FSTAB Hell

[Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX]

If some problem develops with /etc/fstab Fedora stops loading
and offers to either invoke a single user shell or reboot.

Unfortunately the single user shell is on a readonly filesystem.
This defeats the purpose of going single user to fix it, doesn't it?

This happens with the current Rawhide and back to at least FC7.

Ubuntu allows one to proceed under this condition.

-- 
Chuck Forsberg    caf(a)omen.com   www.omen.com   503-614-0430
Developer of Industrial ZMODEM(Tm) for Embedded Applications
  Omen Technology Inc      "The High Reliability Software"
10255 NW Old Cornelius Pass Portland OR 97231   FAX [phone]

[John Summerfield]

Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
>  If some problem develops with /etc/fstab Fedora stops loading
>  and offers to either invoke a single user shell or reboot.
>  
>  Unfortunately the single user shell is on a readonly filesystem.
>  This defeats the purpose of going single user to fix it, doesn't it? 
No.
Your inability to cope is the issue. It's not hard to fsck as you think 
necessary (which requires do), to mount rw if you need to edit fstab.

Best you learn to read the documentation before whining here.


-- 

Cheers
John

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[Andrew Farris]

John Summerfield wrote:
>  Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
> > If some problem develops with /etc/fstab Fedora stops loading
> > and offers to either invoke a single user shell or reboot.
> >
> > Unfortunately the single user shell is on a readonly filesystem.
> > This defeats the purpose of going single user to fix it, doesn't it?
>  
>  No.
>  Your inability to cope is the issue. It's not hard to fsck as you think 
>  necessary (which requires do), to mount rw if you need to edit fstab.
>  
>  Best you learn to read the documentation before whining here. 
You know John, while thats possibly accurate, this is the test list for people 
who are volunteering to let updates break their system to ask questions on; its 
where breakage whine is supposed to be.

-- 
Andrew Farris <lordmorgul(a)gmail.com&gt; www.lordmorgul.net
  gpg 0xC99B1DF3 fingerprint CDEC 6FAD BA27 40DF 707E A2E0 F0F6 E622 C99B 1DF3
No one now has, and no one will ever again get, the big picture. - Daniel Geer
----                                                                       ----

[John Summerfield]

Andrew Farris wrote:
>  John Summerfield wrote:
> > Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
> >> If some problem develops with /etc/fstab Fedora stops loading
> >> and offers to either invoke a single user shell or reboot.
> >>
> >> Unfortunately the single user shell is on a readonly filesystem.
> >> This defeats the purpose of going single user to fix it, doesn't it?
> >
> > No.
> > Your inability to cope is the issue. It's not hard to fsck as you 
> > think necessary (which requires do), to mount rw if you need to edit 
> > fstab.
> >
> > Best you learn to read the documentation before whining here.
>  
>  You know John, while thats possibly accurate, this is the test list for 
>  people who are volunteering to let updates break their system to ask 
>  questions on; its where breakage whine is supposed to be. 
It's even more important that people read their documentation and learn 
to rely on their own problem-solving skills rather than on others'.

Many times I've done things likely to break Linux systems, and I learned 
by reading up on how to fix them again.  Installing glibc for RHL 6.0 on 
RHL 5.2 was just one of them.



-- 

Cheers
John

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[Andrew Farris]

Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
>  If some problem develops with /etc/fstab Fedora stops loading
>  and offers to either invoke a single user shell or reboot.
>  
>  Unfortunately the single user shell is on a readonly filesystem.
>  This defeats the purpose of going single user to fix it, doesn't it?
>  
>  This happens with the current Rawhide and back to at least FC7.
>  
>  Ubuntu allows one to proceed under this condition. 
There is actually good reason not to mount rw automatically in that situation; 
what ubuntu is doing is perhaps reasonable (for a target audience), but is 
inherently risky as well.  Their choice there, I would argue, would be the wrong 
one for Fedora.  Mounting ro first gives you ample opportunity to access the 
situation before deciding if you need to go to an external rescue environment 
rather than mount the broken one rw... possibly saving some of your data.

-- 
Andrew Farris <lordmorgul(a)gmail.com&gt; www.lordmorgul.net
  gpg 0xC99B1DF3 fingerprint CDEC 6FAD BA27 40DF 707E A2E0 F0F6 E622 C99B 1DF3
No one now has, and no one will ever again get, the big picture. - Daniel Geer
----                                                                       ----

[John Summerfield]

Andrew Farris wrote:
>  Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
> > If some problem develops with /etc/fstab Fedora stops loading
> > and offers to either invoke a single user shell or reboot.
> >
> > Unfortunately the single user shell is on a readonly filesystem.
> > This defeats the purpose of going single user to fix it, doesn't it?
> >
> > This happens with the current Rawhide and back to at least FC7.
> >
> > Ubuntu allows one to proceed under this condition.
>  
>  There is actually good reason not to mount rw automatically in that 
>  situation; what ubuntu is doing is perhaps reasonable (for a target 
>  audience), but is inherently risky as well.  Their choice there, I would 
>  argue, would be the wrong one for Fedora.  Mounting ro first gives you 
>  ample opportunity to access the situation before deciding if you need to 
>  go to an external rescue environment rather than mount the broken one 
>  rw... possibly saving some of your data.
>   
I would want to see for myself what ubuntu's doing; several times I've 
been fooled by an mtab dating back before the latest reboot.



-- 

Cheers
John

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[Kevin DeKorte]

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Hash: SHA1

Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
>  If some problem develops with /etc/fstab Fedora stops loading
>  and offers to either invoke a single user shell or reboot.
>  
>  Unfortunately the single user shell is on a readonly filesystem.
>  This defeats the purpose of going single user to fix it, doesn't it?
>  
>  This happens with the current Rawhide and back to at least FC7.
>  
>  Ubuntu allows one to proceed under this condition.
>   
mount -w / -o remount

Helps here... I had to do this when my raid would not come up after
moving from FC6 to F8 cause all the device names changed.

Kevin

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[Michal Jaegermann]

On Sun, Jan 27, 2008 at 10:28:03PM -0800, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R wrote:
>  Unfortunately the single user shell is on a readonly filesystem.
>  This defeats the purpose of going single user to fix it, doesn't it? 
No, not really.

# mount -o rw,remount /

That assuming that you _truly_ want that file system read-write.

Another possibility would be to use your installation media and
boot from there in a "rescue" mode.

   M.