On March 7, 2004 06:15 pm, Timothy W. Powell wrote: > I have been experiencing a similar problem with a full root directory > and was wondering if you could share with me the cause of your problem. > I also use Mandrake Linux and any insight you might offer would be > appreciated. > Thanks, > Tim Powell
I posted the problem on the expert list and some body helped me out of the problem. I am quoting two of his answers here: ĻOn Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Ramin M wrote: > This is /etc/fstab. By the way, it is always telling the line three in > /etc/fstab is bad at boot time or when i run mount -a!? I had changed > the line three because by default a user was not able to login into > his/her account due to not having write permissions by default! So i > added umask=0 0 0! > > /dev/sdb1 / jfs defaults 1 1 > none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0 > /dev/sda6 /home jfs defaults umask=0 0 0 Bingo! The /home partition is failing to mount (because umask is not a valid option for jfs filesystems, AFAICT - and even if it is, the syntax would need to be "defaults,umask=0" to be valid). This could lead to files that are intended to be written onto /dev/sda6 ending up within the /home dir on /dev/sdb1 instead (see my other message). Use "mount" by itself to determine exactly what is - and isn't - mounted at any given moment. This fstab line should be corrected, to: /dev/sda6 /home jfs defaults 1 2 Permissions on individual files and dirs within that partition should be adjusted with chmod/chown, once the partition itself is mounted properly. To determine what may be within /home on /dev/sdb1 - and being hidden once /dev/sda6 is mounted - your best bet may be to boot to the rescue system on Mandrake CD #1 (type F1 at the first splash screen, then "rescue" at the prompt), and go to the console *without* mounting your partitions first. Then mount /dev/sdb1 on /mnt, like so: mount -t jfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt And have a look around in what will now be "/mnt/home". A Knoppix CD would also be a good choice for this task, if you have one handy.Ļ and ĻOn Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Ramin M wrote: > Actually i was downloading mandrake 9.2.1 iso images when this problem > arose. The download destination was /home and they are still there. > During that half an hour i finished the download. Does this mean these > files (which are large are hidden somewhere in / directory? Yup, within the /home directory (instead of on the partition that is customarily mounted as /home - which is where they belong). > However /home is not among the /mnt directories. Do you recommend to do > the same for /home (unmount and remount)? Yes, but that's not the easiest thing to do on a running system - you should either a) reboot using a rescue disk, a Knoppix CD, or similar, or b) type "init 1" at a root prompt, to bring the system down to runlevel one (a.k.a. single-user mode). The former method may be somewhat easier, all things considered - especially the Knoppix option. > Also you mention each of the mount point directories should be empty > before i remount it. Does this mean i have to format my windows > directories before to empty them? I will do it if i have to but then i > have to re-install windows again. No, not at all - what I mean is that the mountpoints themselves (which are directories) should be empty before mounting the partitions (which contain your data) onto them. Perhaps an example is in order here ... [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ls /mnt/hdb1/ 542xvgal.exe* modems/ Program Files/ Bin/ Multimedia Files/ Recycled/ download/ My Documents/ System Volume Information/ fromlinux/ My Download Files/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo umount /mnt/hdb1 Password: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ls /mnt/hdb1/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ Note that once I have unmounted the partition that I customarily mount at /mnt/hdb1, the mountpoint - the directory "/mnt/hdb1" itself - is empty. Now, let's create a file or two there: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo touch /mnt/hdb1/file1 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo touch /mnt/hdb1/file2 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo touch /mnt/hdb1/file3 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ls /mnt/hdb1/ file1 file2 file3 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ Okay, let's mount the partition back on there, and look at the results: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ sudo mount /mnt/hdb1 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ls /mnt/hdb1/ 542xvgal.exe* modems/ Program Files/ Bin/ Multimedia Files/ Recycled/ download/ My Documents/ System Volume Information/ fromlinux/ My Download Files/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ The files we created are now hidden *under* the mounted filesystem. Of course, they have 0 length (because I used "touch" to create them), but if they were larger, it would make no difference; I still wouldn't be able to see them, but they still would exist ... and whatever space they take up would be space considered "in use" on the root filesystem. So, the point is that anything now on your various partitions can be left alone - it's what's *beneath* them, on the *root* filesystem, that matters here, as that is where your mysterious lack of free space is coming from. Just make sure that these mountpoint directories are empty /after/ the partitions are unmounted from them - and before you remount them back into place - and you should be all set. -- Bill Mullen [EMAIL PROTECTED] You may check the whole thread there. So basically the problem apparently was my home directory was failing to mount on its dedicated partition so that whatever i was writing to /home, was filling space on / (root directory) simply because my /home was just a subdirectory of the root directory! To make sure i will not miss any data, first i ported all data (documents, email directories, or any thing else i had on /home that i needed to keep) to another partition or directory. Then i completely emptied /home. That would mean i also deleted any user directory. Then i unmounted the /home directory. I made sure there is nothing there in /home directory even after unmounting it. Finally i remounted it with correct options in fstab (as Bill Mullen pointed out). This assured that /home is really mounted on its dedicated partition. I redefined the users and put the data back to their places in /home. This solved the problem. Hope this helps. Regards, Ramin
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