The problem with this issue, is that there is a wide range of possible causes to this problem, spanning a large 'diagnosis tree'. This makes it hard to diagnose by iterative mail questions. I'll try to ask enough questions to cover the "more reasonable?" causes.
Aaron wrote: >>>"cd" command not found?? "cd" is an internal shell command (doesn't make >>>sense to run it in a separate process). Are you sure that's what happened? >>> >>> >>> >>> >seperate process? > > I think what Amos means is that for cd it's a different matter than e.g. for ls. When you type ls, bash searches for the command on your path, and if found runs it in a subprocess. If your path, or the disk containing the executable (normally /bin/ls) is broken, you get the message you got below. However since cd is an "internal command", bash should run it directly (there is no 'cd' executable, it's the bash executable that does the job), so we'd be very surprised if you see similiar message for the 'cd' command too. Were you just giving an example or did you actually see a '-bash: cd: command not found'? I can hardly imagine how this could happen - unless the bash executable itself is broken. >>What's the exact error message? It should be something like >>-bash: <exact commandname>: command not found >> >> >> >-bash: ls:command not found > > > OK, so we know it's bash, and we know it knows you typed ls (unless there are some mysterious unprintables hidden over there), rules out a few exotic possibilities. What about if you try explicit path: /bin/ls ? Can you access /bin at all? I would have said try ls'ing it, but since you don't have ls... what happens if you type /bi<tab>? does it complete? if yes, try another tab to see what's there... If there is a working /bin/ls, then it's your PATH. Were the "echo $PATH" results you mentioned before done from a "working" terminal? If yes, try from a non-working one (echo, like cd, is an internal command - if it does not work, either you have a bad alias or your bash executable is bad). If you see no /bin or no /bin/ls, indeed the most probable cause would be a bad disk/ bad file-system. When this happens, try switching to another (working) shell, and see if you can access /bin/ls from there. If you can run /bin/df, try "/bin/df /" and "/bin/df /bin". It might also be related to user permissions (maybe these shells are opened under some special user, that does not have read or exec perms to the file) - try running /usr/bin/id ... oops - this would probably not be available too - so try locating this shell by carefully examining the output of "ps -ef" from another terminal - note the user id. One more general diagnosis tool - if you do locate the shell's process from another terminal, you can use 'strace -p <process number>', then go back to the bad term and type "/bin/ls -ld /bin/ls" to see the syscalls bash does when looking for ls. Yet another possibility, is that for some reason the shell or the terminal is run chroot(8)'ed to some other place - I guess this one is too far fetched for now >was from ctrl alt F2 > >but the same thing on term windows > >I us konsole if it matters > > > This would have helped to further diagnose had you given a different answer to my other question (the exact error message). As it stands it probably does not matter. >It happens randomly and often after time when I open a new term. >Aaron > > "after time" - does that mean that it works ok for a while, then the same shell stops recognizing commands? Or do you simply mean that you open a new shell after some time, and the *new* shell is the one that does not work? Or - is it that they both stop working, but this does not happen unless you open a new terminal. One more useful technique you can try, especially if you suspect PATH is being corruped, is adding debug printings in initialization scripts - e.g. /etc/profile /etc/bash.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile and ~/.bashrc (sometimes it's the initializations scripts that fail, corrupting your PATH on the way). But do make sure you remember to remove them once your'e done experimenting... ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
