Hello SuSE people. Welllll.....I went and did it - screwed up again. Trying to gain a little disk space, I went in and deleted a partition that I wasn't using very much. Of course that changed drive numbers (which I didn't realize until now), and moved /var up to the next drive number, and I failed to go in an edit fstab. Of course the next time I booted Suse failed because of the change. Sooo... Then I booted the DVD and went into the "repair system" and it offered to change my configuration. I accepted that and it changed /var to whatever--- I don't know. Certainly didn't help and/or made it worse. So since the "repair system" from the install directory didn't work, I then tried "rescue" but couldn't figure out the commands after the "rescue" prompt.. Even brought up "Vi", but couldn't access anything with it. I have all kinds of notes and procedures on how to do this kind of stuff in my e-mail archives but of course I cannont access it. Running 9.2 with Amd 64. Really don't want to reinstall. Somebody Please? help me get my system back? Bob S.
On Tuesday 13 December 2005 15:14, B Stia wrote:
Hello SuSE people.
Welllll.....I went and did it - screwed up again. Trying to gain a little disk space, I went in and deleted a partition that I wasn't using very much. Of course that changed drive numbers (which I didn't realize until now), and moved /var up to the next drive number, and I failed to go in an edit fstab. Of course the next time I booted Suse failed because of the change.
Sooo... Then I booted the DVD and went into the "repair system" and it offered to change my configuration. I accepted that and it changed /var to whatever--- I don't know. Certainly didn't help and/or made it worse.
So since the "repair system" from the install directory didn't work, I then tried "rescue" but couldn't figure out the commands after the "rescue" prompt.. Even brought up "Vi", but couldn't access anything with it. I have all kinds of notes and procedures on how to do this kind of stuff in my e-mail archives but of course I cannont access it.
Running 9.2 with Amd 64. Really don't want to reinstall.
Somebody Please? help me get my system back?
Bob S.
I would try the repair system again, and see if the partition tool (`parted` behind the scenes) can recover the partition you originally deleted. This is sometimes possible, though I am not sure in what cases it will work. Failing that, you could try the automatic repair test/options. It will check all your packages, and help restore your software at least (with a new /var, if required), to a pristine condition. You would then have to redo any software upgrades/patches since 9.2. This would be relatively easy if you use apt4suse. Instead if vi, try `pico`. _If_ you have it installed (usually not a default), it is a _far_ easier and more intuitive console text editor that vi or emacs. It has nowhere near the features, but it is perfect to small jobs like quick edits and short scripts. From a shell, `parted` is the tool you need for partitioning. As I'm sure you now realize, never mess with your partition table unless you are prepared (willing and have backups of your data) to reinstall the OS. HTH Mark
Mark A. Taff wrote:
On Tuesday 13 December 2005 15:14, B Stia wrote:
...<snip some>...... So since the "repair system" from the install directory didn't work, I then tried "rescue" but couldn't figure out the commands after the "rescue" prompt.. Even brought up "Vi", but couldn't access anything with it. I have all kinds of notes and procedures on how to do this kind of stuff in my e-mail archives but of course I cannont access it.
Running 9.2 with Amd 64. Really don't want to reinstall.
Somebody Please? help me get my system back?
Bob S.
Hello Mark, thanks for replying.
I would try the repair system again, and see if the partition tool (`parted` behind the scenes) can recover the partition you originally deleted. This is sometimes possible, though I am not sure in what cases it will work.
Couldn't call up parted. Is it in the installed system or only on the boot DVD? Don't think I need that anyway. Is fstab controling? If it is, I think that I only need to edit fstab and all will be well again
Failing that, you could try the automatic repair test/options. It will check all your packages, and help restore your software at least (with a new /var, if required), to a pristine condition. You would then have to redo any software upgrades/patches since 9.2. This would be relatively easy if you use apt4suse.
I did that originally and it offered to repair my file system, which I accepted. It then attempted to rebuild my system packages and failed. Then told me I had to restore from a backup........I then tried the repair option again and it failed with a message that it could'nt find the system packages. Now, the system will boot into SuSE but will drop back to a command prompt. I can log in as root and cd into any of my directories, including /var and then -ls to see what is in there. All OK. But when I cat etc/fstab the /var line is not there. The old directory /partition which I deleted remains in that file. Sooo, I am pretty sure (hopefully) that if I can edit fstab I can make it OK again.
Instead of vi, try `pico`. _If_ you have it installed (usually not a default), it is a _far_ easier and more intuitive console text editor that vi or emacs. It has nowhere near the features, but it is perfect to small jobs like quick edits and short scripts.
Don't have pico. Guess it is not installed. Tried again tonight to make vi (vim actually) work. No go. Could not even pull up the help manual with F1. So, here I am. Think I know what to do but cannot.
From a shell, `parted` is the tool you need for partitioning. As I'm sure you now realize, never mess with your partition table unless you are prepared (willing and have backups of your data) to reinstall the OS.
Oh yes, I realize that. Thought I knew what I was doing but screwed up anyway. Bob S. PS going to start a new thread for trying to make vi (vim) work for me.
On Wednesday 14 December 2005 16:39, B Stia wrote:
Mark A. Taff wrote:
On Tuesday 13 December 2005 15:14, B Stia wrote:
...<snip some>......
<snip>
Now, the system will boot into SuSE but will drop back to a command prompt. I can log in as root and cd into any of my directories, including /var and then -ls to see what is in there. All OK. But when I cat etc/fstab the /var line is not there. The old directory /partition which I deleted remains in that file. Sooo, I am pretty sure (hopefully) that if I can edit fstab I can make it OK again.
That is because the repair tool put /var on the / partition, instead of on it's own partition. So you do not need an fstab line to mount a partition that doesn't exist. ;-) As another poster said, adding another disk, then `rsync`ing /home over to the new disk is a great way to add room to a system. I weekly rsync every /home on my network to an old PII machine as a painless easy backup. vi has two modes, a command mode and an insert mode (text mode). The command `i` begins text mode, and `[esc]` ends text mode. See: http://www.collaborium.org/onsite/venezuela/docs/linux/linux_guides/vi/#basi... for a basic tutorial. Seems like the major issue now is that you can't get a gui started. If that is so, try `telinit 5` as a first whack to see if you get lucky. Failing that, `startkde` The output from startkde should give you some indication of where the issue is. <snip>
Oh yes, I realize that. Thought I knew what I was doing but screwed up anyway.
Bob S.
PS going to start a new thread for trying to make vi (vim) work for me.
HTH, Mark
On Thu, 2005-12-15 at 11:40 -0800, Mark A. Taff wrote:
On Wednesday 14 December 2005 16:39, B Stia wrote: <snip> That is because the repair tool put /var on the / partition, instead of on it's own partition. So you do not need an fstab line to mount a partition that doesn't exist. ;-)
As another poster said, adding another disk, then `rsync`ing /home over to the new disk is a great way to add room to a system. I weekly rsync every /home on my network to an old PII machine as a painless easy backup.
vi has two modes, a command mode and an insert mode (text mode). The command `i` begins text mode, and `[esc]` ends text mode. See:
"i" begins insert mode (before the cursor, a is after the cursor), that is what the "i" stands for - insert. O'Reilly has a number of pocket reference books (vi is one of them) that are very reasonable in price. Excellent reference in times such as this one. -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998
On Wednesday 14 December 2005 16:39, B Stia wrote: vi has two modes, a command mode and an insert mode (text mode). The command `i` begins text mode, and `[esc]` ends text mode. See: Actually, vi (or in our case vim) has 3 modes: Command (or edit mode) mode. This is where you start out. Insert (or text) mode. This is where you are inserting text. Ex (or sometimes referred to as colon) where you issue ex commands.
-- Jerry Feldman <gaf@blu.org> Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9
[Jerry Feldman]
[B Stia] vi has two modes [...]
Actually, vi (or in our case vim) has 3 modes [...]
Vim has 11 modes: Normal mode Visual mode Select mode Insert mode Command-line mode Cmdline mode Ex mode Operator-pending mode Replace mode Insert Normal mode Insert Visual mode Insert Select mode Do `:h vim-modes' if you need confirmation. (Ι'm using 7.0aa ALPHA.) -- François Pinard http://pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca
On Thursday 15 December 2005 16:52, François Pinard wrote:
[Jerry Feldman]
[B Stia] vi has two modes [...]
Actually, vi (or in our case vim) has 3 modes [...]
Vim has 11 modes:
Normal mode Visual mode Select mode Insert mode Command-line mode Cmdline mode Ex mode
Operator-pending mode Replace mode Insert Normal mode Insert Visual mode Insert Select mode
Do `:h vim-modes' if you need confirmation. (Ι'm using 7.0aa ALPHA.)
-- François Pinard http://pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca
I'm sure he doesn't have vim 7.0, as he is using SuSE 9.2. ;-) The bottom line was, I think, that vim usage is different than almost all other text editors, and so Bob was having trouble using such a weird interface to make a simple change in a text file. It is not normal (and I submit nonsensical -- there, that'll start a flame war ;-) ) for a text editor, once launched and with a document open, to refuse to accept text for input until after you additionally tell it to begin accepting text for input. It may be the standard *nix editor that you can count on being present in any given system, but that doesn't mean it is easy to use or has a familiar interface. Long live pico! Mark
[Mark A. Taff]
[François Pinard]
[Jerry Feldman]
[B Stia] vi has two modes [...]
Actually, vi (or in our case vim) has 3 modes [...]
Vim has 11 modes:
I'm sure he doesn't have vim 7.0, as he is using SuSE 9.2. ;-)
Grosso modo, vim 6 is very similar to vim 7.
The bottom line was, I think, that vim usage is different than almost all other text editors,
Editors may be very different, especially the powerful ones. It is true that many simpler editors are more or less alike. In the case of Vim, one may choose to call `evim' (Easy Vim) instead of `vim', in which case Vim hides most of its power, and even behaves like simpler editors.
Bob was having trouble using such a weird interface to make a simple change in a text file.
This has been a long trend to use tools without studying them, and then, making tools which do not require study. Good! Yet, there are limits to that. An interface is probably "weird" until you studied it :-).
It may be the standard *nix editor that you can count on being present in any given system, but that doesn't mean it is easy to use or has a familiar interface.
No doubt (to me) that Vim requires being studied. The same could be said of Emacs, of course. But anyone who develop a lot, it is usually a very worth investment. I once wrote a little essay on Emacs / Vim: http://pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca/opinions/editors.html
Long live pico!
:-) :-) -- François Pinard http://pinard.progiciels-bpi.ca
Mark A. Taff wrote:
On Wednesday 14 December 2005 16:39, B Stia wrote
Now, the system will boot into SuSE but will drop back to a command prompt. I can log in as root and cd into any of my directories, including /var and then -ls to see what is in there. All OK. But when I cat etc/fstab the /var line is not there. The old directory /partition which I deleted remains in that file. Sooo, I am pretty sure (hopefully) that if I can edit fstab I can make it OK again.
That is because the repair tool put /var on the / partition, instead of on it's own partition. So you do not need an fstab line to mount a partition that doesn't exist. ;-)
Hmmmm..... That should have been a :-( Wonderful. I guess that is why, when I tried to reinstall the system from the install command, it told me I had to delete files from the / partition because it was full. Didn't understand what that was at the time. Guess I am screwed and need to do a reinstall. Really hate to do that because I have so many extra programs and have updated 9.2 to almost 10.0 configuration. That includes KDE and Xine and my DVD stuff etc. etc.
As another poster said, adding another disk, then `rsync`ing /home over to the new disk is a great way to add room to a system. I weekly rsync every /home on my network to an old PII machine as a painless easy backup.
Welllll.... I have backed up /home and a few other important directories to my other hard drive using kdar. They are inaccessible right now but could be restored with a new install.
vi has two modes, a command mode and an insert mode (text mode). The command `i` begins text mode, and `[esc]` ends text mode. See:
http://www.collaborium.org/onsite/venezuela/docs/linux/linux_guides/vi/#basi... for a basic tutorial.
Thanks for the link on the tutorial. Went and got it. Not very important right now since editing fstab is not an issue.
Seems like the major issue now is that you can't get a gui started. If that is so, try `telinit 5` as a first whack to see if you get lucky.
Failing that, `startkde`
The output from startkde should give you some indication of where the issue is.
Well....... telenit 5 worked but it didn't get me to a gui. Just another cli where I could log in as a user. Neither did kdestart, with an unknown command reply, or a startx which produced a "startx is not installed". I guess that my system, thanks to "repair system" and my ignorance is so screwed up that I have no choice except to reinstall. Maybe I will just get 10.0 and see if I can restore my /home and the other backed-up/important data without huge problems. Anyway, I thank you for your attempts to help me. Any other ideas/tips to restore this mess would certainly be welcomed. Bob S.
On Thursday 15 December 2005 17:30, B Stia wrote:
Mark A. Taff wrote:
On Wednesday 14 December 2005 16:39, B Stia wrote
Now, the system will boot into SuSE but will drop back to a command
<snip>
Well....... telenit 5 worked but it didn't get me to a gui. Just another cli where I could log in as a user. Neither did kdestart, with an unknown command reply, or a startx which produced a "startx is not installed". I guess that my system, thanks to "repair system" and my ignorance is so screwed up that I have no choice except to reinstall. Maybe I will just get 10.0 and see if I can restore my /home and the other backed-up/important data without huge problems.
If you install 10.0, when you are finished, you can simply rsync your archived /home over your freshly installed /home. If you install apt4suse, you will be able to fairly easily upgrade all of your software after a fresh install of SuSE 10.0. No that I mention it, installing apt4suse right now will be a way to get you back into a stable system, and then upgrade/install all the software again. You can also use Yast to tell it to reinstall KDE. HTH Mark
Anyway, I thank you for your attempts to help me. Any other ideas/tips to restore this mess would certainly be welcomed.
Bob S.
Hello SuSE people.
The following paragraph is a repeat of my original message, for background.
Welllll.....I went and did it - screwed up again. Trying to gain a little disk space, I went in and deleted a partition that I wasn't using very much. Of course that changed drive numbers (which I didn't realize until now), and moved /var up to the next drive number, and I failed to go in an edit fstab. Of course the next time I booted Suse failed because of the change.
Sooo... Then I booted the DVD and went into the "repair system" and it offered to change my configuration. I accepted that and it changed /var to whatever--- I don't know. Certainly didn't help and/or made it worse.
So since the "repair system" from the install directory didn't work, I then tried "rescue" but couldn't figure out the commands after the "rescue" prompt.. Even brought up "Vi", but couldn't access anything with it. I have all kinds of notes and procedures on how to do this kind of stuff in my e-mail archives but of course I cannont access it.
Running 9.2 with Amd 64. Really don't want to reinstall.
Somebody Please? help me get my system back?
Mark Taff and others tried to help me with suggestions, none of which worked. Finally reinstalled without formatting some partitions and was able to see, from the console as root, that all of my data was still there.
Problem is I cannot get KDE to start as a user. I can startx as root and KDE will come up. Following are various messages I get. From the cli in level 3 as a user issuing startx: .X.err permisssion denied From the KDM login screen: EasyStreet kdm [5810]: Xserver for display :0 terminated unexpectedly Directly after logon by user a screen with messages: Could not read network connection list /home/bob/.DCOPserver_EasyStreet_0 Please check that the "dcopserver" is running. No write access to $HOME (/home/bob) And in a little grey box at the top of the screen, the following : Could not start ksmserver. Check your installation. Fooled around checking various things, did another "repair system", but am unable to figure out what is wrong. Will somebody give me some guidance/assistance please? Bob S.
B Stia wrote: .................<snip some>............
Mark Taff and others tried to help me with suggestions, none of which worked. Finally reinstalled without formatting some partitions and was able to see, from the console as root, that all of my data was still there.
Problem is I cannot get KDE to start as a user. I can startx as root and KDE will come up. Following are various messages I get.
From the cli in level 3 as a user issuing startx: .X.err permisssion denied
From the KDM login screen: EasyStreet kdm [5810]: Xserver for display :0 terminated unexpectedly
Directly after logon by user a screen with messages:
Could not read network connection list /home/bob/.DCOPserver_EasyStreet_0 Please check that the "dcopserver" is running.
No write access to $HOME (/home/bob)
And in a little grey box at the top of the screen, the following : Could not start ksmserver. Check your installation.
Fooled around checking various things, did another "repair system", but am unable to figure out what is wrong.
Added a new user and it came up fine and worked OK. Uninstalled myself and the reinstalled myself as a user and it did not. Same problem.
Will somebody give me some guidance/assistance please?
Bob S.
Please ???
On Sun, 2005-12-18 at 00:59 -0500, B Stia wrote:
B Stia wrote:
.................<snip some>............
Added a new user and it came up fine and worked OK. Uninstalled myself and the reinstalled myself as a user and it did not. Same problem.
Will somebody give me some guidance/assistance please?
Bob S.
When you "uninstalled" your user ID did you also delete or rename your home directory? The better choice being to rename. -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998
Ken Schneider wrote:
On Sun, 2005-12-18 at 00:59 -0500, B Stia wrote:
B Stia wrote:
.................<snip some>............
Added a new user and it came up fine and worked OK. Uninstalled myself and the reinstalled myself as a user and it did not. Same problem.
Will somebody give me some guidance/assistance please?
Bob S.
When you "uninstalled" your user ID did you also delete or rename your home directory? The better choice being to rename.
Hi, Ken Hmmm...No I didn't. Forgot about that. Will give it a try by renaming, Hopefully I will be able to restore it afterwards without re-creating the problem. Bob S.
On Sun, 2005-12-18 at 22:48 -0500, B Stia wrote:
Ken Schneider wrote:
On Sun, 2005-12-18 at 00:59 -0500, B Stia wrote:
B Stia wrote:
.................<snip some>............
Added a new user and it came up fine and worked OK. Uninstalled myself and the reinstalled myself as a user and it did not. Same problem.
Will somebody give me some guidance/assistance please?
Bob S.
When you "uninstalled" your user ID did you also delete or rename your home directory? The better choice being to rename.
Hi, Ken
Hmmm...No I didn't. Forgot about that. Will give it a try by renaming, Hopefully I will be able to restore it afterwards without re-creating the problem.
Bob S.
You won't want to restore the home directory but you may want to restore/copy certain parts of it, like mozilla/firefox settings and maybe email. If you simply restore the entire folder you'll be back where you were, unable to log in. -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Sunday 2005-12-18 at 00:59 -0500, B Stia wrote:
Will somebody give me some guidance/assistance please?
Bob S.
Please ???
Sorry I didn't see your problem earlier. I will comment on what you did as a guide for the "next time". Specially when you know what is wrong, as in this case, a bad /etc/fstab, allowing an automated tool to attempt repair is a mistake. I leave that as a last resource, and I use the "expert settings" or however it is called in which I can revise and accept or deny each single change it proposes. That's point one. Then, vi. This editor is different from many. I will not argue which is the best editor (I heard there have been "glorious" flame wars on the subject, or vi vs emacs), simply that it is complex the first time you meet it, and simply not adequate for users that, like myself, are converted dos/win users (or not at first, at least). Previously, I recommended to know the very basics of vi (edit, abort, save) because it is the editor you find in the rescue system, and probably in every unix or linux system in existence. Currently the SuSE rescue cd/dvd contains another editor, joe (at least, since 9.3). It's got help, and is intuitive. Use it next time or practice vi a bit. - -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFDqKFMtTMYHG2NR9URAskrAKCIiR6zTamdxtUTBAeE5Auh3KCn/wCdHIOl RU0Tr6e+q36hRwL4P0iaLFc= =9YQO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Tue, 2005-12-13 at 18:14 -0500, B Stia wrote:
Hello SuSE people.
Welllll.....I went and did it - screwed up again. Trying to gain a little disk space, I went in and deleted a partition that I wasn't using very much. Of course that changed drive numbers (which I didn't realize until now), and moved /var up to the next drive number, and I failed to go in an edit fstab. Of course the next time I booted Suse failed because of the change.
The fastest recovery for this problem is the spare drive solution. Install to the new one and rsync /home to the new /home. If you can recover the partition with the install / repair option your lucky and got off easy otherwise your left with clean install. BTW you did make an update disk out of the i386 folder? I ran out of space almost on my 20gig. Rather than reinstall I put in a new drive 40 gig and parttioned with an eye to the future when it will become the main disk. I put /home on the new disk, changed fstab and rebooted. If space is the issue then my solution is the best in the long run. -- ___ _ _ _ ____ _ _ _ | | | | [__ | | | |___ |_|_| ___] | \/
participants (7)
-
B Stia -
Carl William Spitzer IV -
Carlos E. R. -
François Pinard -
Jerry Feldman -
Ken Schneider -
Mark A. Taff