I have a SLES9 box that boots-up and gives me tons of warnings that the file system is now read-only. Logging-in as root is a bit rocky, but works after a warning message about R/O status. Once logged-in, I can traverse the folders, but nothing runs. STARTX returns a FATAL ERROR stating that /VAR is read-only, and could not create the necessary temp files.

I am not certain what changed. I am really focused on getting back to an operating state. Suggestions?


Linux rookie...

It almost sounds as if someone changed global permissions...

To start:
cd / this puts you at the top of the filesystem tree
ls -l lists all directories and permissions

It should look something like this (partial listing):
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 27 04:02 bin
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 Nov 1 13:39 boot
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 11 2005 dell
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 5820 Feb 1 09:03 dev
drwxr-xr-x 81 root root 12288 Feb 1 08:54 etc
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Nov 10 10:09 home
...etc
What this is saying is that the high-level directories are owned by "root"--ie the system--and that root has read/write/execute privileges---mere mortals can only read and execute. If you have something radically different, you will need to fix it "from the top".

There are different ways of doing this--I am not well versed in all of them. Here is one over-simplified example:

su to become root, and issue the command: chmod 755 / This will change all directories in /, but will not go deeper.
To go deeper, there is chmod -R xxx dirname Look at man chmod to understand how to control the depth of recursion.
Others will surely suggest more tools to get things fixed.

Note: In all cases, **directories** must be executable by all---eg to see what is in a directory--even if you lack read or write privileges--you must have execute privilege.

Are your filesystems dirty and need manual intervention to be cleaned?

If the whole filesystem is read only, this is probably the case.

If so, boot into single user mode and run fsck.

Thanks.

Looks worse than can be recovered. Fcsk won't run. Even booting from Knoppix CD fails to gain access to the volume. I'm punting. Rebuilding from array on up.

I feel very much so like the pig being taught to sing...


Phil

Don't feel bad. Installing the operating system from scratch is the first skill that most of us got good at through repetition. It's always available if you can't figure out what went wrong. When you realize that you can always install everything from scratch then you aren't so reluctant to try things, and that's when the learning kicks into high gear.