Stuck at creating the LFS user

DavidMcCann · 03-15-2010, 01:37 PM

At section 4.3 of the manual I've already run into a problem:
chown -v lfs $LFS/tools
chown: cannot dereference `/tools': Too many levels of symbolic links
failed to change ownership of `/tools' to lfs

chown -v lfs $LFS/sources
chown: cannot access `/sources': No such file or directory
failed to change ownership of `/sources' to lfs

I then tried
ls $LFS
and got my home directory. I never quite understood
ln -sv $LFS/tools /
and it looks like the computer is in the same boat.

Where should I go from here? The answer "stick to Fedora" is the first to occur to me

smoker · 03-15-2010, 02:00 PM

I have no experience with LFS, so bear that in mind.

The symlink
ln -sv $LFS/tools /
is linking $LFS/tools to the root directory /

Then you are chowning $LFS/tools
which is chowning the entire root and presumably the symlink too.

What is $LFS
echo $LFS

crts · 03-15-2010, 02:43 PM

Hi,

you probably missed this command in chapter 4.1.

Code:

export LFS=/mnt/lfs

Assumed, that you followed the instructions and mounted your LFS partition as the book suggests. Keep in mind, that if you reboot your computer or just open another terminal you will have to issue that command again.

DavidMcCann · 03-15-2010, 04:09 PM

crts: I didn't miss anything, and I put the command in .bashrc to avoid the problem you suggest.

smoker: I thought the command looked odd, but the book says
"The above command is correct. The ln command has a few syntactic variations, so be sure to check info coreutils ln and ln(1) before reporting what you may think is an error."
so I took it on trust. May I politely suggest that you do not answer posts where you admittedly have no experience, especially when that takes the post out of the unanswered threads category. No harm was done in this case, but it can be very annoying.

charlie_lab · 03-15-2010, 04:28 PM

Oke,

What happens when you do :

echo $LFS

Roelof

crts · 03-15-2010, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann

... so I took it on trust.

... and you can. I build my LFS with that same syntax for that command.
Now let's do some sanity checks first because your problem sounds really strange.
So first please post the output of

Code:

echo $LFS
mount
ls -l /
ls -l /mnt
ls -l /mnt/lfs

Now when you did

Code:

ls $LFS

was your current directory also your home directory?

Quote:

I never quite understood
ln -sv $LFS/tools /

Ok, this is a tricky one and I am not referring to the syntax. What it actually does, is to create a symlink in your / directory, which looks like

Code:

/tools -> /mnt/lfs/tools

When you build your toolchain you will configure your packages with target prefix /tools. So everything will link against /tools. Later, when you build your real LFS you will chroot into /mnt/lfs. This will be your new / directory. Would we have configured with prefix /mnt/lfs/tools then the toolchain would not work in the chrooted environment. All programs would expect their binaries and shared objects etc. to be in /mnt/lfs/tools which became just /tools in the chrooted environment.
Hope I explained it in an understandable manner.

P.S.: Please post also your hostsystem and the version of the LFS book

smoker · 03-15-2010, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann

smoker: I thought the command looked odd, but the book says
"The above command is correct. The ln command has a few syntactic variations, so be sure to check info coreutils ln and ln(1) before reporting what you may think is an error."
so I took it on trust. May I politely suggest that you do not answer posts where you admittedly have no experience, especially when that takes the post out of the unanswered threads category. No harm was done in this case, but it can be very annoying.

May I suggest you read the error messages.

druuna · 03-16-2010, 02:04 AM

Hi,

Quote:

chown -v lfs $LFS/tools
chown: cannot dereference `/tools': Too many levels of symbolic links
failed to change ownership of `/tools' to lfs

chown -v lfs $LFS/sources
chown: cannot access `/sources': No such file or directory
failed to change ownership of `/sources' to lfs

The bold parts should point to $LFS/tools and $LFS/sources (if LFS is /mnt/lfs, it should for example point to /mnt/lfs/tools). For both the $LFS part is missing.

You did not (correctly) set the LFS variable.

Hope this helps.

prashantdawar · 11-05-2012, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann

At section 4.3 of the manual I've already run into a problem:
chown -v lfs $LFS/tools
chown: cannot dereference `/tools': Too many levels of symbolic links
failed to change ownership of `/tools' to lfs

chown -v lfs $LFS/sources
chown: cannot access `/sources': No such file or directory
failed to change ownership of `/sources' to lfs

I then tried
ls $LFS
and got my home directory. I never quite understood
ln -sv $LFS/tools /
and it looks like the computer is in the same boat.

Where should I go from here? The answer "stick to Fedora" is the first to occur to me

Quote:

Originally Posted by crts

... and you can. I build my LFS with that same syntax for that command.
Now let's do some sanity checks first because your problem sounds really strange.
So first please post the output of

Code:

echo $LFS
mount
ls -l /
ls -l /mnt
ls -l /mnt/lfs

Now when you did

Code:

ls $LFS

was your current directory also your home directory?

Ok, this is a tricky one and I am not referring to the syntax. What it actually does, is to create a symlink in your / directory, which looks like

Code:

/tools -> /mnt/lfs/tools

When you build your toolchain you will configure your packages with target prefix /tools. So everything will link against /tools. Later, when you build your real LFS you will chroot into /mnt/lfs. This will be your new / directory. Would we have configured with prefix /mnt/lfs/tools then the toolchain would not work in the chrooted environment. All programs would expect their binaries and shared objects etc. to be in /mnt/lfs/tools which became just /tools in the chrooted environment.
Hope I explained it in an understandable manner.

P.S.: Please post also your hostsystem and the version of the LFS book

Quote:

Originally Posted by druuna

Hi,

The bold parts should point to $LFS/tools and $LFS/sources (if LFS is /mnt/lfs, it should for example point to /mnt/lfs/tools). For both the $LFS part is missing.

You did not (correctly) set the LFS variable.

Hope this helps.

Simply remove the earlier created symlink and then do this

Code:

root@dell-OptiPlex-780:/home/dell# rm -rf /tools
root@dell-OptiPlex-780:/home/dell# cd /mnt/lfs/tools
root@dell-OptiPlex-780:/mnt/lfs# chown -v lfs tools
changed ownership of `tools' from dell to lfs
root@dell-OptiPlex-780:/mnt/lfs# ln -sv $LFS/tools /
`/tools' -> `/tools'

Hey click the yes button buddy>>>

stoat · 11-05-2012, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prashantdawar

Hey click the yes button buddy>>>

Oops. I clicked the Report button. Sorry.