Sequence of entries in /etc/fstab

[Doug Laidlaw]

In /etc/fstab, the / partition should be the first entry, as it must be
mounted first. Any partitions above it will be mounted and fsck will be
unable to check them.

How do I get around this requirement with two flavours of Linux? It seems
to me that there cannot be any overlap between partitions, even to the
extent of mounting the "home" partition of one as a partition in the /mnt
of the other, or the above rule will be contravened.

Incidentally to the above, I have my second OS on /dev/hdb, with the root
partition on /dev/hdb5, and swap on /dev/hdb6. I have implemented the
scheme in the LILO HOWTO, making /dev/hdb5 appear as /dev/hda5. I get a
message: Unable to mount root filesystem on 03:06. I thought that 03:06
was /mnt/hda6. Nowhere is there a directive to mount root on /dev/hda6 or
/dev/hdb6.

Doug.
--
Registered Linux User No. 277548.
They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place. My typing is
about as accurate. Apologies for any typos that slip in. - Doug.

[mjt]

Doug Laidlaw wrote:

> How do I get around this requirement with two flavours of Linux?

.... i'm a little unclear what you're trying to do. is this
a multi-boot machine, with two or more OS's on it that you
are booting into? are you having an issue booting one? tell
us a little more about what is not happening/wanting to do.
show us:
# fdisk -l /dev/hd*
and the contents of /etc/fstab's
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
\\\ [url]http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mtobler/mjt_linux_page.html[/url] ///
"Well, if you can't believe what you read in a comic book, what
*can* you believe?!" - Bullwinkle J. Moose [Jay Ward]

[Bill Marcum]

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 00:54:03 +1000, Doug Laidlaw
<laidlaws@myaccess.com.au> wrote:

> In /etc/fstab, the / partition should be the first entry, as it must be
> mounted first. Any partitions above it will be mounted and fsck will be
> unable to check them.
>
> How do I get around this requirement with two flavours of Linux? It seems
> to me that there cannot be any overlap between partitions, even to the
> extent of mounting the "home" partition of one as a partition in the /mnt
> of the other, or the above rule will be contravened.
>

I think you may have misunderstood the rule. The root partition must be
mounted first, but that has nothing to do with the physical location of
the partitions.

> Incidentally to the above, I have my second OS on /dev/hdb, with the root
> partition on /dev/hdb5, and swap on /dev/hdb6. I have implemented the
> scheme in the LILO HOWTO, making /dev/hdb5 appear as /dev/hda5. I get a
> message: Unable to mount root filesystem on 03:06. I thought that 03:06
> was /mnt/hda6. Nowhere is there a directive to mount root on /dev/hda6 or
> /dev/hdb6.
>

If your two operating systems are both Linux distros, I don't see a need
to remap hdb to hda.


--
Commander Spiral Pyjama Pseudo-Rhinocerous Feline Thingamajig Bill Marcum
(the First)
Ozy and Millie Name Generator [url]http://heifong.phase.org/omname.php[/url]

[Doug Laidlaw]

mjt wrote:

> Doug Laidlaw wrote:
>

>> How do I get around this requirement with two flavours of Linux?

>
> ... i'm a little unclear what you're trying to do. is this
> a multi-boot machine, with two or more OS's on it that you
> are booting into? are you having an issue booting one? tell
> us a little more about what is not happening/wanting to do.
> show us:
> # fdisk -l /dev/hd*
> and the contents of /etc/fstab's
> .

Thanks, I have it working now. I have Win98 and Mandrake 9.0. I tried to
add Knoppix, via a /mnt/knoppix partition in Mandrake, but had problems in
that (a) ext3 was not supported; and(b) Knoppix' partitions were too "new"
to be checked with Mandrake's e2fsck. I now have Morphix, a "flavour" of
Knoppix which does support ext3, and I have installed the newest e2fsck.
Morphix' own lilo.conf did not seem to specify a root partition, but I
copied the entry across into Mandrake's lilo.conf without thinking. I was
getting in the first line

"(?)knoppixEDBA too big"

then a dot on the next line. I am not sure about the abbreviation, except
that it was "run on" to "knoppix". When I realized that and put in the
line for the root partition, everything worked.

In answer to Bill, my argument was this.

The root partition must be mounted first. For example, in Mandrake, I have
/boot on /dev/hda5 and /root on /dev/hda7. /dev/hda7 comes first in
/etc/fstab. My knoppix partition is on the third line, so when it boots,
there are already two partitions mounted ahead of it. It doesn't seem to
matter now, though.

Doug.

--
Registered Linux User No. 277548.
They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place. My typing is
about as accurate. Apologies for any typos that slip in. - Doug.