mtab SNAFU
I had a problem of multiple mountings of /media/usb-key, and I was
struggling without success to umount them. (tried -f option for
umount, tried to find mount PID to delete it, tried fuser), and in
desperation I deleted the multiple instances from /etc/mtab. I should
have consulted first, but didn't want to be pain.
This got me into trouble, for deleting the lines for /media/usb-key
actually caused all lines to disapper. I tried to restore /etc/mtab
from a backlup, but the copy failed because no space left on device,
which is contrary to fact. I ended up with an empty /etc/mtab and then
no no mtab at all. In fact, /etc/ is half used and I've deleted files
from the USB-key so that it is only half used. I can't run df because
it can't find mtab.)
I'm running a stock etch kernel. For whatever it's worth, the line in
/etc/fstab for usb-key is:
/dev/sdd1 /media/usb-key vfat rw,user,noauto 0 0
At the moment the mount command appears nomrally for directories on my
hard disk, but ends with this unusual statement for the /media/usb-key:
/dev/sdd1 on /media/usb-key type vfat
(rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,
codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1)
My intuition tells me that if I were to reboot, the /etc/mtab file will be
reconstituted normally and my multiple mounted usb-key problem will be
over, but I'm afraid I'll simply be unable to access my hd, and so
need resassurance. Is it safe to reboot?
Multiple instances of mounting is a common problem, but in all the
discussion, I've yet to see a definitive answer.
--
Haines Brown, KB1GRM
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