Linux - GeneralThis Linux forum is for general Linux questions and discussion.
If it is Linux Related and doesn't seem to fit in any other forum then this is the place.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Did a bonehead thing and screwed with my fstab file and then rebooted.
When it gets to the "checking root filesytem" section on boot it errors out with.
fsck.ext2/:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 fielsystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock: e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
: Is a directory while tryign to open /
Then it asks for password to get a shell or reboots.
I go on in to the shell and I'm at the (Repair filesystem) 1# prompt.
>mount
/dev/hda2 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
But when I try to go to /etc to edit the fstab and put it back how it was, it loads up fine, but when I try to save it says [Cannot open file for writing: Read-only file system ]
So I'm pretty sure I can get the fstab back to how it was if I can figure out how to get the system in RW mode, but from mount it looks like it is.
Rather lost at this point, appreciate any help folks.
/dev/hda1 = /boot
/dev/hda2 = /
/dev/hda3 = swap
/dev/hda4 = Dunno, fdisk says its a win95 extended, but this box has nothing but rh73 on it, and this partition is exact same size as hda5
/dev/hda5 = /var
I'm afraid I don't have any info on LABEL, the system added those during install with disk druid.
The first thing I did was edit the /etc/fstab file to the /dev/hdXX stuff as the label stuff confused me and wasn't informative. Redhat and Mandy do some strange things...
I'm having a problem similar to Vengent and also did a bonehead thing....ended up saving the fstab file with erroneous characters in the first line. When booting into RH 9 does not get past trying to boot the root partition. I know what I have to change in /etc/fstab, but I can't gain write access to the file.
I've tried rescue mode, but it won't load sysimage. The shell I get dropped into doesn't contain the /etc/fstab file.
I know my first line is messed up, but I think I'm missing my second line as well...referring to LABEL=/boot
easiest way? download one of the run-from-cd distros like Knoppix or Demo Linux... boot one of these up. (SuSE also has one over at linuxiso.org). These will typically mount all the viewable drives they can see... from there you should be able to edit fstab.
OR, when you are dropped into rescue mode (or boot from a floppy) you can mount the partition you know has the fstab file on it and go from there.
P.S. does anyone know why its so hard to find the linux distros that run from floppies these days?
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.