OS 10.4 boots into shell...how to restore??

My poor lappy will only boot into a shell prompt. After using disk tools to upgrade to a bigger HD, there were 3-4 aliases in my main directory that I didn't recognize, I think a couple were "var" and "temp". Of course I threw them in the trash (didn't empty trash).

How do I get these back out of the trash if I can't get into OS X?

The screen is black and says:

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

I tried all the suggestions in the "basic OS X troubleshooting" post.

Help! It's dark in here and I can't see my mouse pointer!! There are Emacs and Vipers lurking in the shadows!!

This is a:

G3 500Mhz Powerbook
latest OS 10.4 update

The easiest way to fix this is to do a fresh load of the system.

Okay, if you have a command line, can you do simple commands. Like the following:

pwd
ls -Al
df -k

If you can look in your trash can by doing the following:

ls -Al .Trash

If you see the var and tmp folder in there, then do a

cd .Trash

Once there issue this command

mv var tmp /private

The above command should move both folders back into the locate where they came from. Now verify that the folder were moved by doing

ls -l /private

you should see them there. The next thing is to reboot your system. Hopefully everything will be okay.

hmm, the only similar directory I see is .Trashes, but it doesn't seem to tell me what files are in it. Two lines come back with the read/write priviliges, but no file names.

I believe you are in the root directory. You need to be in your personal directory/folder. Do the following:

cd /users
ls -Al

You should see your personal folder there. If you do then do a cd <your folder name>/.Trash

Once you are in the case in your folder/directory do the:

ls -Al

If you see the two directories var and tmp. Then move them back tp their original place by doing the following:

mv tmp var /private

After which you reboot your system, by entering reboot.

Okay, the /private directory has the etc tmp and var directories in it, but it still won't boot.

error still says "/etc/master.passwd: no such file or directory", although if I look in the /private/etc directory there is a file named "master.passwd".

Okay, I fixed it, found the answer by googling the error message.

Thanks for all the help.

So, what was the final solution to your problem? It would be very helpful, because someone else may come along with the same problem.

rman said:

So, what was the final solution to your problem? It would be very helpful, because someone else may come along with the same problem.

Click to expand...

Don't you just love that? POST YOUR SOLUTION! neye:

Yep just like a movie without a conclusion...