Solaris Common Messages and Troubleshooting Guide

`No utmpx entry`

Cause

During login file system full errors are seen and login fails with the message No utmpx entry.

This is caused by a full file system so that the system has no space to write its utmpx (login info) entry.

Action

To get around this condition the system must be booted into single user mode. Then clear (do not delete) the files: /var/adm/utmp and /var/adm/utmpx. This can be done by typing:

#cat /dev/null > /var/adm/utmp
#cat /dev/null > /var/adm/utmpx

These commands zero out the files but keep it with the correct permissions.

In some cases after clearing these files the /var filesystem may still be full. In this case type:

du -askd /var |sort -nr |more

This will give you a listing of the files from largest to smallest in the /var filesystem. To create space you can zero the files: /var/cron/log, /var/spool/lp/logs, and /var/adm/messages. You can also check /.wastebasket for large files to delete.