Booting AIX in Maintenance Mode

Prerequisites

• You want to boot your system for Maintenance Mode.
• All hardware is installed.
• The AIX Version 4 Base Operating System (BOS) is installed.
• Your system unit is set to Off.
• Locate the key for the key lock on your system unit.

Accessing the System

1.    Turn the system key, if present, to the Service position.

2.    Turn on all attached external devices, such as terminals, CD-ROM drives, tape drives, monitors, and external disk drives before turning on the system unit. Do not turn the system unit on until step 5. Turning on the external devices first is necessary so that the system unit can identify them during the startup (boot) process.

3.    Insert the installation media into the tape or CD-ROM drive. If you are using CD-ROM that utilizes a separate disc caddy, insert the CD-ROM into the disc caddy and then insert the caddy into the CD-ROM drive.

4.    If you are not using an ASCII terminal, skip to step 5. If you are using an ASCII terminal, set the communications options as follows:

5.    Turn the system unit power switch to the On position. The system begins booting from the installation media. If your system is booting from tape, it is normal for the tape to move back and forth. After several minutes, c31 is displayed in the three-digit LED.

6.    Select option 3, start Maintenance Mode for system recovery, from the Welcome to the Base Operating System Installation and Maintenance screen when it is displayed.

7.    Select option 1, Access a Root Volume Group, from the Maintenance screen. The Warning screen is displayed

8.    Read through the information displayed on the Warning screen. When you are ready to continue, type 0 and press Enter. The Access a Root Volume Group screen is displayed

9.    Select the option for the root volume group whose logical volume information you want to display. The Access a Root Volume Group screen lists all of the volume groups (root and otherwise) on your system. After entering your selection, the Volume Group Information screen is displayed.

10. Select one of the options from the Volume Group Information screen and press Enter. Each option does the following:

Choice 1	Access this volume group and start a shell. Selecting this choice imports and activates the volume group and mounts the file systems for this root volume group before providing you with a shell and a system prompt.
Choice 2	Access this volume group and start a shell before mounting file systems. Selecting this choice imports and activates the volume group and provides you with a shell and system prompt before mounting the file systems for this root volume group.
Choice 99	Entering 99 returns you to the Access a Root Volume Group screen.

       11.After either choice 1 or 2 is selected and processed, a shell and system prompt are displayed.