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On Sat, Apr 19, 2014 at 8:54 PM, Peter Humphrey <peter@××××××××××××.uk> wrote: |
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> On Saturday 19 Apr 2014 07:43:18 Walter Dnes wrote: |
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>> I've got another thread going called... |
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>> "Strange behaviour with LILO on new install on old laptop". Before I |
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>> file a bug report, I want to check first whether it's my fault. Can |
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>> people here do me a favour? If you have a Gentoo install CD or USB key |
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>> handy, and are willing to reboot, can you please do the following... |
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>> |
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>> 1) boot from the install ISO |
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>> 2) chroot to a running environment |
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>> 3) list the output from the 2 commands |
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>> mount |
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>> cat /etc/mtab |
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>> |
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>> I'm getting absolutely no output at all from those 2 commands in the |
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>> install chroot. That screws up the lilo ebuild install process. I want |
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>> to check whether blank /etc/mtab is my fault or not. |
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> |
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> The installation handbook used to include a command to write /etc/mtab in the |
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> chroot by grepping the host mtab, but it's been removed and I haven't been |
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> able to find it. Meanwhile, I think it's standard behaviour for mtab not to be |
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> populated during the installation process. |
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> |
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> So I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who knows what mtab should |
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> contain. |
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> |
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|
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/etc/mtab is practically outdated. It's supposed to contain the list |
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of currently |
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mounted filesystems and the corresponding options, to be updated by the mount |
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command when doing changes. You'll notice, of course, that this doesn't at all |
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sound anything like most of the files in /etc - that's because the |
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list of filesystems |
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in a modern Linux changes a lot more frequently than the original |
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Unixes. Instead |
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of a config file, /etc/mtab essentially holds system state, which is something |
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that is more appropriate for /var or /proc or /sys. |
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|
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And that's what /etc/mtab today should contain. Linux automatically updates |
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/proc/self/mounts to hold what /etc/mtab used to hold, and a modern /etc/mtab |
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should essentially just be a symlink to that. |
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|
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But of course, legacy. So the mount command will fail to function properly |
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if you are, for example, in a read-only filesystem, or in a chroot, or otherwise |
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in some situation where /etc/mtab was not updated by the mount command to |
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match the contents of /proc/self/mounts. |
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|
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-- |
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Response needed: [ ] yes [x] up to you [ ] no |
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