mount doesn't work in single user mode

Dominik · 02-07-2004, 02:45 AM

Hello,

I wrote a wrong line in my freebsd fstab file & the machines boot now in
single user mode.

I found a lot of documentation on the subject...But mount doesn't work so I
can use nor vi to edit fstab neither a floppy-file the overwrite fstab.

As I hadn't made a fstab.bak i'can't overwrite fstab directly.

Reinstalling free is the only remaining solution or is there another way to reach
fstab in this user mode ?

Thanks for your suggestion

frob23 · 02-07-2004, 03:48 AM

Did you make sure the drives are clean?

fsck /dev/ad0s1a or whatever?

Also... you might need to enter the whole path /sbin/mount

Now, did you actually mess with the layout of how the root partition is seen? There are ways around everything but if you didn't you can just type mount -a and it will mount all the clean partitions.

Dominik · 02-10-2004, 01:05 AM

Thanks for the answer frob23,

I've added a ntfs patition in the fstab using the linux options. Apparently free doesn't accept them.

As I was still unable to use mount, even through /sbin/mount, I reinstalled free.

chort · 02-10-2004, 03:14 AM

I've had that situation before where I couldn't mount the partition that vi was on. What I did was use ed to edit /etc/fstab. Yeah, it's a pain in the rear, but if you have a print out of the basic ed commands next to you, you can limp your way through it.

By the way, you know that you don't have to do mount -a to mount specific partitions, right? You could just mount a single partition with mount /dev/ad0s1d /usr, or whatever it happens to be...