Someone at work just made a slight mistake: root@ECA:~# cd /var root@ECA:/var# mv core.* /* [clearly that trailing * was not meant to be there] [bunch of errors about target already existing] root@ECA:/var# ls -bash: /bin/ls: No such file or directory root@ECA:/var# So what do you do now? I was able to fix it in about 5 minutes without using anything other than what was on the running system? Interesting little problem. The original state of the system was: root@ECA:/var# ls -l / drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 9 11:47 bin drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 6 11:16 boot drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 2340 Dec 6 11:18 dev drwxr-xr-x 46 root root 4096 Dec 9 11:48 etc drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:09 home lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 5 12:09 init -> /sbin/init drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:09 lib drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:09 lib64 drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:09 lost+found drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 19 10:07 media drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:09 mnt drwxrwxrwx 6 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:24 opt drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:09 persistdata drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 May 25 2018 persistent dr-xr-xr-x 473 root root 0 Dec 6 11:17 proc drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Dec 9 11:38 root drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 780 Dec 6 11:18 run drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 9 11:47 sbin dr-xr-xr-x 11 root root 0 Dec 6 11:17 sys drwxrwxrwt 8 root root 400 Dec 11 12:14 tmp drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:09 usr drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 Dec 5 12:15 var -- Len Sorensen