installing an OS on a partioned drive

[Bruno]

Hi DaleWhat about:

# swaret --remove gnome -a

and after that

# swaret --install gnome -a

?? What do you think, would that be an option ??Or because of your wacky dial-up connection: first "--get gnome" . . and then if all packages are there "--install gnome"Or . . remove Gnome and use KDEB) Bruno

[longgone]

Bruno,,,If I could finish the boot up process, I could try that. At the moment it gets part way through the boot and then I get a warning that hdb1 has errors and it is checking it then I can a ... continue with normal boot use ...control-d or in parens it says use root password which will put me in a maintenance mode but I have no idea how or what to do when I get there.

[Bruno]

Hi DaleThe normal procedure would be ( Ext2/3 ) as root:Put it in single user mode:

# init 1

Then remount / in read only mode:

# mount -o remount,ro /# e2fsck /dev/hdb1

Then remount / in readwrite mode:

# mount -o remount,rw /

Last step, back to where you came from:

# init 3

But if you have Ext3 or ReiserFS it should automaically have recovered the journal . . . . . . ( But the above works on Ext3 too )If all this does not work I guess you will have to reinstall . . . my advice would be to stay on 9.1 and wait with upgradiing to "current" till next version comes on the mirrors, can't be longer then a month or two. Bruno

[longgone]

Bruno,,,Well could not get in, working on the 4th re-install at this time ..... ahhhhh ..... time .... is forever

[Bruno]

Hi DaleI wish you luck with the new install . . . and please don't upgrade to "current" this time . . . 9.1 is a very nice version of Slackware . . . only a written guarantee from your ISP that the line will stay UP would change this advice I am giving o:) Bruno

[longgone]

Bruno,,,,,Well did a re-install of Slack 9.1, seemed to go well, did the update then the upgrades for Slack 9.1. Did not have one dropped connection, amazing, simply amazing, after all upgrades were done and installed, did (as root) shutdown -r now. It rebooted all the way up to the line that says starting X11Session manager now and that is where it stuck at ... no further did it go ... Suggestions, Instructions, Directions, are all welcomed. I am almost to the point of just ordering another set of disks from a different source.

[Bruno]

Hi DaleWell, congrats my friend !! . . No disconnections this time ?About the failing reboot: I suppose you upgraded to "current" . . and got the new KDE . . . in that case the issue is that you were still in KDE 3.1 and your reboot had to close the display manager with the tools used in 3.2 . . this fails. Closing down with "shutdown -h now" would work, but the "-r" option fails.However this is only this one time, because next time you will boot in 3.2 and reboot/shutdown in 3.2 and all the tools are right.Now I hope you have Ext3 or ReiserFS as filesystem, because those ones recovers mostly without problems. ( Ext2 would be a bit more tricky and in the worst case you will have to run "fsck /dev/hda??" to check and repair the filesystem before it will boot. But I assume you have Ext3 so no problem )So jut boot up and you will see that the next time you will have no problem rebooting or shutting down. BrunoPS: If you are still at the point where it is blocked, and have not shut down yet see: If All Else FailsPS2: In the good old days you could only upgrade KDE if you were outside X

[longgone]

Bruno,,,,,,If it were only that easy,, did not yet attempt to go to Slack current, am still in the 9.1 mode. But I did try to reboot (ctrl+alt+del) twice and nothing changed, still stopped at the same place. Yes , not one dropped connection, I almost had a stroke.

[Bruno]

Hi DaleCtrl+Alt+Del will only log you out . . "shutdown -h now" is the only way . . . . Try: Ctrl+Alt+F1 and you will get a black screen with a prompt, log in as "root" ( not "su" ) and type

shutdown -h now

If even this fails do the Skinny Elephants from the Tip I linked you to in previous post . . ;) Bruno

[longgone]

Bruno,,,Okay will give it a shot, have nothing to lose, at least not yet. Hummmm ...skinny elephants ,,,,, is that sort of like jumbo shrimp ????

[rolanaj]

Bruno I have trouble getting shutdown -h to work in Mandrake I use halt and for some reason that works, not sure if I fail to login in as root and only use su or not (still not shutting the computer off if I can avoid it) At any rate this might be one more option to try

[Bruno]

Hi RolanaI think "halt" only works in Mandrake . . . . . and "shutdown -h now" only works if you are root . . so first "su" and the < rootpassword > and after that "shutdown -h now" should work on any Linux distro. :DBut you better keep your system running as long as you do not have a replacement for your power supply . . . Bruno

[Bruno]

Bruno,,,Okay will give it a shot, have nothing to lose, at least not yet. Hummmm ...skinny elephants ,,,,, is that sort of like jumbo shrimp ????

Bruno

[longgone]

Bruno,,,Tried both suggestions,,,, skinny elephants are still skinny ,,, and ctrl+alt+f1 did not do anything either ..... the next step is .... what ?????????????????/

[Bruno]

Hi DaleThe Skinny Elephants did not work ?? That is a novelty, never happened to me . . . . well only one option left: the thing you should never do in Linux: push the "reset" button . . or pull the plug . . . . . . Man, I sure hope it will recover the filesystem allright Bruno

[tranquilo]

For the bare.i kernel (without acpi) the alt-sysrq function is not enabled in the kernel. A kernel recompile is necessary to enable it. Perhaps some of the other slackware kernels have it enabled, but this one does not.Search for CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ=y in your kernel config file (in /boot), if it is set to n or the whole line doesn't exist, it's not enabled.As far as Dale's problem... I would suggest booting in runlevel 3 or 1, and starting X manually with startx, or starting the display manager manually, and checking the log files for any error messages. /var/log/messages and /var/log/XF86Config.0.log may be a good place to begin looking.hthtranquilo

[longgone]

Gentlemen,,,,,,,I have hit that reset button several times ... and it all comes back to the same spot on the boot process .... starting X11 session manager and then the blinking (blipin') cursor .... and no further do I go .... as far as whattranquilo says ... ... don't know how to do any of that nor where to even start at .... thought that maybe clicking F1 at the start might get me somewhere but all that ended up doing was after several attempts at that .. the reset button ... and the "3" fingered salute .. I ended up calling Microsoft to get a new code to re-activate the XP part of this fiasco ... tell me I am not an accomplished el destructo person ... so any really good suggestions before I do it all over again ?

[Bruno]

Hi DaleReconfigure X . . that is what you could do before reinstalling:Flip in your CD and at the first prompt type

linux single

that will boot it in single user mode . . once booted you get an odd prompt, something like: "sh-2.05b#" type:

init 3

that will put you in runlevel 3 . . then go though the Tip: http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.ph...14&t=503&st=230Crossing my fingersB) Bruno

[longgone]

Wellllll,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, grrrr...... uncross them thar fingers ... that did not work either ..... got a bazillion errors telling me that the hard disk did not finish and reisers was this that an the other an the ext3 was incomplete and that is how it is now ...... ?????

[Bruno]

. . .Very sad event Dale . . you will have to wipe that partition ( those partitions ) . . . Easiest is to flip in a Mandrake install CD and at the screen for partitions choose "custom" . . . you will get the Drake partitioner, delete all the partitions that are faulty and create, then format them again . . . . after that go one screen further and at the package selection . abort the install . . then you will have the new partitions set up . . . . . it is a sad day in Linux-town . . our thoughts are with you and the messed up drive . . :devil: Bruno

[Bruno]

PART 2Dale here is a preview of a Tip that I am still working on . . maybe it can be of use:

FILESYSTEMCHECK ( fsck )Here is one command of the previous Tip I would like to elaborate: fsckIf you have a corrupt file system ( Ext2/3 ) and you have to do a manual check and repair on it in "single user mode", here are 4 ways how to do it:1). If you are booting from Mandrakes Lilo the story is simple: choose option "failsafe" from the menu, this will boot you automatically, without any hassle, in "single user mode" ( you get an odd looking prompt like "sh-2.05b# ) and you can do:

# fsck /dev/hdb1

( replace hdb1 with the partition you want to run the check on )2). Other graphical Lilo's allow you to do Ctrl+X to get a prompt where you type:

linux single

it will than also boot in "single user mode"3). Another option is to flip in any Linux CD ( Live or install ) and at the prompt type

linux single

( For knoppix it is "knoppix single" )4). Now, in case you did already boot, but the boot failed half way before getting to X, and you are thrown back at the text screen with a prompt. Here is how to do it if you are in runlevel 3:Put it in "single user mode" , ( back to runlevel 1 ):

# init 1

Then remount / in read only mode:

# mount -o remount,ro /# fsck /dev/hdb1

( replace hdb1 with the partition you want to run the check on ) Most of the times the -a, -A and -P options are not recommended, see "man fsck"Then remount / in readwrite mode:

# mount -o remount,rw /

Last step, back to where you came from:

# init 3

The chances are that your file system will be fixed, but there is no guarantee.The chance that you will have to do this are much slimmer on an Ext3 file system then on Ext2. So there is one more reason yo always choose an Ext3 format :devil: BrunoPS: Here is how to do it with Grub

[longgone]

Why can't I just put the Slack CD in and when it prompts chose cfdisk then delete all those partions (only two root and home) and the start all over with new partions again and another (lost count now) re-re-install. Wouldn't that be the same thing as what you said ?

[Bruno]

Yep, Dale . . but that is the easy way . . . I was just trying make it a bit more complicated . . .and maybe recover data. Hope your HD is not too corrupted . . . Bruno

[longgone]

Bruno,,,posting from Mndrke 9.2 here ... well ... does not make much difference right now I just went in through DiskDrake and wiped hdb clean .. (home of Slack) so now I shall start again ... but this time I will not do shutdown -r now ... will use -h instead ....

[Bruno]

Hi DaleThere is basically nothing wrong with "shutdown -r now" for a reboot . . . only after upgrading the -h option is safer . . ( before you get the impression there are "unsafe" commands ) Bruno

[longgone]

Bruno,,,Now posting from the re-install of Slack, so far, so good, have done the swaret --update and have stopped there for awhile ... will attempt the rest later on.On the desktop I have an icon that I think is supposed to be the Dales home icon, but it is a dog earred page and has ... start here ... underneath it .. when I click on it, I get the error "malformed URL" , can this be fixed, do I really need that icon, what can I do about/with it.

[Bruno]

Hi DaleI think ( know for sure ) the "start here" icon is not your /home but a page that explains how Slack works . . a kind of Slack advertising page. ( rightclick and look at properties and not down the url )If you want/need a Home icon on your desktop do this: Richtclick and choose "create link to application" and on the 3rd tab in the command box put:

kfmclient openProfile filemanagement

On the 2nd tab set the permissions to:Owner read and writeGroup readOthers readOn the 1st tab write "Dale's Home" and look for a nice icon by clicking on the icon box.That should do the trick :DB) Bruno

[longgone]

Well, here I am again with another pain. Was getting ready to go "current" on Slack install, have not been in it since last weekend. I get all the way to the "starting X11 Sessions manager" and then I have a glitch somewhere. It tries to start the graphical user several times but fails. I get an error that states that the pointer (mouse) is not set up correctly (worked fine last weekend) it tells me the following info:using config file "/etc/X11/XF86Config(EE) mouse0: no protocol specified(EE) preinit failed for input device "mouse0"no core pointerduring the install, all was fine, I used the mouse and had no problems. It has sat all week without me using Slack at all. I was waiting for the weekend to try to upgrade to current, but now I am DIW ... any ideas on what might have caused this and how can I fix it .

[Bruno]

Hi DaleLooks like you are not very lucky with your Slackware install . . . . Try to reconfigure X ( in runlevel 3 ) with "xfree86setup" . . . . it should set up your mouse too . . ( If xfree86setup refuses to work properly see This Tip ) Bruno

[longgone]

Well......... shucks ,,, that did not work, it tells me that everything that could go wrong probably did go wrong. Tried to start over but now when running #2 disk .. I get a "fatal" error message when it is trying to install /var. So, I shall put this adventure in Slack aside for a week or so, I ordered another Slack set from a different outlet. I was thinking maybe the other set might have gotten corrupted, or something else. Just wanted to put out an update on the last help tip.