DSL 3.4.1 install - /etc/mtab problem

Forum: HD Install
Topic: DSL 3.4.1 install - /etc/mtab problem
started by: mikeBigg

Posted by mikeBigg on Sep. 11 2007,13:12

Greetings. I have downloaded and evaluated DSL 3.4.1. After looking it over (kicking the tires) and comparing it to what I could (and couldn't) get from Fedora 7, I decided to use DSL.

It wasn't until I had invest several hours that I noticed a problem (described below.) I am seeking confirmation(s), suggestion(s) and assistance.

Note: while probably not important, all descriptions of DSL installations from here down will be in the context of a VMWare virtual machine and virtual disks.

Note: Self-Linux rating: on a scale of 0(idiot) to 5 (expert), I rate myself (today) as a solid 2.

Details:

1. I mounted the DSL 3.4.1 iso image into a VM as a cdrom and booted DSL
2. I created two virtual drives (IDE, 1.5G), booted up DSL and formated them as ext3fs
3. I did a "frugal install" on to one of those drives (this first drive)
4. After determining a bug with the installer, I got a clean frugal install onto /dev/hda1 (with a swap drive added later on /dev/hda5) I left /dev/hdb alone then and partitioned later.
1. DSL 3.4.1 Installer Bug: originally, I had the virtual cdroms on IDE0 and the virtual drives on IDE1. However the installer attempted to write to IDE0 (ie. cdrom) during the installation process. The workaround was to change the order of the virtual devices in the VM configuration. After that, I got a clean install.
5. I continue learning about how to persist changes with DSL 3.41
6. .. time passes...
7. I run out of drive space(?) After looking around (and understanding the out of space issue, unrelated to this bug,) I discover that my boot (virtual) hard drive, while seemingly properly defined in fstab, is being mapped as a cdrom in mtab. Thus, I am booted from /dev/hda1, mapped as the root ( "/") and mounted back to its self as /cdrom.

Below is my /etc/mtab which shows the error(s), the /etc/fstab which looks clean, /proc/self/mount which shows the error and /KNOPPIX/etc/mtab which seems correct.

My question is (obviously), how do I correct the /cdrom mounting to be /dev/scda0 (right?) and leave /dev/hda1 (as defined in /etc/fstab) as the bootable drive?

Below are copies of the files in question. I added the --> to help highlight sections of interest.

/etc/mtab

Code Sample

/dev/root / ext2 rw 0 0
--> /dev/hda1 /cdrom ext2 rw 0 0
/dev/cloop /KNOPPIX iso9660 ro 0 0
/ramdisk /ramdisk tmpfs rw,size=397652k,size=870598k 0 0
/proc/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw,devmode=0666 0 0
unionfs /KNOPPIX/bin unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/bin=rw:/bin=ro 0 0
unionfs /dev unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/dev=rw:/dev=ro 0 0
unionfs /etc unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/etc=rw:/etc=rw 0 0
unionfs /KNOPPIX/lib unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/lib=rw:/lib=ro 0 0
unionfs /KNOPPIX/sbin unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/sbin=rw:/sbin=ro 0 0
unionfs /KNOPPIX/usr unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/usr=rw:/usr=ro 0 0
unionfs /ramdisk/var unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/var=rw 0 0

/etc/fstab

Code Sample

/proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
/dev/pts /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/auto/floppy auto user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
# Commented the following line out but didn't make an differences:
#/dev/cdrom /mnt/auto/cdrom auto user,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
# ########
--> /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 ext2 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/hda5 none swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /cluster ext3 auto,users,exec 0 0

/proc/self/mount

Code Sample

rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
/dev/root.old / ext2 rw 0 0
/proc /proc proc rw 0 0
/dev/pts /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
--> /dev/hda1 /cdrom ext2 rw 0 0
/dev/cloop /KNOPPIX iso9660 ro 0 0
/ramdisk /ramdisk tmpfs rw 0 0
/proc/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0
unionfs /KNOPPIX/bin unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/bin=rw:/KNOPPIX/bin=ro,debug=0,delete=all,copyup=preserve 0 0
unionfs /dev unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/dev=rw:/dev=ro,debug=0,delete=all,copyup=preserve 0 0
unionfs /etc unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/etc=rw:/etc=ro,debug=0,delete=all,copyup=preserve 0 0
unionfs /KNOPPIX/lib unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/lib=rw:/KNOPPIX/lib=ro,debug=0,delete=all,copyup=preserve 0 0
unionfs /KNOPPIX/sbin unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/sbin=rw:/KNOPPIX/sbin=ro,debug=0,delete=all,copyup=preserve 0 0
unionfs /KNOPPIX/usr unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/usr=rw:/KNOPPIX/usr=ro,debug=0,delete=all,copyup=preserve 0 0
unionfs /ramdisk/var unionfs rw,dirs=/ramdisk/var=rw,debug=0,delete=all,copyup=preserve 0 0

/KNOPPIX/etc

Code Sample

/dev/hda6 / ext2 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
usb /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw,devmode=0666 0 0
--> /dev/hda1 /KNOPPIX.build ext2 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/hda3 /KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master ext2 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 11 2007,13:53

There is no problem. Frugal will mount your root partition as /cdrom -- this is due to the same convention system used via livecd.
/dev/scd0 etc. should be used in the corresponding mountpoint in /mnt

About #4: the installer should ask which partition you would like to install in. If you had set up IDE0 containing the cdroms, your hdd partitions would be hdc or hdd (run fdisk -l).

Posted by mikeBigg on Sep. 11 2007,15:30

Thanks ^thehatsrule^. It hadn't occurred to me that this mapping would be "by design."