Cannot Login (Can't Mount Something)

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello Forum,

Long time since I’ve been on here. I just recently installed openSUSE 11.3 on my HP Mini and it’s great. Except for one thing, I went into the Partitioner through Yast and clicked on my Windows Partition, then Mounted it (I thought I was mounting it in order to access its files, I wanted to edit photos with GIMP).

Well, I did this and I must’ve clicked something wrong…

Now when I try to log into openSUSE I get an error. It tells me something about cannot Mount /home then follows with a new box saying Error 3 I believe. After that shows me the login screen. Repeats after attempt.

I’m going to try to login into it now, and then I’ll post everything it tells me word for word… I’m hoping someone can guide me through this… I’m in desperate need to escape Windows.

God Bless

2

When you boot from the grub menu press Esc and watch the scrolling text
Do you arrive at a login screen or does it error out before this: ?

Do you have a copy of Parted Magic CD?

3

Alrighty… here’s what I’ve learned.

I choose openSUSE 11.3 from GRUB.

Does the usual coding and then I’m met with the wallpaper behind the login screen a small notification box in the center of the screen stating:

“Logging in mickey (my name). Cannot enter home directory. Using /.”

Then I click Okay or whatever, then it disappears and a small notice box appears in the top left corner stating this:

“kstartupconfig4 does not exist or fails. The error code is 3. Check your installation.”

That’s all I’ve got folks. After that I’m at my regular log in screen & repeats process when I attempt to log in.

Any help out there?

Thank You

4

I’ll try it… One moment sir… Thank you for the hasty reply!

5

If you get Parted Magic and boot it:
Using Parted Magic an Introduction

Mount your root partition of openSUSE
And navigate to /etc/fstab

In that folder /etc
there may also be a old file fstab.old

You need to rename the file fstab to fstab.bak
and the file fstab.old to fstab

If you don’t see what I have described or don’t understand, ask.

6

I’ve never used Parted Magic before… I assume I’d have to burn the image to an SD card or something? The HP Mini doesn’t have a CD drive & I don’t have an external one either.

I think I understand everything you’re saying. Could I use a program in Windows to do this? Such as EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition? This is what I’ve used to Resize/Move/Edit my partitions from Windows before…

I’ll wait for your reply before I touch anything. Last thing I want to do is make another mess that’ll leave me without either OS’s.

7

I now realize I could not use that program I was speaking of, as it doesn’t allow me to get into any files… hmm…

8

It might be easier, given your compromising situation, to just re-install openSUSE, because the workaround to fix this is going to take a long time to explain because it’s rather complicated.
Did you install SUSE using a USB flash drive? Was it a live CD?

9

I figured this is what was going to happen, haha!

My SD card which has openSUSE 11.3 is currently at my friends house 10 miles away. I’ve just introduced him & his family to Linux and openSUSE.

I will retrieve it in the future & just reinstall. That way we can all get some sleep & live in peace.

Just thought I’d see if there were any quick fixes.

Thanks Again for the replies!

10

My guess is that you selected the wrong partition. It was your home partition that you changed the mount point. It is possible that you formated it also. You need to be very sure what your actions will cause before committing to a new partitioning scheme.