what changes were made to the system recently? For instance, did you change partition layout, encrypted partitions, installed another OS, updated kernel etc… ?
No, no changes of that sort; I did apply some changes which were claimed to improve performance, but the only ones that I can think would be in any involved were:
Used Yast to edit /etc/sysconfig to ensure that DMA was on for my hard drives. I specified this using /dev/hda, (i.e I used /dev/hda:udma5) when it should have been /dev/sda
I edited /etc/fstab to add ‘noatime, nodiratime’ to the ext3 declarations
I changed ‘swappiness’ from 60 to 10 via ‘sudo sysctl -w vm.swappiness=10’ and then added this line (stupidly, exactly that line) at the end of /etc/sysctl.conf
I disabled some services with Yast, none of which seemed to be relevant to this problem (for example, disabling support for Bluetooth)
Other changes were to options in OpenOffice, and removing screen-saver
btw, you say “~ There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary, and those who don’t. ~” - what happened to the other 14 ?
You should boot without the splash screen to see why it fails to mount /home.
I bet you broke /etc/fstab with your edit. You could have a look through to see if something is obviously wrong. For one thing there should be no whitespace inside the options list. So it should be noatime,nodiratime, not noatime, nodiratime.
Don’t worry about that now, just go to one of the virtual consoles with Ctrl-Alt-Fn where n is 1 to 6 and edit /etc/fstab with a CLI editor if you can use one. Or login as root at the GUI and do the required.
AS I observed about an hour ago in another thread, it’s the quality of the people and the support they provide that makes this forum and this distribution stand out…
So, thank so much. I’m up and running agaiin, so now I can go to bed early and sleep instead of panic.
Except if you can’t login as yourself because /home is not mounted so the GUI won’t start for you, and don’t know how to use the CLI, which is really something fixable.
of course, you know it is easily possible to edit /etc/fstab without
logging into the GUI as root, and you could have elected to walk him
through it…OR not…
coulda said something like:
at first green screen type 3
log in as root
edit and save /etc/fstab (using whatever you wanna use) to take out
those unneeded spaces
reboot OR
mount /home (tell him how)
log out
log in as yourself
go to rl 5
etc
–
goldie
Give a hacker a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach man and you feed him for a lifetime.
Actually I believe he does know how to use the CLI.
One-liner replies like yours are just unthinking dogma. What needs to be done depends on the situation. And working out what to do and weighing the risks and consequences is part of a sysadmin’s education which cannot be summarised with one-liners.
but, in fact i was replying to your posting, not his…
perhaps i was incorrect but, with your previously demonstrated level
of expertise here i didn’t think you needed all the underlying
reasons on why not to encourage this, or any other unsafe practices
while tutoring neophyte Linux system administrators…
I think “never login as root” is incomplete. More comprehensive would have been “do not become root unnecessarily”, and of course with an explanation why.
Do I ever login as root? Yes sometimes I do, but not at the GUI, on a VT, and only on local machines. Why do I do that? If I know I have something that I need to fix in the config I will need to be root at some point. If I login as myself and then su -, I’m at the same point, and it will have taken me longer to get there. Yes, I could sudo, but you know, if you get too used to sudo this and sudo that, then you get desensitised to the dangers. Which is why I’m not a fan of the Ubuntu scheme. But I don’t try to disable that on Ubuntu machines I work with.
My assessment was that this was a one-off situation that the OP needed to recover from. So it was a minor risk. In no way was I advocating logging in as root at the GUI as normal practice.
Ironically I suspect the OP would not have got into this situation if he had used YaST to edit fstab because it would have prevented him from introducing a space in the options.
ken yap wrote:
> I think “never login as root” is incomplete. More comprehensive would
> have been “do not become root -unnecessarily-”, and of course with an
> explanation why.
>
> Do I ever login as root? Yes sometimes I do, but not at the GUI …
AH! perhaps you misunderstood my “never required”…
because i certainly did not mean to “never use root powers” or “never
login as root” (i use root all the time), but rather i meant “never
log into KDE (Gnome, etc) as root” (which you say, above, that you
don’t do either)…
i was specifically saying: never boot up to the login screen, and
enter root and the root password to sign into any Linux graphical user
interface…which is what i thought you meant…or, maybe i
misunderstood your “Or login as root at the GUI”?
>, on a
> VT, and only on local machines. Why do I do that? If I know I have
> something that I need to fix in the config I will need to be root at
> some point. If I login as myself and then su -, I’m at the same point,
> and it will have taken me longer to get there.
no, if you have booted to KDE as a normal user, switched to a virtual
terminal and logged in as root you are NOT at the same place that
XEyedBear would be at if he followed your advice of “login as root at
the GUI” and at the green log in screen typed root and roots password!
certainly i was not suggesting that if operating in KDE as a normal
user and you open a terminal, you must then sign in as yourself and
THEN su to root…
nope…pop open that terminal and sign in as root is NOT what i meant
to never do…i do that all the time…
I suspect you misunderstand the meaning of the phrase “do the required”. Here “required” means fix fstab. It doesn’t mean that a root login at the GUI is required to fix it, although it is one way and as I said, not much of a risk if you are just going to do it just the once and not make a habit of it. It’s a somewhat archaic way of saying “do what’s required”. It does not mean the same as “is what’s required”.
Should I also explain “just the once”? I won’t try to use that other phrase “for the nonce”.
Yes, I see what you mean :), but do a search on the whole phrase “for the nonce” and you will be directed to a very family oriented explanation on Wikipedia.
A nonce is a term also used in cryptography, a word or phrase that is generated at random and never used again.
ken yap adjusted his/her AFDB on Saturday 15 Aug 2009 03:06 to write:
>
> Yes, I see what you mean :), but do a search on the whole phrase “for
> the nonce” and you will be directed to a very family oriented
> explanation on Wikipedia.
>
> A nonce is a term also used in cryptography, a word or phrase that is
> generated at random and never used again.
>
>
Yep is also a middle English word that means at the once, or right away.
I must admit I had forgotten about the cryptographic reference.
Ain`t langwage fune
–
Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum
