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#1 2012-01-20 00:52:44

jonog
Member
Registered: 2012-01-19
Posts: 7

[Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

I recently tried doing an update, the new pacman installed fine, but when trying to add the remaining new packages I get errors about my root mount point. I dont think pacman is at fault because both mtab and df show the root fs is absent.

About a week ago, after a different update my system did not start the kde-desktop and I was taken to a shell with a read-only drive. I got around this by configuring fstab with an arch-usb, but it seems like things aren't fully back to the way they were. I've been noticing failures on shutdown/reboot, but the output is too quick for me to post them.

I believe my probelm could be due to either fstab or the initscripts, as I updated my system without reading the news beforehand (a lession learned).

Thanks for any help/advice!

error: could not determine root mount point /
error: not enough free disk space
error: failed to commit transaction (not enough free disk space)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

fstab

tmpfs           /tmp    tmpfs   nodev,noexec,nosuid	0	0
/dev/sda1       /       ext4    defaults,noatime  	0	1
/dev/sda2       /home   ext4    defaults,noatime  	0	2

mtab

tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sda2 /home ext4 rw,noatime 0 0

df

Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs           14761044 6612968   7398244  48% /tmp
/dev/sda2       14761044 6612968   7398244  48% /home

Last edited by jonog (2012-01-20 02:29:12)

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#2 2012-01-20 01:12:47

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

What's the output of 'df -i'?
Have you tried disabling CheckSpace in pacman.conf?

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#3 2012-01-20 01:42:30

Allan
Pacman
From: Brisbane, AU
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11,357
Website

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

Is you /etc/mtab a symlink to /proc/sefl/mounts?

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#4 2012-01-20 01:43:05

jonog
Member
Registered: 2012-01-19
Posts: 7

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

Hi karol, thanks for your help

df -i

Filesystem     Inodes  IUsed  IFree IUse% Mounted on
tmpfs          938400 105906 832494   12% /tmp
/dev/sda2      938400 105906 832494   12% /home

Commenting "CheckSpace" and running "pacman -Syu" got the update to work. However, I still have the shutdown/reboot errors. Should I mark this as solved and start a seperate thread?

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#5 2012-01-20 01:46:15

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

Why doesn't df see you / partition?
First read Allan's post - maybe this can fix your outstanding issues.

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#6 2012-01-20 01:47:48

jonog
Member
Registered: 2012-01-19
Posts: 7

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

Thanks for your help, Allan.

My mtab is not a symlink, I tried using "sudo ln -s /etc/mtab /proc/self/mounts" but I get

failed to create symbolic link `/proc/self/mounts': File exists

Should I try again using the arch-usb?

Last edited by jonog (2012-01-20 01:48:54)

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#7 2012-01-20 01:50:41

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

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#8 2012-01-20 01:52:51

jonog
Member
Registered: 2012-01-19
Posts: 7

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

Yes, I followed those instructions

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#9 2012-01-20 01:56:42

Allan
Pacman
From: Brisbane, AU
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11,357
Website

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

sudo rm /etc/mtab
sudo ln -s /proc/self/mounts /etc/mtab

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#10 2012-01-20 02:05:26

jonog
Member
Registered: 2012-01-19
Posts: 7

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

Just created the symlink and rebooted, I now have my desktop/user profile/home folder as it was about a month ago.. bizarre

Last edited by jonog (2012-01-20 02:05:49)

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#11 2012-01-20 02:09:53

skunktrader
Member
From: Brisbane, Australia
Registered: 2010-02-14
Posts: 1,537

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

jonog wrote:

Just created the symlink and rebooted, I now have my desktop/user profile/home folder as it was about a month ago.. bizarre

Which is exactly when the filesystem update that required manual intervention was released...

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#12 2012-01-20 02:16:20

jonog
Member
Registered: 2012-01-19
Posts: 7

Re: [Solved] Pacman: Could not determine root mount point

Good observation, so this is expected? The shutdown is fine now and all of the packages are up to date. I have my home backed up so I didnt lose anything. Guess I'll mark this as solved soon. Thanks to everyone for your help!

Update:
My home partition was originally in sda2 "/user" and later recreated in sda1 "/home/user" so when things were corrected I saw my old home files, in their proper place within sda2.

Last edited by jonog (2012-01-20 05:02:21)

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