Subject: Success!!!!!!!!!!!

From: Ian Hinder <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 22:18:20 +0100

Much as I hate subject lines full of exclamation marks, I feel this
warrants it!

When I used the *unregistered* version of deltanet, I was able to
generate full logging messages, and it was only then that I found that
the installer was expecting the files to be in

<specified>/RedHat/base/*

I had not realised about the RedHat bit...

I managed to get as far as it moaning about not finding files, rather
than hanging before transferring anything.  More useful error messages
on the client side might have been be helpful though... :-)

Now, the hard bit. Either I download all the packages from the
internet over a 28K modem, someone releases a CD (in which case
all this will be academic anyway) or I find some other way of
getting the files...

I was wondering if anyone with a fast connection would mind copying
them onto a few zip discs for me?  They are only 100Mb each, so
one would not be enough.  Does any kind soul have a zip drive and
a fast internet connection?  Obviously I'll pay full postage costs
etc.

Thanks for any help!

-- 
I a n  H i n d e r
[email-masked]

---

From: Ian Hinder <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 01:10:23 +0100

In message <[email-masked]>
> a fast internet connection?  Obviously I'll pay full postage costs

Public thanks to the two people who kindly offered to do this.  I now
have the necessary files and this evening attempted an installation...

I got as far as the "can't find kernel" problem mentioned before
on this list, and diligently followed the instructions given.

I copied the kernel onto a DOS disc (dismounting it afterwards!) and
booted up linux.  The last few lines of the startup screen were:

  Activating swap partitions
  hostname: localhost
  Checking root filesystems
  /etc/fstab: No such file or directory

It then prompted me to either log in as root to correct the problem,
or ctrl-D to reboot Risc OS.  Being in an adventurous mood, I logged
in as root, but I couldn't do much because the hard disc seemed to
be in a permanently write-protected state.  I tried

  mcopy a:/kernel /vmlinux

But it said something along the lines of

Can't open /vmlinux for writing
File 'kernel' not found

I created the /etc/boot.conf file in emacs, but when I tried to save
it I was told that the filing system was read-only.

Any ideas?  It sounds like a file that should have been copied (fstab)
wasn't.  I'm guessing that it means filing system table, so perhaps it
contains info about the r/w status of the filing systems??  If so,
this could explain the problems.

Is there some way I can get this file installed, or can I generate it
myself?

-- 
I a n  H i n d e r
[email-masked]

---

From: Joseph Heenan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 10:48:40 +0100

In message <[email-masked]>
          Ian Hinder <[email-masked]> wrote:

> [big snip]

Try something like mount -n -o remount,rw /
-n => don't update fstab (can't, cos the partition is ro atm)
-o => options, which are remount(because it's already mounted,
      and rw (read-write).

and the / is the filesystem you want to remount.

> Is there some way I can get this file installed, or can I generate it

I'm not sure why it wasn't generated by the installer - it was
created okay when I installed, although that was with an earlier
version.

see man 5 fstab for the fileformat, but basically there should be a
line something like:

/dev/hda3    /                  ext2   defaults            1 2
(partition   where              type   options           something to
                                                        do with fsck)
With the partition changed as appropriate.

Cheers,

Joseph

-- 
Joseph Heenan, Coventry, UK

---

From: Ian Hinder <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 14:03:36 +0100

In message <[email-masked]>

> and the / is the filesystem you want to remount.

  mount -n -o remount,rw /

gives the error

  mount: can't find / in /etc/mtab or /etc/fstab

:-(

> > Any ideas?  It sounds like a file that should have been copied
> > (fstab) wasn't.  I'm guessing that it means filing system table,
> > so perhaps it contains info about the r/w status of the filing
> > systems??  If so, this could explain the problems.
> > 
> > Is there some way I can get this file installed, or can I generate
> > it myself?
> 

Unfortunately I can't add this file because the system is read-only,
and I can't mount it as r/w because this file isn't present!  GRRRRR!

I suppose what I need is either an installer which *does* write the
correct file, or a way of mounting the disc that does not need either
of these files to be present.

-- 
I a n  H i n d e r
[email-masked]

---

From: Ale Terlevich <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 15:19:51 +0100 (BST)

> be in a permanently write-protected state.  I tried

  Oops!  Forgot about that when I described how I'd booten Linux for the 
first time.  You need to run fsck to check the disks, but you can't 
because you have no /etc/fstab file and you can't write it cos / has been 
mounted read only.  The solution is to remount / as readwrite and to 
write a fstab by hand, then you can run fsck....

To remount / use

mount -n -o remount,rw /dev/hda3 /

then create /etc/fstab

 Here's mine...

/dev/hda4               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/hda3               /                       ext2    defaults        1 1
none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0

 Once you have created this, you can reboot the machine, and the rest 
should happen on its own!

  Good luck!

Ale.

---

From: Ale Terlevich <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 15:25:10 +0100 (BST)

>   mount: can't find / in /etc/mtab or /etc/fstab

  Yes, you need 
mount -n -o remount,rw /dev/hda3 /
as mount looks in /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab for what device corresponts to 
/ if you don't explicitly tell it.

  You may have a different device (i.e. not /dev/hda3) for root, but 
/dev/hda3 is the most common (Partition 3 on first IDE HD).

Ale.

---

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 16:14:46 +0100 (BST)

>   mount: can't find / in /etc/mtab or /etc/fstab

Okay, try the full form:

or whatever your root device is. (cat /proc/mounts to find out if you
don't know)

I wonder if there's a good reason mount doesn't look in /proc...

Joseph

-- 
Joseph Heenan, Computer Systems Engineering Student, Warwick Uni
email - [email-masked]   [email-masked]
www   - http://www.csv.warwick.ac.uk/~esuvf/

---

From: Ian Hinder <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 16:25:23 +0100

In message <[email-masked]>

> should happen on its own!

Great!  I remounted the disc and created the /etc/fstab file, and the
next time I booted it ran fsck etc and got all the way to the login
prompt!

(It didn't ask me for a password for the root account though, which is
slightly disconcerting)

I successfully copied the kernel to /vmlinux as the disc is now
writable.  I also created the /etc/boot.conf file and saved it, but
when I tried to do

  loadmap -v

It said

  parse error
  Root device: /dev/root
  open root device: No such file or directory

I'm probably being ignorant here; the original article said to do

loadmap -v

- were other arguments implied?

-- 
I a n  H i n d e r
[email-masked]

---

From: Russell King - ARM Linux Admin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 21:39:43 +0100 (BST)

> I wonder if there's a good reason mount doesn't look in /proc...

Not quite.  /proc/mounts reports:

/dev/root / ext2 rw 0 0
none /proc proc rw 0 0
raistlin:(pid202) /home nfs rw,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=8,retrans=110,acregmin=0,acregmax=0,acdirmin
=0,acdirmax=0,intr,noac,addr=pid202@raistlin:/home 0 0
tanis:/var/spool/mail /a/tanis/var/spool/mail nfs rw,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,addr=tanis 0 0
tanis:/a/tanis/home/tanis /a/tanis/a/tanis/home/tanis nfs rw,rsize=8192,wsize=8192,addr=tanis 0 0

/dev/root???  Hmmm.  You probably don't have a link for that, and it's not
actually a good idea to use symbolic links or hard links for mounting
filesystems.

The other reason is that /etc/mtab is actually locked while mounting/
unmounting filesystems, and is written to (hence the need for -n when
root fs is readonly).  It's all part of ensuring that two mount commands
(eg, an automounter and a mount) cannot do two things at once.
   _____
  |_____| ------------------------------------------------- ---+---+-
  |   |       Russell King        [email-masked]         --- ---
  | | | | http://whirligig.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~rmk92/home.html  /  /  |
  | +-+-+                                                     --- -+-
  /   |               THE developer of ARM Linux              |+| /|\
 /  | | |                                                     ---  |
    +-+-+ -------------------------------------------------  /\\\  |

---

From: Russell King - ARM Linux Admin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 21:46:12 +0100 (BST)

> - were other arguments implied?

No other arguments required at all.  The `parse error' indicates that
loadmap was not able to parse your configuration (/etc/boot.conf) file.
Check that it is similar to the others suggested on the mailing list and
the example on the FAQ web page.

The second problem is:  with that version of loadmap, you'll probably get
a SEGV if you try to specify a config {} section.  The solution is to
omit the config {} section, and create a symbolic link from /dev/root to
your root device, eg:

  cd /dev
  ln -s hda3 root

Replacing hda3 with your root filesystem device.
   _____

---

From: Russell King - ARM Linux Admin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 21:34:45 +0100 (BST)

> created okay when I installed, although that was with an earlier

It was created by the installer, but you reset *before* the filesystems
had flushed out the changes to the disk.  Unix systems use write-behind
caching on the drives as well as read-ahead caching.

It is unfortunate that the RedHat installer looks good, but is in actual
fact rather #$!@ when it comes to error handling (eg, if the installer
itself exits for any reason then the RedHat `init' program decides to
reboot your machine *without* checking for mounted filesystems.  Hence
the tacky 'Reboot' message that some people have seen, since this
action is currently extremely silly!)

The solution is *before* rebooting (as it says on the FAQ) to type
/mnt/bin/sync on console 2 (Alt-F2).  This will tell Linux to flush out
all dirty cached data to the disk, and make it `less' dangerous to
reboot.

And yes, I know, you reboot and then look at the FAQ, and I know the
RH installer is broken severely.
   _____
  |_____| ------------------------------------------------- ---+---+-
  |   |       Russell King        [email-masked]         --- ---
  | | | | http://whirligig.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~rmk92/home.html  /  /  |
  | +-+-+                                                     --- -+-
  /   |               THE developer of ARM Linux              |+| /|\
 /  | | |                                                     ---  |
    +-+-+ -------------------------------------------------  /\\\  |

---

From: Ale Terlevich <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 12:11:05 +0100 (BST)

> (It didn't ask me for a password for the root account though, which is

  Excellent. Just change the root password.

>   open root device: No such file or directory

  Ok. Yet another step I missed out from the original post!

  You need to link /dev/root to your root partition device

i.e.

cd /dev
ln -s hda3 root

  This should now work.

P.s. here's my /etc/boot.conf

# Linux 2.0.30 block with no ramdisk.
kernel {
        name = "Linux 2.0.30";
        path = "/vmlinux";
        root = "/dev/hda3";
        ramdisk = 0;
        flags = readonly;
};

---

From: Ian Hinder <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 12:06:05 +0100

In message <[email-masked]>

> Replacing hda3 with your root filesystem device.

This works!  Now, where's the best place to go to learn about using
linux?

-- 
I a n  H i n d e r
[email-masked]

---

From: Ale Terlevich <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 14:05:33 +0100 (BST)

> This works!  Now, where's the best place to go to learn about using

  Dunno really, It's one of those things I never really learnt, just 
picked it up!

  You could do worse than browsing through the linux documentation 
project though...

http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/linux.html

  Probably some redhat specific sufff would be more useful though, as 
redhat (What we use) is in many ways quite different from other Linux 
distributions like Slackware.

Ale.