Hey...

I'm installing Gentoo from a live-CD. I have some experience with UNIX, but this is my first time w/ a fresh install. I've got my partitions created and file systems applied. However, when I try to mount them, I get:

mount: only root can do that

I'd assume that the install CD gives me superuser permissions. I can't exactly log in as root until I finish installing, right?

Where is my fail?

EDIT: I'm avoiding the installation GUI because I want the experience of installing from command line

Could you give the precise command that produces this error?
There's a thread from 2005 here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-mount-288252/ that describes a similar problem. You might want to look at it.

Hi,
Welcome to LQ!

If you have the system installed then you should be able to login as root or via the 'su' command with the proper password.

I prefer Slackware as this provides me with a 'UNIX' experience. Some feel that 'BSD' is a better fit. Each to his own.

This link and others are available from 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Thanks UncleT,

I did read that thread, but I wasn't sure it would help me since this is a clean install over an old Windows machine.

The exact command was: mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo

wombat7477,

Only root can make parttions and filesystems too.

When you say 'liveCD' do you min a minimal CD, which only gives you a root shell and the tools you need to install or do you mean the GUI Installer CD, which you are using to do a conventional stage3 install.
You get a root shell on that by opening an xterm and doing

Yeah, in the thread I referred to, something was *already mounted* on /mnt/gentoo, but the mount command gave the wrong error message and complicated matters.
Are you sure that there's nothing mounted on /mnt/gentoo already? Run the
mount
command with no options to make sure.

Oh, I see what you mean, Uncle T. But there was not anything mounted on that path.

Neddy - I am using a live-cd that takes me to a GUI, so I'm assuming it's the 2nd of the two options. At any rate, your sudo suggestion was right on. I was able to mount the partitions that way.

But in my floundering, I ran across something else that is concerning me. I thought the problem was that I didn't take action when the 'login' screen, so I was automatically logged in as user 'gentoo'. I tried re-starting and logging in as 'root'. I have no idea what the password should be. I tried just hitting <enter> as the gentoo website suggested. I also tried 'root' and 'password'. I'm stumped, but I don't want to forge ahead when I may end up with no access to the root account

Nevermind, I was able to use passwd after using su to establish a new password. Thanks for all the replies!