Can't edit fstab as it's a read only file

[worldttle]

I had to remove one of my harddisks because it crashed. Now when I boot I get kicked to bash when the system cannot find the removed harddisk and won't proceed any further.

I have tried repeatedly to edit fstab using the vi editor to remove the line that references the harddisk which has been removed. However I always get the message that fstab is a read only file.

However chmod shows I have read/write permission for fstab. What am I missing here?

Thanks.

[leigh123linux]

Originally Posted by worldttle

I had to remove one of my harddisks because it crashed. Now when I boot I get kicked to bash when the system cannot find the removed harddisk and won't proceed any further.

I have tried repeatedly to edit fstab using the vi editor to remove the line that references the harddisk which has been removed. However I always get the message that fstab is a read only file.

However chmod shows I have read/write permission for fstab. What am I missing here?

Thanks.

You need root permission to edit this file

su -
gedit /etc/fstab

or for kde

su -
kwrite /etc/fstab

try nano for editing

[worldttle]

Thank you for your suggestion, but after using su - , nano nor vi still not allow me to edit fstab.

Nano gives the message: [ Error writing fstab: Read-only file system ].

John

[srs]

Try to edit fstab after booting to failsafe mode.

[Seve]

Hello:
After typing
su -
did you enter your root password and then enter and then
type
gedit /etc/fstab

Seve

[pete_1967]

And if, when you try to save the file (:w) in Vim it tells you file is read-only, add exclamation mark at the end of write command -> ':w!'

[nick.stumpos]

is it immutable try as root chattr -i

[worldttle]

When the boot process aborts upon failing to find the removed harddisk, it asks for a password before dropping into bash. At this point I enter my root password before (I assume) entering bash.

When I type su -, it does not ask for a password. I just get the prompt line again. I would guess su see that I'm already logged in as root?

How do I boot into failsafe mode?

Thanks.

[worldttle]

Nope, :w! doesn't do it.

Thanks.

[pete_1967]

You are doing something seriously wrong now.

do `ls -l /etc/fstab`in console and post the result here. Also do `whoami` in console and post the result here (when you are logged in as root).

[srs]

I should rather called failsafe for runlevel 1 (single-user mode)... Anyway, boot into single-user mode and try the following taken from http://www.unixguide.net/linux/faq/04.15.shtml:

Root File System Is Read-Only
Remount it. If /etc/fstab is correct, you can simply type:

mount -n -o remount /

If /etc/fstab is wrong, you must give the device name and possibly the
type, too: e.g.

mount -n -o remount -t ext2 /dev/hda2 /

To understand how you got into this state, see, ("EXT2-fs: warning:
mounting unchecked file system.")

[worldttle]

ls -l /etc/ftab returns -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 729 Oct19 2237 /etc/fstab

whoami returns root

By the way, when the boot process stops, it asks for the root password to continue or Ctr-D to reboot. I enter the root password at this point and get the '(Repair filesystem) 1 #' prompt.

Thanks.

[worldttle]

Bingo! srs is correct.

mount -n -o remount / allowed fstab to be edited.

Thanks to everyone.

[fnmblot]

Thanks a million for this post! I was almost ready to reinstall FC6.
fnmblot

[Jongi]

Great stuff srs. I once *****ed about why in that state you couldn't get write access instead you had to boot from the rescue disk. This will prove very valuable I am sure.