Question : Netware 5.0 - NICI CSS Fatal Initialization Error

I have a Novell server running NetWare 5.0, sp6.  It was running fine.  Not sure what happened, but it rebooted for whatever reason.  When it powers on, all it does is sit at the generic prompt after giving the following:  nici ccs fatal: initialization error  

I can see that at Stage 2, it will not mount the volumes.  Then at Stage 5, it says that it cannot load hwdetect.nlm.  If I start the server without the startup and autoexec, it gives the following:

Loader cannot find public symbol: __u8m for module hwdetect.nlm.  

I am not able to find this exact error message anywhere.  I don't know what the u8m means.

Also, it will not load and bind the network card drivers.  It allows me to load and bind tcp/ip manually and then I can ping the server.  It will also allow me to mount all and bring up the SYS volume.  Then  I am not able to log in because login is disabled.  If I type enable login, it gives the following:  unable to clear supervisor account lockout.

I'm not sure where to start troubleshooting.  I checked the hd array and it doesn't show any problems.  It consist of six scsci drives setup as two logical drives.  Original server had three drives and later on three more were added for space.  Since I can bring up the volumes and ping, all I need to do is be able to login and retrieve some information from one of the drives.  Is there anyway possible for me to get this to work?  Or since I am not able to communicate with the Master server is NDS not allowing me to enable login?  Any suggestions?

Answer : Netware 5.0 - NICI CSS Fatal Initialization Error

So the first error when doing the loadstage process is the hwdetect error?

http://support.novell.com/docs/Tids/Solutions/10018811.html

Has the descriptions and base modules that should be loading at each loadstage for NetWare 5.  Verify that all of the modules have loaded.

Also, when you step through the loadstages, at loadstage 1 do you run c:\nwserver\startup.ncf to load the drivers?  Maybe that's the problem you're having after the loadstage thing, with the missing public symbol and all that...  As you can see in the descriptions doc, loadstage 1 should be run *after* startup.ncf...