Removed 2nd Hard Drive - Won't boot...

[Mtnear]

I've had FC2 installed on my linux system for a while now. I just removed the slave hard drive to use in another computer and now on boot up the system errors out because it can't find the drive / directory.

The boot screen drops me into a shell prompt with the error, "An error occurred during the file system check. The system will reboot when you leave the shell." It then asks for the root password for maintenance, which I provide, but after that I don't know what to do.

How do I let the system know that the drive no longer exists, and to continue with the normal boot process? Thanks.

[CrystalCowboy]

I am going to presume that none of the critical OS components were located on the now-removed disk.

Check file /etc/fstab. Assuming the simplest case of IDE/ATA disks, your primary master disk is /hda, and the various partitions are /hda1, /hda2, ... The primary slave disk is /hdb, so look for any partitions of that in /etc/fstab and comment out those lines with an editor by placeing # at the beginning of the line. Then reboot.

If critical OS info is indeed on the disk you removed, then put it back in place temporarily (you didn't erase or write over it already, did you?) and backup anything you want to keep, because you probably need to do a re-install.

[Mtnear]

Okay, thanks. But how do I check fstab from the shell prompt. Do I just need to type something like gedit /etc/fstab?

The slave drive that I removed was completely blank, and was only there for storage. No critical OS components were housed on that drive.

[Mtnear]

By the way, if I type gedit /etc/fstab at the prompt I get a "warning - cannot open display" message. If I just try to go to /etc/fstab I get a "permission denied" (even after typing in my root pass).

?

[crackers]

1) You can't use gedit in text mode - it's a Gnome GUI app.
2) Try this:

# cat /etc/fstab

[Mtnear]

Thanks, but cat /etc/fstab results in "file not found". Is there more to the pathname or something?

[jayemef]

You can use vi to edit the file though. To do this, type

vi /etc/fstab

Then use the following keys to edit:
j: move cursor down
k: move cursor up
l: move cursor right
h: move cursor left
i: enter insert mode
esc: exit insert mode

SHIFT + ZZ: exit and save

That should do it. Those are the important ones. Vi takes some getting used to, but it can definitely grow on you. It is my editor of choice after having used it for the last year and a half for programming assignments. I have to laugh every time I use another text editor and start typing letters to move up and down.


EDIT:

Thanks, but cat /etc/fstab results in "file not found". Is there more to the pathname or something?

That would suggest then that you did manage to store critical files on your second drive. Try

ls /etc

If fstab doesn't show up, do a whereis fstab.

[Mtnear]

Typing "help" at the grub prompt lists the available command choices and vi and ls are not available choices. They just return "unrecognized command".

[jayemef]

This is partly our fault, not explicitly telling you to return your computer to a state where you can boot up into linux (hopefully by simply sticking the second harddrive back in and trying again). If you can boot up again though, these are the things you want to check. Once you look all of that over, try taking the harddrive back out and see if you can still get it to boot.

It is still possible that something like vi won't work for you, even when you are booted into linux. If it doesn't, it simply means you didn't install it. I can't remember if vi is one of the default text editors or not...

[Mtnear]

Oh, okay. I'm still learning, so I guess you can't leave anything out with me.

This brings me to a problem. The reason I took the second drive out of my linux computer was to replace the primary drive in my windows computer that decided to crap out. I'm not going to be able to put that drive back in now to get the FC2 computer to boot up.

I really hope there is something else that I can do here. I had FC2 running perfectly and I really don't want to have to do a fresh install and start over. Thanks for your help.

[Mtnear]

Seriously, I can't believe that I'm going to have to re-install this whole distro just because I took out a piece of hardware. What up?

Does this mean that you always have to edit your /etc/fstab prior to removing any hardware from your linux pc? If this is the case, then there should be a reminder or how-to somewhere to warn people that they are going to lose a working system should they decide to remove hardware.

[imdeemvp]

where was fc2 installed in primary or slave? now try to reinstall the grub like this:
using cd1 at the prompt type: linux rescue
at the bash do this:
chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/hda

[Mtnear]

Thanks mvp, but I've probably already screwed something up.

The OS was loaded on the primary. I removed the secondary.

I used a mepis linux live cd to get the system up and running, and then used the kwrite editor under root to remove the "label=/tmp...." line (/tmp was the label for the slave drive that I removed). Now when FC2 boots it acts as though everything is okay, but then goes to a blank screen. It's almost as if the desktop is there but the monitor cannot provide the video or something.

I'm on the verge of just re-installing. I just really didn't want to have to do that.

[imdeemvp]

use my fstab as your guide to see which line you are missing:

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/winxp -t ntfs -r -o umask=0222
/dev/hda2 /mnt/windows vfat users,rw,owner,umask=000 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbflash vfat noauto,user,umask=0 0 0

you can also use nano to edit your fstab: nano /etc/fstab and to save it pressed Ctrl+O

[Mtnear]

Thanks man, but I can't tell what I'm missing. I'm just going to re-install. Very disappointing. Will have to remember this for the future.