mandriva 2006

di11rod · 01-05-2006, 12:38 AM

Had the power cut to my server the other day. Rebooted to superblock error. I think I fixed that, but my root partition had also been 100% full, so somehow I think /etc/fstab got hosed on one of these reboots. Anyway, now the only mount directive listed in /etc/fstab is for the cdrom drive. I need to re-add the different partitions because at boot it is erroring out with a problem mounting /

Is there a tool within the mandriva 2006 rescue or install that will look at my partition scheme and write a proper fstab file?

I know how to boot into the rescue console, etc. I also know how to use vi to edit the /etc/fstab file, but I don't know which partition should be which mount. lsparts shows them, but other than the swap, they aren't labelled for which should be /home /usr / and whatever.

Oh, yeah. I tried to use the mandriva 2006 install disk to 'upgrade' and when it gets to the 'partitions' section of the gui installer, it errors with-- 'an error occurred oops, no root partition.' with an 'ok' button. Then you can't do anything because everytime you click, 'ok', it just keeps displaying the same message. You have to shut off the computer to escape.

Any thoughts on this much appreciated!

di11rod

GlennsPref · 01-05-2006, 05:11 AM

Personally, I'd try a Live cd, like slax, or knoppix.

slax allows editing of the file system, True, if it can find one, you may be able to search for fstab from there and copy the file, by pen and paper if necessary.

Knoppix has a program, qtparted, that is a gui view of the drives and any labels, sizes etcetera.

Good luck!

equinox · 01-05-2006, 05:49 AM

Just adapt to mine:

Code:

# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
/dev/hda5 / reiserfs notail,noatime 1 1
/dev/hda7 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/hdb /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda8 /usr reiserfs notail,noatime 1 2
/dev/hda9 /var reiserfs notail,noatime 1 2
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

GlennsPref · 01-05-2006, 06:16 AM

Not too sure that would work equinox, what if it has a sata drive amongst it (sda) or most probably windows on a another partition and maybe ext2 formatting.

Nice guesture though.

equinox · 01-05-2006, 06:20 AM

As I said, adapt to mine lol! Sorry for helping I guess...

equinox · 01-05-2006, 06:22 AM

If he boot's with any Linux cd which can give him a console he can do "fdisk -l" and "cat /proc/partitions". Then he can adjust the options according to my fstab. Really it's not difficult!

carl0ski · 01-05-2006, 06:30 AM

heres mine

Code:

/dev/hda5 / reiserfs notail 1 1
/dev/hda1 /boot reiserfs notail 1 2
/dev/sda1 /home reiserfs notail 1 2
/dev/sda5 /media/movies ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/sda6 /media/storage reiserfs notail 1 2
/dev/hdb /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 /media/oldusr reiserfs notail 1 2
/dev/hdd2 /var xfs defaults 1 2
/dev/hdd5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/media/storage/LinuxNecessities/Mandriva2006DVDx86_64/Mandriva-Linux-Powerpack-2006-DVD.x86_64.iso /Mandriva/ iso9660 loop 0 0

GlennsPref · 01-05-2006, 07:55 AM

Point Taken

di11rod · 01-05-2006, 04:14 PM

Thanks a lot for throwing these ideas out for me..

I am thinking my drive is OK but this fstab thing is the only problem. Maybe lilo bootloader, too? I don't have a windows partition or an SATA drive. Just three ext3 partitions and then a swap. Frustratingly, I don't remember which partition should mount to what... that's why I was hoping their was a tool that would look at the partitions and recommend an FSTAB setup.

I guess tonight I'll just try different combinations of / /etc /home /swap mount points for each of the partitions until I get it right.

Two other tangential questions related to this challenge-- I downloaded Knoppix and uncompressed it (CDROM version), but can't seem to make a bootable disk using NERO. the cdrom it makes mounts in windows and I can see the files, etc. but the computer won't boot it and all the relevant info seems to be in german.. any pointers for this would be appreciated.

Is there anything free that does the job of Mount Everything 3.5 other than r-linux? I'd like to at least copy all my stuff off this drive before anything else happens.

Appreciatively,

Seth

GlennsPref · 01-05-2006, 04:45 PM

Don't uncompress the image, Leave it as an ISO. In nero use burn new image and point it to the knoppix iso.

di11rod · 01-06-2006, 02:42 AM

fstab was the trick....

I used knoppix live CD and qtparted to examine the hard drive to deduce what mount points should be assigned to which paritions. Got it all running. Thanks so much for the advice, guys. Also, to anyone else reading this...

rebooting with a 100% full root partition can cause you to lose the settings in /etc/fstab

you will see an error about trying to mount / at boot. Running e2fsck doesn't do much for this problem. You need to boot from the Mandriva disc 1, press alt 1, then type rescue, then mount your partitions, then go to rescue console. Then edit /etc/fstab to add your partition info. lsparts command can help tell you what you got.

I couldn't write the /etc/fstab using Knoppix because it had mounted the partitions read only. Didn't know how to unmount and remount them. Knoppix is way cool. Much thanks to those folks and the cool people giving out answers on this forum!

Seth

equinox · 01-06-2006, 03:10 AM

You welcome, glad you came right.

GlennsPref · 01-06-2006, 08:56 AM

Cool!I glad it worked out,

In knoppix, you have to su to root to get write permisions, I think.

now I might get a view of those enticing skate sites.

di11rod · 01-06-2006, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlennsPref

In knoppix, you have to su to root to get write permisions, I think.

Glenn,

Yeah, I tried suing, but I'm pretty condident it was a mount issue. As root I still got a 'read only' error when I was trying to save /etc/fstab in vi. Didn't spend much time struggling with it, though, because I knew I could boot with the Mandriva disk to edit that file.

Again, thanks for the guidance. The two big things you guys helped me with was directing me to Knoppix and explaining how to write the disc and also giving me the /etc/fstab examples and telling me about qtparted.

Appreciatively,

di11rod

Lakota · 01-10-2006, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by di11rod

rebooting with a 100% full root partition can cause you to lose the settings in /etc/fstab

Not sure this is of any use to you since you are talking about a server, don't know if you even have a gui on it. I have noticed over the last few days that there have been a number of threads here and in newbies that people are reporting full root partitions and loss of gui or worse. Got me thinking of KdiskFree. That is still installed in the menu, just not running on start up. I forget if it was one, two or three versions ago that Mandriva had it set to run on boot by default, but not anymore. It shows how full your partitions are and if any get critically full, it gives a pop up balloon to warn you. Would keep those running gui's from this nasty surprise.