Re: Unable to change tty /dev/tty1 : Read Only file System

[Douglas Allan Tutty <dtutty@porchlight.ca>]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 12:23:48PM +0900, Mr.Suhas Ghosh wrote:

> I am using Debian Sarge. My root file system is read only.
> Now after login I am getting a error like this:
> Unable to change tty /dev/tty1 : Read Only file System.
> Though it successfully login.
> Can you please suggest me how to get relief from this message.
 
Hi Suhas,

Please clarify: is it your intention that your root filesystem be
readonly or that the boot process is failing before the root filesystem
is remounted rw after a successful fsck?


First, look at the kernel bootargs.  There _should_ be one ro which
tells the kernel to start with it ro, then an init script
(S10checkroot.sh) remounts it rw after the successful fsck.  Also,
/etc/fstab should have a line like (on my sarge box):
	/dev/hda5 	/ 	ext3 	errors=remount-ro 	0 1

Second, boot single mode (kernel boot args: single [actually, this
argument gets passed to init]).  Boot should progress and you should
boot into single user mode (it will ask you for the root password).

If this doesn't fix the problem, boot with the argument init=/bin/sh
which bypasses all the sysvinit stuff and spits you to a shell.  If you
enter
	#mount
you should see that / is mounted ro

	#cd /etc/rcS.d
	# ls

These are all the scripts that get run for all boots.
for each script, run it with the argument start, e.g.
	#./S02mountvirtfs start
and watch for errors.

After S10checkroot.sh, you should find that / is mounted rw.

If not, you should have some error messages to give us.

Good luck,

Doug.