file in /etc deleted by mistake

[xunilsan]

Hi all,

I have done one of the most stupid things one can do. Have deleted all the files in /etc with "rm *" when i was a superuser under suse 10.1. Understandably i am not able to login to the machine under suse anymore. Additionally i have Fedora core and Windows xp installed. My grub is in fedora and it works fine at the moment for fedora and xp.

I have tried to copy files in /etc from recovery mode to the actual suse /etc directory and this does'nt work either. It says i cannot login with any username. I logged in recovery mode as "root", but this is no more possible with disk boot of suse with the copied files.

I have also tried to copy files from /etc in fedora to suse, but this way i am asked for a "username" before bootup and nothing is accepted there too.

I have the following questions:
1. Does anyone know of a better way around to this problem?
2. What files do i need to change in /etc copied from fedora (like fstab, ...) to make it work for suse. Or do you think it is better to go for a new suse installation?
3. Is there any way of recovering what has been deleted using "rm". I know of nothing.

thank you in advance
xunil

[Xaleandr]

Hello,
1. About copying files from Fedora to SUSE : each distribution has its own features, so it is quite natural that Fedora files do not work under SUSE.
But You can try to recover the system: Boot from SUSE Disk, choose
Installation > [Choose language ... License agreement ] > Installation options:choose "Other" > Rescue system.
(This MIGHT work). If not, make clean install
2. About restoring lost data: Try "Data recovery" in Google, there are lots of options.
The simplest is to use mc (Midnight Commander), but this is not universal (works only for ext2)