Quoting James Knott :

yonaton@localnet.com wrote:

...

I'm really starting to get worried that I messed something up very badly, but I'm hoping that someone out there can help me figure out what to do to fix it. I'll stay on as root for now to check my mail (I have no other choice at the moment) as often as possible.

Thanks to anyone and everyone willing to help me with this problem.

As root, can you see /home? Or /home/user? Did you have /home on a separate partition?

I can see a 'home' directory yes, but there's no /home/user when I click on it. There's just nothing. When I setup my system, I had /home, /, and swap IIRR. So yes, I guess it was on its own partition. -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

Quoting James Knott :

yonaton@localnet.com wrote:

...

...

As root, can you see /home? Or /home/user? Did you have /home on a separate partition?

I can see a 'home' directory yes, but there's no /home/user when I click on it. There's just nothing. When I setup my system, I had /home, /, and swap IIRR. So yes, I guess it was on its own partition.

If you can see /home, but it's empty, then it's likely not mounted. You'll have to see if there are any unmounted partitions and see if that's where /home is. If you find it, just add it into fstab and mount it. You can use fdisk, to see what partitions are on your disk. Then try any that are not specifically listed in fstab.

I do see this also, a 'data1', but it's also empty, no /user or anything. This is also what's in my fstab: /dev/hda2 / reiserfs defaults 1 1 /dev/hda1 swap swap pri=42 0 0 /dev/hda3 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 /dev/hda4 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 /dev/hdb1 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0 Where'd this 'data1' come from? Should I do 'fdisk' in a console as a command? It won't mess anything up, right? Sorry for any dumb questions, but I'm just jittery as hell right now, worried I'll lose everything, heh. -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

On Sunday 16 July 2006 11:03 am, James Knott wrote:

...

Quoting James Knott : If you can see /home, but it's empty, then it's likely not mounted. You'll have to see if there are any unmounted partitions and see if

yonaton@localnet.com wrote: that's where /home is. If you find it, just add it into fstab and mount it. You can use fdisk, to see what partitions are on your disk. Then try any that are not specifically listed in fstab.

I'd recommend 'fdisk -l /dev/hda' (assuming that we're talking about the master drive on IDE1). It'll list the partitions on the drive w/o any chance of modifying the table. -Nick -- <<< Why, oh, why, didn't I take the blue pill? >>> /`-_ Nicholas R. LeRoy The Condor Project { }/ http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~nleroy http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor \ / nleroy@cs.wisc.edu The University of Wisconsin |_*_| 608-265-5761 Department of Computer Sciences -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

On Sunday 16 July 2006 21:26, Mike McMullin wrote:

Check your /etc/fstab to see if it's being mounted. <snip>

Hi Mike, I guess you missed the [SOLVED] post on this? regards, Carl -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

On Monday 17 July 2006 01:06, Mike McMullin wrote:

Yes, I'm a day or two behind in the list. :(

However did /that/ happen? <grin> I've actually been taking a break for awhile... 'speed reading' and only focusing on the most interesting stuff. Well, I'm off to bed. It's quite late here. Hope you're in a temperate climate... I can't believe some of the forecasts I'm seeing. G'night! Carl -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

On Mon, 2006-07-17 at 09:50 -0500, JB wrote:

On Monday 17 July 2006 00:06, Mike McMullin wrote:

...

On Sun, 2006-07-16 at 21:39 -0400, Carl Hartung wrote:

...

On Sunday 16 July 2006 21:26, Mike McMullin wrote:

...

Check your /etc/fstab to see if it's being mounted.

<snip>

Hi Mike,

I guess you missed the [SOLVED] post on this?

Yes, I'm a day or two behind in the list. :(

But thanks anyway for the willingness to help! It's something always welcomed.

Can I make a suggestion? Keep a copy on disk of those e-mails that you think will be of use to you at some point, either for your need or someone elses. I just have no idea how to organize them, and I won't hijack a thread to ask that question. ;) Mike -- 6200+ messages and counting -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

On Sun, 2006-07-16 at 12:14 -0400, Carl Hartung wrote:

On Sunday 16 July 2006 11:47, yonaton@localnet.com wrote:

...

So, I deleted fstab in the hopes that it would just recreate itself when I rebooted.

Bad idea. FYI, when you're tempted to 'experiment' like this, *don't* delete... use "mv" to 'move' the file to another name (effectively renaming it) so you can "mv" it back later.

fstab tells the kernel what devices to mount and where. You must have had a separate user directory partition being mounted under /home.

From a console or shell, as root, run "fdisk -l > partitionlist.txt" (note: that's a lower case 'L'.) This will produce a text file containing a list of partitions on your system. Mount them manually (preferably under /mnt), find the one containing your user directories and then add it to the new /etc/fstab. It will then mount automatically during boot.

Interesting command. man fdisk works as user but the command is only recognized by root or being logged in with su. -- ___ _ _ _ ____ _ _ _ | | | | [__ | | | |___ |_|_| ___] | \/ -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

* James Knott [07-17-06 19:24]:

Carl William Spitzer IV wrote:

...

Interesting command. man fdisk works as user but the command is only recognized by root or being logged in with su.

Given that good practice dictates you don't run as root, if you don't have to, why does that surprise you? Why should you have to be logged in as root, to read those man pages?

guess as usual, an incorrect statement from the 4th: 20:50 wahoo:~ > ls -la `which fdisk` -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 85448 2006-05-02 02:52 /sbin/fdisk -- Patrick Shanahan Registered Linux User #207535 http://wahoo.no-ip.org @ http://counter.li.org HOG # US1244711 Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2 -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: RIPEMD160 yonaton@localnet.com wrote:

Quoting praxis :

...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: RIPEMD160

yonaton@localnet.com wrote:

...

Hi gang,

I think I've screwed up in a major way. I use SuSE 9.3 by the way.

Last night I tried to undo the manual mounting thing I'd read about on this list some time back (something with .fdi), but couldn't remember what it was, so I just deleted the .fdi file I'd created so I could get automounting back (for my DVD and DVD-Recorder). That didn't seem to make any difference, so I then went to fstab and removed the one I'd made and went back to the original. That didn't work either. So, I deleted fstab in the hopes that it would just recreate itself when I rebooted.

That wasn't wise it seems. I had to start with the SuSE DVD and tried to 'repair' everything (I chose 'automatic' repair). All seemed well and I rebooted.

Now, my system can't see my 'user' directories anywhere. I can log into root (obviously) but when I try to log into 'john' I get a pop-up window that reads 'Could not start kstartupconfig. Check your installation.'

As root, I open konqueror to browse directories and when I click on 'home' there's nothing there.

I'm really starting to get worried that I messed something up very badly, but I'm hoping that someone out there can help me figure out what to do to fix it. I'll stay on as root for now to check my mail (I have no other choice at the moment) as often as possible.

Thanks to anyone and everyone willing to help me with this problem.

John

Okay. John-- Let's go through this step by step. It sounds like you have a linux crisis...I'll do my best to help you, and I'm sure some of the other members of this list will pitch in. Apparently you deleted your fstab entry. You need to ascertain where your directories are, and then determine if they are intact. One quick way to do this to use the "-l" facility of the fdisk command, which looks like this:

yourhostname:/# fdisk -l /dev/hda yourhostname:/# fdisk -l /dev/hdb

Do this, and post your results to your next email. so we can take a look at them.

Here's what I got:

Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 128 1028128+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/hda2 129 4045 31463302+ 83 Linux /dev/hda3 * 4046 4436 3140707+ 83 Linux /dev/hda4 4437 9964 44403660 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 40.9 GB, 40982151168 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4982 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdb1 * 1 4982 40017883+ 83 Linux

It's possible I may have also made a 'boot' partition on hda when I installed a long time ago, but can't remember for certain... <sigh>

hdb is just one 'directory' which I named 'movies'. It's seen in konqueror too, but shows nothing in it (I guess it's unmounted also, right?).

Forrest replied: Okay, John, good. now according to the fstab you posted earlier :

I do see this also, a 'data1', but it's also empty, no /user or anything. This is also what's in my fstab:

/dev/hda2 / reiserfs defaults 1 1 /dev/hda1 swap swap pri=42 0 0 /dev/hda3 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 /dev/hda4 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 /dev/hdb1 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0

It looks like your main "/" partition is /dev/hda2, and your system is using /dev/hda1 as swap. There are two other Linux formatted partitions on this disk: /dev/hda3, and /dev/hda4. Also interesting from the fdisk info you posted is that /dev/hda3, the third partition on your main ATA/IDE hard drive, is marked "bootable" -- that might have been the "boot" partition you were speaking of earlier. I would hazard a guess -- its only a guess --that your "home" is actually on /dev/hda4, based on the size...but it could be either one. Now the other disk, /dev/hdb, has only one partition, which you called 'movies'? You can't see it? Then it is unmounted. (Verify this by typing yourhostname:/# df -h [[..that will show you the disk partitions that are mounted right now, in "-h" = "human-readable" format {with G notation for Gigabytes, etc.}. IF you type just "df" it will show the results in block size only...]] Okay, after typing that, you should verify that you do not see any of the directories in question, /dev/hda3, /dev/hda4/ or /dev/hdb1 in the "df -h" output. Next step: Experimental mounting of these directories under /mnt. Now, John, you are going to have to test something here. Based only on the information that you've supplied, I don't know what file system these partitions were formatted with. You are going to have to test this - -- the likely candidates are "reiserfs" and "ext3"...try both: [[..I'm doing this example below for /dev/hda4, because its' the biggest partition of the three. Similar procedure for the others..]] yourhostname:/# mkdir /mnt/hda3; mkdir /mnt/hda4; mkdir /mnt/hdb1 yourhostname:/# mount -t reiserfs -o ro /dev/hda4 /mnt/hda4 [[..-t = type -o=read-only __good when you are testing so you can't mess anything up__..]] now, if the filesystem type is not reiserfs on that partition, you are going to get an error message like this: "mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda4, missing codepage or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so " so you may have to try: yourhostname:/# mount -t ext3 -o ro /dev/hda4 /mnt/hda4 or potentially: yourhostname:/# mount -t xfs -o ro /dev/hda4 /mnt/hda4 One of these mount commands will successfully mount the directory, as long as the data is undamaged. Try them now and email back your results. Once your system accepts the mount command without error, check to see the new filesystem with "df -h" yourhostname:/# df -h I'll wait for your response. - --Forrest -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFEum+Bfjoc4K4HGqoRA92/AJ9ZhbU/t4Ha+4MBrxxKvm3dQTaXIwCfU/1m mhGGrZAM03RHkDJW46ihQbs= =IZ0u -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: RIPEMD160 Carl, Great take on a replacement fstab. 2 approaches here. John, Carl has provided two models for a new fstab. Carl - in my last reply to John, I advised him with a procedure to test the filesystem type of his mystery partitions with mount and df. We'll wait from John to hear how it's going, i guess? Also, John, if /data1 is truly empty, you should probably umount it. - --Forrest Carl Hartung wrote:

On Sunday 16 July 2006 12:55, praxis wrote:

...

...

...

Let's go through this step by step. It sounds like you have a linux crisis...I'll do my best to help you, and I'm sure some of the other members of this list will pitch in.

How about having him try this?

The following replacement fstabs have been constructed using information from his previous posts.

Version 'A' uses the small, separate partition (/dev/hda3) as '/boot': == version A, cut here == /dev/hda2 / reiserfs defaults 1 1 /dev/hda1 swap swap pri=42 0 0 /dev/hda3 /boot reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1 /dev/hda4 /home reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2 /dev/hdb1 /movies reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2 devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0 == cut here ==

Version 'B' uses the contents under the directory '/boot' and ignores (doesn't mount) /dev/hda3:

== version B, cut here == /dev/hda2 / reiserfs defaults 1 1 /dev/hda1 swap swap pri=42 0 0 /dev/hda4 /home reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2 /dev/hdb1 /movies reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2 devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0 == cut here ==

The big assumption here, of course, is that he accepted the default reiserfs filesystem type when creating/adding formatted partitions.

regards,

Carl

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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: RIPEMD160 yep, John, good... we need to see what the contents of /dev/hda3 are, though. do a mount test on /dev/hda3, and tell us what happens. Also note Carl Hartung's last post, in which he proposed two models for your reconstructed fstab file. - -- Forrest yonaton@localnet.com wrote:

Quoting praxis :

<snip>

...

Forrest replied:

Okay, John, good. now according to the fstab you posted earlier :

...

I do see this also, a 'data1', but it's also empty, no /user or anything. This is also what's in my fstab:

/dev/hda2 / reiserfs defaults 1 1 /dev/hda1 swap swap pri=42 0 0 /dev/hda3 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 /dev/hda4 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 /dev/hdb1 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0

It looks like your main "/" partition is /dev/hda2, and your system is using /dev/hda1 as swap. There are two other Linux formatted partitions on this disk: /dev/hda3, and /dev/hda4. Also interesting from the fdisk info you posted is that /dev/hda3, the third partition on your main ATA/IDE hard drive, is marked "bootable" -- that might have been the "boot" partition you were speaking of earlier. I would hazard a guess -- its only a guess --that your "home" is actually on /dev/hda4, based on the size...but it could be either one. Now the other disk, /dev/hdb, has only one partition, which you called 'movies'? You can't see it? Then it is unmounted. (Verify this by typing yourhostname:/# df -h

[[..that will show you the disk partitions that are mounted right now, in "-h" = "human-readable" format {with G notation for Gigabytes, etc.}. IF you type just "df" it will show the results in block size only...]]

Okay, after typing that, you should verify that you do not see any of the directories in question, /dev/hda3, /dev/hda4/ or /dev/hdb1 in the "df -h" output.

You got it perfectly correct. All it showed was /dev/hda2 and tmpfs.

...

Next step: Experimental mounting of these directories under /mnt. Now, John, you are going to have to test something here. Based only on the information that you've supplied, I don't know what file system these partitions were formatted with. You are going to have to test this - -- the likely candidates are "reiserfs" and "ext3"...try both: [[..I'm doing this example below for /dev/hda4, because its' the biggest partition of the three. Similar procedure for the others..]]

yourhostname:/# mkdir /mnt/hda3; mkdir /mnt/hda4; mkdir /mnt/hdb1 yourhostname:/# mount -t reiserfs -o ro /dev/hda4 /mnt/hda4

<snip>

...

One of these mount commands will successfully mount the directory, as long as the data is undamaged. Try them now and email back your results. Once your system accepts the mount command without error, check to see the new filesystem with "df -h" yourhostname:/# df -h

I'll wait for your response.

Yes, my fs is reiser. I now see /dev/hda4 and /dev/hda2 mounted. In konqueror, clicking 'mnt' shows my 'home/user' now, so you were correct that hda4 is /home, which means hda3 should be /...I think, since /boot should only be about 1 Gb or smaller. So far so good, right?

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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: RIPEMD160 yonaton@localnet.com wrote:

Quoting praxis :

...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: RIPEMD160

yep, John, good... we need to see what the contents of /dev/hda3 are, though. do a mount test on /dev/hda3, and tell us what happens. Also note Carl Hartung's last post, in which he proposed two models for your reconstructed fstab file.

Okay, hda3 has grub, vmlinuz (also 'linked' grub and vmlinuz files) and a few other files...all look like something to do with /boot.

Okay then, since it all looks correct with Carl's fstab, should I just replace his with what I have now and try to reboot?

Yes, John, I would say give it a go with the first fstab in Carl's email. (the one with /boot mounted on /dev/hda3) - --Forrest -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFEuoGGfjoc4K4HGqoRA8POAJ9Iwmc1izUt9awI8J93pyDiX2pjNACeOwV2 SKuTJ0iwYc9kNYPTV2GtYMI= =XAP8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

On Sunday 16 July 2006 14:55, JB wrote:

Okay, replacing the old fstab with Carl's fstab did the trick, though when I rebooted it stuck at the screen 'GRUB (something)1.5'.

I was just composing another post: "I hope the repair system didn't also 'repair' grub (i.e. reinstall it) and screw up the device mapping in the process ;-/ The 'repaired' fstab had '/boot' residing natively under '/' on /dev/hda2, so grub might have been reconfigured to boot from hd(0,1)/boot/grub/menu.lst, in which case it would fail..." :-) Glad you got it sorted out and, yes, replacing /etc/fstab and reinstalling grub using the 'repair system' again was going to be my next recommendation.

I really am grateful to Praxis and Carl and James and the others who got me through this mess I created. If any of ya are ever in W. TN (exit 116 or 108 on I-40 is best, heh), I owe ya a beer or 12! Thank you all, this is *still* the best darned list there is!

You're welcome (and remember 'mv' next time) ;-) Carl -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com