Directory names and volume labels are two different things.
The root volume label is /
The boot volume label is /boot

According to the previous output of fdisk you posted your old / is hda3 so.
tune2fs -L /boot_old /dev/hda3

I'm still trying to figure out what exactly happened in the first place.

Root is supposed to contain everything, so no.
I'm also sure this command didn't cause all his problems(tried it myself).
cd //
cd /
cd ////////
cd /////////////////
they all do the same...
What exactly were you doing when it happened?

what was i doing: it was so long ago but I was updatiing /var/named files (copying them perhaps caused the problem?)

trickykid "I told you so"'s are definitely in order here. i really screwed up

regarding how i actually screwed up, i will gladly post my history for everyone's amusement. if there is anyway to get to the history frm the rescue disk, i'd be glad to identify what i did do we could better diagnoxe the problem.

regarding mv -Rd '*/' *

There is no recursive argument for mv according to the man page.

That's ok thoug if it means i just have to repeat the command s for each of my 19 directoies (I.I repeat this command 19 time for).

bin , dev , home , lib , misc, opt root , selinux , tmp , var ,
boot , etc , initrd, lost+found , mnt , proc ,, sbin , sys , usr

I don't think this is the solution. All the directories look fine. It only when I am in the directories that the trailing / shows on the prompt (it even did it when i mounted the old hard drive has hdb (it was an easy way to keep track of the two parallel file structures in the terminal.

Yes, please do. Now this is definitely something to avoid...


Oops, sorry . Then I'm mixing up something ... is there a command like ren(ame)?


Hm. Not sure, since "cd" could not have the effect you described. Please post your history first. Also mount your disk from a rescue system und do a "ls -al" to verify the effect for the 19 directories mentioned and make sure it does not concern subdirectories. Perhaps even better "cd" into some of them and do a "pwd" or use a graphical tool (Konquereor or some such) to view the adresses it displays. If it is just the 19 uppermost ones a simple "mv '*/' *" should do.

mv is by definition recursive. If I move a folder, it moves the entire contents, not just the folder.

i have not slept in 48 hours (i'll try and post back when i'm a little more coherent). YUCK. THanks to all for all you help.

the system boote after trying the "mv" commands. The directories now now longer have the trailing / when i display them in the terminal.
For example, [root@testy root]# NOT [root@testy root/]#

what is currious, is that the directories never displayed that way under the rescue prompt.. It only displayed that way when I was working in the directory immediately before the problem started and when the directory was mounted as follows as a slave to a clean install (i wanted to make sure that I had the data back up on the new drive before i messed with the file system): here is how i mounted the newly slaved hard drive.
# mkdir /mnt/hdb2
# mkdir /mnt/hdb3
# mount /dev/hdb2 /mnt/hdb2
# mount /dev/hdb3 /mnt/hdb3

I did a history > screwup.txt and am looking over the file. i don't see anything that could cause a problem sufficient to make the operating system freeze up and refuse to boot.. email me and i'll send you a copy maw ^ substantis.com.

also, it's my udnerstanding that history is terminal specific and i'm always working with a bunch. could someone tell me how to correlate the history by time. is there a log file with time references?

thanks.

PS the rescue disk apparently screwed up some of the drivers (my nic showed up in lspci but not lsmod). i had to modprobe my card after the system rebooted successfully.

I keep getting a cryptic error message.

i'm sorry that i haven't gotten back with the promised history. my server started dying immediately after i letf my last report. i was not able to recaputre the history from the various terminals I was using. I f someone can tel me where these files reside, i will make another attempt. the server started generating a lot of innode errors which were fsck was not able to fix. finally its stopped mount hda5 (swap) altogether.

in the process of another all nigher, i unfortunately made the same mistake again and have copied it from the terminal for your review.

[root@testy temp]# cd //
[root@testy //]# ;s
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;'
[root@testy //]# cd //
[root@testy //]#

It is just some bug in the way bash handles the display, you are *not* changing your filesytem with the cd command.

darthtux@poseidon ~ $ cd /////////
darthtux@poseidon / $ ls
bin cdrom etc initrd lib media opt root srv tmp var
boot dev home initrd.img lost+found mnt proc sbin sys usr vmlinuz
darthtux@poseidon / $ cd ///
darthtux@poseidon / $ cd //
darthtux@poseidon // $ pwd
//
darthtux@poseidon // $ cd /
darthtux@poseidon / $ ls
bin cdrom etc initrd lib media opt root srv tmp var
boot dev home initrd.img lost+found mnt proc sbin sys usr vmlinuz
darthtux@poseidon / $ cd
darthtux@poseidon ~ $

but my applications stopped working and my hard drive totally failed (as did my back ups). Ouch!

two lessons learned:

don't be a super user unless you have to be

i need to spend more time on backup and recovery planning