Code to change from read-only file system to read/write file system?

[Hakan Koseoglu]

Hi Antonio,

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 9:31 PM, Antonio Augusto (Mancha)
<mkhaos7 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just to point one thing out: recently I've ended with a read-only file
> system in jaunty, and when doing a mount it woul print exactly that:
> saying that my root was rw, but, in fact it was read only...
> Maybe this is happening with Steven.
Indeed that's what is happening here. This is actually quite normal.
The mount status information is stored on a file called /etc/mtab.
The mtabl file is supposed to be in sync with /etc/fstab (as far as
the number of mounts, what's mounted where etc.). When your system
crashes and you manage to nurse the system back up, /etc/mtab might
not be updated (i.e., a read-only file system) and any subsequent
mount command will plainly lie. :)

Usually once you sort out your problem and reboot, the file system
gets mounted as read-write and mtab gets overwritten with the real
state of the system and the problem gets resolved.

Unfortunately Steven lost his /etc/fstab file. Now we can recover this
by substitution, most of the normal users tend to have a single
partition (hopefully) living on / mounted from /dev/sda1. Swap is
usually on /dev/sda5 so you can actually write it from scratch.
Unfortunately Steven is a normal user and doesn't know most of the
commands.

I think it's time to throw the towel and recommend a full reinstallation. :(

I hate it when this happens.
-- 
Hakan (m1fcj) - http://www.hititgunesi.org