Solaris: Recovering from a Runtime Linker Failure

ld.so.1 Failure: Cannot execute /usr/lib/ld.so.1



Imagine a situation where you are playing with the runtime linker (ld.so.1) and by accident you overwrite the default runtime linker with another linker that is incompatible or buggy. All of a sudden all dynamically linked applications stop working, including the user and system utility commands, and you see this error message:



Cannot execute /usr/lib/ld.so.1, Killed



Do not panic and do not close the terminal window in which you are working. A couple of simple steps will bring the system back to the normal state. You can use statically linked mv and cp binaries and a backup copy of ld.so.1 to recover from the runtime linker failure. The Solaris Operating System keeps statically linked utilities cp, mv, ln, rcp, and tar under /usr/sbin/static. The replica of ld.so.1 can be found under /etc/lib.



The recovery steps are as follows:

1) /usr/sbin/static/mv /usr/lib/ld.so.1 /usr/lib/ld.so.1.buggy

2) /usr/sbin/static/cp /etc/lib/ld.so.1 /usr/lib



Here is a sample scenario (with the problem and the resolution):

# pwd

/data/sunperf

# ls

ld.so.1.buggy oracle.csh myapp* tools/

# cd /usr/lib

# mv /data/sunperf/ld.so.1.buggy ld.so.1

# ls

ls: Cannot execute /usr/lib/ld.so.1

Killed

# date

date: Cannot execute /usr/lib/ld.so.1

Killed

# file /usr/sbin/static/cp

file: Cannot execute /usr/lib/ld.so.1

Killed

# which file

which: Cannot execute /usr/lib/ld.so.1

Killed

# /data/sunperf/myapp

/data/sunperf/myapp: Cannot execute /usr/lib/ld.so.1

Killed

# rm ld.so.1

rm: Cannot execute /usr/lib/ld.so.1

Killed

# /usr/sbin/static/mv ld.so.1 ld.so.1.buggy

# ls

ls: Cannot find /usr/lib/ld.so.1

Killed

# /usr/sbin/static/cp /etc/lib/ld.so.1 ld.so.1

# ls

0@0.so.1 libl.so.1 llib-lcmd

32 libm.a llib-lcmd.ln

64 libmail.a llib-lcpc

abi libmail.so llib-lcpc.ln

accept libmail.so.1 llib-lcrypt

.........

(output truncated)

# date

Fri Mar 19 12:30:15 PST 2004

...

The following threads on Experts Exchange address the same problem: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Solaris/Q_209 10530.html

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Solaris/Q_101 18801.html



Additional Notes :

Static binaries cp, mv, ln, rcp, and tar are part of the SUNWsutl package. Make sure that you have installed this package on your box running the Solaris OS:



$ pkginfo -x SUNWsutl

SUNWsutl Static Utilities

(sparc) 11.8.0,REV=2000.01.08.18.12



The package SUNWsutl is available on both the SPARC and x86 Platform Editions of the Solaris OS, and these recovery instructions apply for both platforms.