command. If somebody else is running X windows on
the server, ask them to log out and then start your own X session
on that server; remote X connections are usually allowed for the
same user ID.
xterm: fatal IO error 32 (Broken Pipe) or KillClient on X server
variable:0.0″
This means that xterm(1) has lost its connection to the X server.
The “0.0” represents the display device, which is usually the
console. This message can appear when a user is running xterm and
the X server disappears or the client gets shut down. Data loss
is possible if applications were killed before saving files.
Try to run the terminal emulator again in a few minutes after the
system has rebooted and the window system is running.
XView warning: Cannot load font set ‘variable’ (Font Package)
This message from the XView library warns that a requested font
is not installed on the X server. Often multiple warnings appear
about the same font. The set of available fonts can vary from
release to release.
To see which fonts are available on the X server, run the
xlsfonts(1) program. Then specify another font name that you see
in the output of xlsfonts. Sometimes it is possible to locate a
similar font from a different vendor.
There are two packages of X windowsfonts: the common but not
required fonts (SUNWxwcft), and the optional fonts (SUNWxwoft).
Run pkginfo(1) to see if both these packages are installed, and
add them to the system as you wish.
ypbind[N]: NIS server for domain “variable” OK
This message appears after an “NIS server not responding” message
to indicate that ypbind(1M is able to communicate with an NIS
server again.
Proceed with your work. This message is purely informational.
ypbind[N]: NIS server not responding for domain
This means that the NIS client daemon ypbind(1M) cannot
communicate with an NIS server for the specified domain. This
message appears when a workstation running the NIS naming service
has become disconnected from the network, or when NIS servers are
down or extremely slow to respond.
If other NIS clients are behaving normally, check the Ethernet
cabling on the workstation that is getting this message. On SPARC
machines, disconnected network cabling also produces a series of
“no carrier” messages. On x86 machines, the above message might
be your only indication that network cabling is disconnected.
If many NIS clients on the network are giving this message, go to
the NIS server in question and reboot or repair as necessary. To
locate the NIS server for a domain, run the ypwhich(1) command.
When the server machine comes back in operation, NIS clients give
an “NIS server for domain OK” message.
For more information about ypbind, see the section on
administering secure NFS in the NFS Administration Guide.
ypwhich: can’t communicate with ypbind
This message from the ypwhich(1) command indicates that the NIS
binder process ypbind(1M) is not running on the local machine.
If the system is not configured to use NIS, this message is
normal and expected. Configure the system to use NIS if
necessary.
If the system is configured to use NIS, but the ypbind process is
not running, invoke the following command to start it up:
# /usr/lib/netsvc/yp/ypbind -broadcast
This message means that the Zilog 8530 character input silo (or
serial portFIFO) overflowed before it could be serviced. The
zs(4S) driver, which talks to a Zilog Z8530 chip, is reporting
that the FIFO (holding about two characters) has been overrun.
The number after zs shows which serial port experienced an
overflow:
zs0 – tty serial port 0 (/dev/ttya) zs1 – tty serial port 1
(/dev/ttyb) zs2 – keyboard port (/dev/kbd) zs3 – mouse port
(/dev/mouse)
Silo overflows indicate that data in the respective serial port
FIFO has been lost. However, consequences of silo overflows
might be negligible if the overflows occur infrequently, if data
loss is not catastrophic, or if data can be recovered or
reproduced. For example, although a silo overflow on the mouse
driver (zs3) indicates that the system could not process mouse
events quickly enough, the user can perform mouse motions again.
Similarly, lost data from a silo overflow on a serial port with a
modem connection transferring data using uucp(1C) will be
recovered when uucp discovers the loss of data and requests
retransmission of the corrupted packet.
Frequent silo overflow messages can indicate a zs hardware FIFO
problem, a serial driver software problem, or abnormal data or
system activity. For example, the system ignores interrupts
during system panics, so mouse and keyboard activity result in
silo overflows.
If the serial ports experiencing silo overflows are not being
used, a silo overflow could indicate the onset of a hardware
problem.
Another type of silo overflow is one that occurs during reboot
when an HDLC line is connected to any of the terminal ports. For
example, an X.25 network could be sending frames before the
kernel has been told to expect them. Such overflow messages can
be ignored.