Subject: Re: Can't mount the root partition r/w! :(
To: None <port-acorn32@netbsd.org>
From: Peter Bell <peter@bellfamily.org.uk>
List: port-acorn32
Date: 11/05/2002 17:47:19
In message <20021015103744.A17884@rangerover.13thmonkey.org>
Reinoud Zandijk <reinoud@netbsd.org> wrote:
Sorry to take so long to get back to this!
> On Sun, Oct 13, 2002 at 11:54:12PM +0100, Peter Bell wrote:
> > It's been a while since I last played with my NetBSD box (using one of
> > the 'daily' releases of 1.6), so I thought that I would do a fresh
> > install from scratch.
> >
> > However, having fetched all the sets via ftp and unpacked them (all
> > under the control of sysinst), I then alter fastboot to load the
> > kernel from the NetBSD disk (I have wd1, on the RPC internal
> > interface, dedicated to BSD). Fine - it boots up, but with the
> > partition mounted r/o, and whatever I do, I can't get it into a
> > writable state.
>
> Sounds fine... i guess you had to edit the `fastboot' file to configure to
> use wd1?
Yes.
> > # mount
> > root_device on / type ffs (read-only, local)
> > # mount -u -w /
> > mount_ffs: root_device on /: No such file or directory
>
> Hmm... if rc.conf is not configured it will stop at this place yes. I think
> your /etc/fstab needs some attention. I think something is wrong in there
> that gives rise to both problems.
Yep, the fstab was in a 'funny' state.
There were 3 lines in it - for root, swp and usr, but the root and usr
lines were commented out, and didn't even have the mount points
specified. Removing the # and adding a / for the root partition got
things up and running!
Would this have resulted from selecting 'keep existing' partitions
when it came to create the disk label - ISTR seeing something about
having to specify the mount points if taking this option?
Otherwise, the 'funny' state may have been a result of using wd1 for
BSD (wd0 remains totally dedicated to filecore).
Anyway, I'm just going through the complete installation again, this
time setting custom partition sizes. I intend to use this box as a
server, so most of the disk will be used for /var. What is a sensible
size to set for the /usr partition, to allow for system builds etc.?
As a first cut, I'm using 1000MB root, 500MB swap, 1500MB usr and the
other 40000MB var. Obviously, I could allow more /usr space if
necessary.
--
Peter Bell - peter@bellfamily.org.uk