installation problem of mandriva after changing PC

[buteman]

No hard feelings, I am aware of that. However since I didn't touch that HDD on which Linux was, I don't think I have overwritten anything by Windows Vista

Good to hear you are still working on it. But I think that if you originally had it working dual booting then hda almost certainly did have some stuff on it from linux. At the very least the boot loader, and if this was originally FAT32 and now NTFS then that may be your only problem.
Norm

[Nafcom]

Good to hear you are still working on it. But I think that if you originally had it working dual booting then hda almost certainly did have some stuff on it from linux. At the very least the boot loader, and if this was originally FAT32 and now NTFS then that may be your only problem.
Norm

I don't think it's because of that, because I have splitted a partition and now HDA is there, now it says "cannot find hde1", lol
Anyway, I got working fstab but it won't save because of write protection.
If you or anybody else would tell me how to remove the write protection from the file from the recovery console, it would help

Thanks in advance!

[buteman]

Anyway, I got working fstab but it won't save because of write protection.
If you or anybody else would tell me how to remove the write protection from the file from the recovery console, it would help

If you are working from Recovery Console you should already be root.
Mostly this means you cannot be refused permission to write to any file.
I have come across this problem once, several years ago, and unfortunately I cannot remember how I got over it.
I know the 'sticky' bit can be set on a file and if it is set then a user cannot delete files in that directory if they are not the owner of the directory.
Whether this applies to root or even if that is the problem I can't say.
Perhaps someone else can help.
Norm

[fingal]

Hi - If it's a file ownership problem then the chown command is very useful. To determine who owns the file just try ls -al and use chown if you aren't the owner.

[buteman]

Hi - If it's a file ownership problem then the chown command is very useful. To determine who owns the file just try ls -al and use chown if you aren't the owner.

But only root can make those changes unless you are a user with root privileges and on Recovey Console you are already root so should be able to do what you want with any file.

Or have I got this all wrong somehow
Norm

[fingal]

But only root can make those changes unless you are a user with root privileges and on Recovey Console you are already root so should be able to do what you want with any file.

Or have I got this all wrong somehow
Norm

True, but he's having trouble doing what he wants with the file as root so it's only a suggestion. I don't know if this would actually work, but when working with Linux (and computers in general) I've learned some important things:

1. If you've tried everything else and still nothing is working don't be afraid to try as many other solutions as possible;
2. if things are already broken you might as well take the risk of breaking them further. Kill or cure;
3. just because it seems illogical, don't be afraid to try it. Your computer is dumb ... It doesn't know what the matter is and can never judge you.
4. Although you should be able to do anything as root, root doesn't own every file on your system. Maybe something is screwed up? In which case see point 1.
5. Feel free to ignore points 1-4, but if you do what's the answer?
6. People say computers are binary - just 1s and 0s - and at a base level this is true. But I don't think in a binary way. If 1 & 0 don't work I try 2.

Anyway ... got to get some breakfast: I'm hungry! I wonder if this is a case of a corrupted filesystem?

- fingal

[buteman]

4. Although you should be able to do anything as root, root doesn't own every file on your system. Maybe something is screwed up? In which case see point 1.
- fingal

Well that's true root doesn't own every file on the system but surely the point of root is that root can be the bully boy who can do whatever he likes. In other words root can say I will write/delete/rename/move/alter permissions of any file I like.
But I think you may have hit on the problem - that something is wrong with the file system.

Maybe a file system check would be in order.
Norm

[Nafcom]

Hi - If it's a file ownership problem then the chown command is very useful. To determine who owns the file just try ls -al and use chown if you aren't the owner.

Hi, thanks! Yes I think it's a a file ownership problem,. I will try that tomorrow and will report back

[fingal]

Hi, thanks! Yes I think it's a a file ownership problem,. I will try that tomorrow and will report back

I'll look forward to seeing what happens ... with a lot of interest and a certain amount of dread! You might consider using the -v (verbose diagnostic option) with chown. I think it might give you some useful information ...

[Nafcom]

I'll look forward to seeing what happens ... with a lot of interest and a certain amount of dread! You might consider using the -v (verbose diagnostic option) with chown. I think it might give you some useful information ...

Thanks, will have to do it tomorrow, my lamp died. lol. it's pretty dark here now and that bloody new fstab is on paper