/proc not getting mounted (Doc ID 1012150.1)

Last updated on JUNE 13, 2023

Applies to:

Symptoms

The /proc filesystem is not mounting at boot up.
Some of the errors you may see when the system is booting include:

/sbin/rcS: /dev/null: cannot create
/sbin/swapadd: /dev/null: cannot create
/usr/bin/savecore: getexecname() failed
WARNING: /proc could not be mounted
The boot may hang and display the following error:
Timed out waiting for NIS to come up
Also, the dtlogin screen may not completely start and hang with a blank
gray screen.

If the system is up, various commands will fail:

$ /usr/bin/ps
ps: getexecname() failed
$ /usr/sbin/swap -l
swap: getexecname() failed
You will get the above error, getexecname() failed, for any isa specific
executables invoked by isaexec(3c).
Also, commands that use /dev/null may fail:
$ /usr/bin/man 
<HOST>: /dev/null: cannot create

Cause