diff --git a/sbin/init/init.c b/sbin/init/init.c
index a3cdcdcaa4c8..37125deb3477 100644
--- a/sbin/init/init.c
+++ b/sbin/init/init.c
@@ -506,7 +506,7 @@ has_securelevel(void)
 	len = sizeof curlevel;
 	if (sysctl(name, 2, &curlevel, &len, NULL, 0) == -1) {
 		/* If it doesn't exist, it's okay. */
-		if (errno == ENOENT) 
+		if (errno == ENOENT)
 			return 0;
 	}
 	return 1;
@@ -716,18 +716,26 @@ single_user(void)
 #ifdef ALTSHELL
 		(void)fprintf(stderr,
 		    "Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for %s: ", shell);
+
+// XXXNH doesn't work for me
 		if (fgets(altshell, sizeof(altshell), stdin) == NULL) {
 			altshell[0] = '\0';
+(void)fprintf(stderr, "altshell '%s' (true)\n", altshell);
 		} else {
+(void)fprintf(stderr, "altshell '%s' (false)\n", altshell);
 			/* nuke \n */
 			char *p;
 
 			if ((p = strchr(altshell, '\n')) != NULL)
 				*p = '\0';
+(void)fprintf(stderr, "altshell '%s' (false 2) %d\n", altshell, __LINE__);
 		}
 
 		if (altshell[0])
 			shell = altshell;
+(void)fprintf(stderr, "altshell '%s' %d\n", altshell, __LINE__);
+(void)fprintf(stderr, "   shell '%s' %d\n", shell, __LINE__);
+
 #endif /* ALTSHELL */
 
 		/*
@@ -745,9 +753,15 @@ single_user(void)
 		argv[0] = "-sh";
 		argv[1] = 0;
 		(void)setenv("PATH", INIT_PATH, 1);
+(void)fprintf(stderr, "    path '%s' %d\n", INIT_PATH, __LINE__);
 #ifdef ALTSHELL
+		argv[0] = shell;
 		if (altshell[0])
 			argv[0] = altshell;
+
+(void)fprintf(stderr, "altshell '%s' %d\n", altshell, __LINE__);
+(void)fprintf(stderr, "   shell '%s' %d\n", shell, __LINE__);
+
 		(void)execv(shell, __UNCONST(argv));
 		emergency("can't exec `%s' for single user: %m", shell);
 		argv[0] = "-sh";
@@ -798,11 +812,11 @@ single_user(void)
 		if (WTERMSIG(status) == SIGKILL) {
 			/* executed /sbin/reboot; wait for the end quietly */
 			sigset_t s;
-	
+
 			(void)sigfillset(&s);
 			for (;;)
 				(void)sigsuspend(&s);
-		} else {	
+		} else {
 			warning("single user shell terminated (%x), restarting",
 				status);
 			(void)sigaction(SIGTSTP, &satstp, NULL);
@@ -977,7 +991,7 @@ start_session_db(void)
 		return 1;
 	}
 	return 0;
-		
+
 }
 
 /*
@@ -1186,7 +1200,7 @@ read_ttys(void)
 		if (stat(_PATH_WTMPX, &st) != -1 && st.st_size != 0) {
 			struct timeval down_time;
 
-			TIMESPEC_TO_TIMEVAL(&down_time, 
+			TIMESPEC_TO_TIMEVAL(&down_time,
 			    st.st_atime > st.st_mtime ?
 			    &st.st_atimespec : &st.st_mtimespec);
 			make_utmpx("", DOWN_MSG, DOWN_TIME, 0, &down_time, 0);
@@ -1495,7 +1509,7 @@ multi_user(void)
 	/*
 	 * If the administrator has not set the security level to -1
 	 * to indicate that the kernel should not run multiuser in secure
-	 * mode, and the run script has not set a higher level of security 
+	 * mode, and the run script has not set a higher level of security
 	 * than level 1, then put the kernel into secure mode.
 	 */
 	if (getsecuritylevel() == 0)
@@ -1723,7 +1737,7 @@ mfs_dev(void)
 			(void)execl(INIT_BSHELL, "sh",
 			    access("./MAKEDEV", X_OK) == 0
 				? "./MAKEDEV" : "/etc/MAKEDEV",
-			    "-MM", "init", NULL); 
+			    "-MM", "init", NULL);
 		_exit(10);
 		/* NOTREACHED */