On Fri, 2004-11-05 at 22:34, William L. Jarrold wrote: > On Mon, 1 Nov 2004, Analabha Roy wrote: > > > On Mon, 2004-11-01 at 15:56, William L. Jarrold wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > I have been getting some odd behavior from my home debian linux > > > machine lately. Consider the following... > > > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ echo testing1234 >> junk.text > > > -bash: junk.text: Read-only file system > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ll junk.text > > > -rw-r--r-- 1 billj 79438 Oct 24 21:50 junk.text > > > > > > ...the above I consider very odd behavior. Just for grins, what > > > happens when I try this... > > > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ chmod u+w junk.text > > > chmod: changing permissions of `junk.text': Read-only file system > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ > > > > > > > Hi, > > Again, thanks for your reply. > > I am not enough of a unix user to make much sense out of what you say. > > > > > > > Check the line corresponding to your root filesystem in /etc/fstab. If > > it has any umasks, then get rid of 'em and set to defaults. > > I don't know what a umask is nor which line corresponds to root > filesystem. > > homebase:~# cat /etc/fstab > # /etc/fstab: static file system information. > # > # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> > proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 > /dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 > 1 > /dev/hdb /media/cdrom0 iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0 > /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0 > /swap none swap sw 0 0 > > > > > The line in fstab corresponding to ur root filesystem, which I assume > > is where the problem is occurring, may have a label called "umask". This > > sets the default permissions for files. > > Hrm. I don't see the string "umask" in the ouput of cat above. Thus, > I will assume that "no such label exists."
Yep, that's a valid assumption. > > > If no such label exists, then > > check for the "ro" (read only) option in the line. > > Seems to me that "ro" *is* there, for /dev/hdb. Not sure what to do. /dev/hdb is ur cdrom drive. That has to be read-only as you can't wite cdroms on the fly like you can for hard drives (wouldn't it be cool if you could do that? You can with DVD-RAM disks in DVD-RAM drives, but they're infernally expensive!) > get rid of the "errors=remount-ro " line in /dev/hda (That's ur root partition). In fact, just delete that whole line & replace it with: /dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1 BUT FIRST, BACK UP YOUR ORIGINAL /ETC/FSTAB PLEASE (just in case). Just do "mv /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old now remount the drive (run mount -o remount, or simpler yet, just reboot.) If something goes wrong, put in your first Debian Installation Cd and boot into that, then there should be an option in the boot menu to mount all your HD partitions (usually into /mnt, so ur root partitions will be in /mnt/hda1) and drop you into a shell. Once you do that, then copy /mnt/hda1/etc/fstab.old back into /mnt/hda1/etc/fstab and everything will be back to the way it was before. You may reboot ur system without any fears. Even if it doesn't work, there is always the wonderful Debian bootdisk, not to mention knoppix, they fix everything in life! > > If it's not there, > > then the default for the root filesystem is "read-write, so forget it > > and leave fstab alone. Also, when u boot, there should be a point when > > your filesystems remount in read-write mode, check 2 see if that > > happens. > > > > > > Why does the group for junk.text above show onlyu the gid, and not a > > group name? Did you do this intentionally, or has the group name been > > deleted or something? Anyhoo... > > I am not competent enough to install debian on my computer. Someone > at an install fest did. Perhaps they know why. I almost never mess with > groups. > > > > > To test whether this is a hardware problem, boot into a knoppix cd > > (click here if u don't have one) and, from your desktop in the cd, > > select the icon corresponding to ur hard drive (it should have been > > Okay, I'll try this but after I have explored some other options. > > > detected & configured) and right-click. Then select the Options--> > > "Change Read & Write Mode" to make the disk writable in knoppix. If this > > succeeds, click on the icon again and open konqueror to the partition & > > try to write something. If this works, ur HD is fine and your filesystem > > is misconfigured or corrupt. You can use e2fsck on your partition safely > > in knoppix (once it has been unmounted) so try that also. Then boot back > > to Debian and try to make the filesystem writable using whatever tools > > there are in Debian (I use Mandrake, so I wouldn't know). > > > > > > That's all I can think of now. > > Thanks again. > > Bill > > > > > > > AR > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ...Hrm....Well, I searched google groups and am pretty bamboozled > > > (because fixes appear to involve scary commands such as "fsck" and > > > "mount" about which I know nearly nothing). They chatter in google > > > groups seems to further suggest hard drive issues. Uh oh. > > > > > > This seems to be the root of other new problems: E.g. Firefox is > > > complaining. And gunziping some archived files is impossible. When I > > > try these things, I get the same error, i.e. "Read-only file system". > > > I get a nice close shave with Occum's Razor so am I remiss in assuming > > > this is all caused by the same problem? > > > > > > Might these odd behaviors be related to sudden downtime freeze ups I > > > have had recently? Here is what happened: My linux box froze (and, > > > Dear Windows fans, this is something that happens about 1 time per > > > decade with me). I power cycled and it appeared to rebooted happily > > > (to my ignorant eyes at least). Did I try to write anything > > > immediately after this reboot? I dunno. > > > > > > I should also add that over the summer I had some signs of disk > > > failure in the making. In fact I emailed siglinux about them. This > > > was when I was budget cutting and my apt was warmer than usual. > > > People (off this list) said disks are very sensitive to temp. When I > > > lowered my room temp, failure ceased. So, I assumed all was well > > > enough. > > > > > > I've been getting that scary sound again (kind of like a relay that > > > keeps turning on an off...sometimes once in isolation, sometimes 5-20 > > > times in rapid succession) tho maybe not as often/intensely. Has my > > > apt temp been creeping up again? Maybe. In response I've reverted to > > > keeping my apt cooler still. Has that sound happened less often? I > > > think so. > > > > > > So, I am going to suspect that I need: > > > > > > (1) a new hard drive...it is about to fail permanently. > > > > > > (2) until (1) more frequent backups to CD Rom. > > > > > > (3) a fix so that my file system is no longer read only. > > > > > > I can take care of (1) and (2) but can someone offer guidance on (3)? > > > > > > chmod does not seem to fix things. > > > > > > Bill > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Siglinux mailing list > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > http://machito.utacm.org/mailman/listinfo/siglinux > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > > Analabha Roy Graduate Student > > Department Of Physics, University of Texas, 1 University Station C1600, > > Austin, Texas 78712-0264, United States emails: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED], Home Page: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~daneel > > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > > ________________________________________________________________________ Analabha Roy Graduate Student Department Of Physics, University of Texas, 1 University Station C1600, Austin, Texas 78712-0264, United States emails: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Home Page: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~daneel ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Siglinux mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://machito.utacm.org/mailman/listinfo/siglinux
