[TriLUG] Faking a reboot on a linux box

[sholton at mindspring.com]

Short version of a long story: 
There's a problem with an application I need to run on a server.

I access the application remotely from a linux box. 

The helpdesk for the application doesn't know what's broke or how to fix it, but their support script says to "tell the user to restart Widows and try again".

The helpdesk person apparently knows just enough *NIX to log in and check uptime. 

I don't want to reboot my box. I dead certain the problem is on the server.

I know about ' shutdown -k ' . I can disable and re-enable the network interface in case they're pinging it. But what else can I do to make it 'look' like I've rebooted, so that they move on to looking for the real problem?
 
Is there a way to reset the uptime counter to zero without rebooting the box?

echo "0" > /proc/uptime doesn't seem to have any effect.

Does anyone care to share any other 'tricks' along these lines?


-- 
sholton at mindspring.com
Innovation is a wildflower. You cannot choose where it will blossom; you can only choose where it will not.