Arch Linux

loathsome

Member

Registered: 2008-04-27

Posts: 9

Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Hi there,

I'm currently setting up my first Arch distro ever, and I'm almost there. I've installed everything with success now, but I've run into a weird problem. My whole root (/) is a "Read-only file system", which means I can't do anything basically. I haven't touched my fstab file, and I have no clue what's going on.

Anybody got some input? I can't even connect with dhcpcd, as it gives me an error (like everything else, basically )

Thanks a lot. I'm sorry if I've done something stupid on my way, but bear with me -- this is my first go with Arch, and so far I really enjoy it.

- loathsome

loathsome

Member

Registered: 2008-04-27

Posts: 9

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Hey, think I figured out what the problem was. I edited the grub file, and for somewhat reason "ro" was appended to the boot-prompt. (ro = read only)

Why did this happen? Is this some kind of default setting?

bgc1954

Member

From: Edmonton, AB, Canada

Registered: 2006-03-14

Posts: 1,160

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

First, welcome to Arch, enjoy your stay.

My grub always has ro in it and it's pretty standard with most linux distros.  If that solved your problem then something else very strange was going on.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

Morgan141

Member

Registered: 2008-04-27

Posts: 2

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Firstly I'd like to say I'm no expert, I've used linux and arch for quite a while though.

The "ro", as you correctly deduced, does mean read-only. However, this is the default setting and the read-only status only applies during bootup. Once startup has finished you will have read/write access to /. You can try changing "ro" to "rw" if you want but it will conflict with fsck, it may also lead to other problems but I'm not really sure on that.

I apologise if this sounds patronising but do you know how the root privilages work in linux? It does sound like you are trying to edit stuff without root privilages. If this isn't the case then I don't have a clue, sorry.

Best of luck

Last edited by Morgan141 (2008-04-27 19:46:25)

loathsome

Member

Registered: 2008-04-27

Posts: 9

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Hi, and thanks for the quick and friendly replies!

I do know how root privileges work, and I am positive that had nothing to do with this

Also, it just came to my mind that I lied a bit; I had actually modified the fstab file somewhat, according to the wiki

#  Edit your new installation fstab to mount the SSD partitions "noatime"

When I removed "ro" from the grub config file, I also removed "noatime" from the fstab file -- maybe this did the trick? Either way it works now. I'll try adding "ro" back to grub and see if it was the "noatime" parameter that gave me read only.

Thanks again

tigrmesh

IRC Op

From: Florida, US

Registered: 2007-12-11

Posts: 794

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Normal users do not have system privileges.  You can gain root privileges using the switch user command:
su
Or install and configure sudo http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sudo.

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

You still have to use su prior to setting sudo up.

su wins !

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-04-27 20:03:53)

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

floke

Member

Registered: 2007-09-04

Posts: 266

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Don't 'lie a bit', by the way.
People here will try to help, but they can't do that if you give them duff info.

loathsome

Member

Registered: 2008-04-27

Posts: 9

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

tigrmesh: I know, so I'm logged in as root when I'm setting everything up -- I don't want to type "sudo" thousand of times.

floke: I know, of course not, but I did not remember it at first

Thanks!

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Don't be actually logged in as root ! Use su (switch user)

---

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

floke

Member

Registered: 2007-09-04

Posts: 266

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Well, I can forgive accidental lies, but not running as root.
It's a very bad idea.

Phrodo_00

Member

From: Seattle, WA

Registered: 2006-04-09

Posts: 342

Website

Re: Setting up my first Arch ever -- aaaalmost there.

Don't 'lie a bit', by the way.
People here will try to help, but they can't do that if you give them duff info.

hehe... it's not lupus

sorry for the OT, now back to the topic...

I have noatime setup as follows:

UUID=0bf08d1a-9a08-4253-8c2c-18c8f8ff0567 / reiserfs defaults,noatime 0 1

you might have done something wrong (like omiting the 'defaults' part) ...