Re: ooops

[Wesley Leonard <x95leonard@xxxxxxxxx>]

It's like Adam said: an error log file has likely filled up your hard
drive.  Use the 'df' comand to see how much of your drive is being
used.  If you see 100% then you'll need to seek and destroy this file. 
It will likely be in your home directory (/home/$USERNAME).  When you
boot linux as single you are automatically logged in as root.  Just go
ahead and cd to /home/$USERNAME ($USERNAME is whatever the name of your
user account is...) and type 'ls -als'.  This will show you all the
files in the directory as well as their sizes.  Most error log files
should be pretty small (DEFINITELY less than 1 MB).  The offending file
should stick out like a sore thumb.  If the files seem to go by to fast
you can use SHIFT+PAGE UP to scroll back up the terminal or you can use
the wonderful pipe: ls -als | less, which will pipe the output from ls
into a convenient scrolling buffer.

Once you find the file, go ahead and delete it (rm $FILENAME).  After
that, restart and all should be well.

If this doesn't work then maybe you should bring the box to the
beginner's meeting and we can get some folks to look at it.

good luck
]
-- 
Wesley Leonard
x95leonard@wmich.edu

http://members.xoom.com/pacd
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to
me."
	--Linus Torvalds 
	  (Referring to the cover of Bill Gates' book "The Road Ahead")

Zachary Florian wrote:
> 
> so i typed in "Linux Single" at the Lilo prompt and it booted up, gave me
> "bash#" and i had no real idea what to do... i tried to see if there was
> anything i could do and all i actually knew how to do was "shutdown -r now"
> and so that's what i did... unfortunately i'm still very much unknowing in
> the commands and run of Linux... any help would be appreciated...
> 
> *here i continue on about my computer*
> 
> from limited experience prior to this (with RH5.2) i found that i really
> liked it... it flew on my computer when all i had was 32megs of RAM... i
> started getting into online video games and needed more RAM, Hard Drive room
> became a precious commodity as well, so unfortunately i killed my linux (and
> there was great weeping and gnashing of teeth) and waited till i got all the
> important stuff together... voila it was yesterday and i installed Linux
> onto a single HDD (cause my Win98 is on the other) i have a full 128megs of
> RAM, and i'm sporting a 33.6 USR Faxmodem... my computer at one point was a
> Gateway (then i started fiddiling) and so it has the sound card and video
> card integrated into the motherboard, i know that there's 4megs of video RAM
> there (my VooDoo2 i'm not to concerned about right now) and i have an Intel
> Celeron running about 333... thanks if this helps at all then woohoo... like
> i said i installed RH5.2 on this before, kinda got it working, and then
> needed it's space... i was very impressed with the latest and greatest RH
> release... 6.1, all GUI install and everything... i liked the tab around in
> red menus better, but it's impressive none-the-less...
> 
> >> do stuff... anyhow mine seems to have... here's my new problem... i'm
> >no
> >> longer concerned about getting the proper screen resolution (cause
> >that's
> >> less important now) than i am about getting Linux to display again...
> >it
> >> does nice and fine as it boots up, no problems until the login
> >screen... CLI
> >> logon is there for a split second and then nothing but this little
> >clicking
> >> sound... more like a miniature *pop* every few seconds... 2
> >
> >You ran an X setup utility?  The "pop" is your monitor trying to sync
> >every time X attempts to start the display because the config is
> >screwed.
> >
> >> Ctrl-Alt-Delete's later and i get more CLI going through the reboot
> >stage...
> >> little error message, (and i quote): "error writing to file
> >/etc/mtab.tmp :
> >> insufficient space" or something like that, i tried to write it down,
> >but it
> >
> >Uuu, fun.  Your system is all one paritition?  I'd wager xdm-error.log
> >file has
> >filled the file system.
> >
> >> moves fast... and before you ask let me tell you, i tried to switch to
> >> another terminal via Ctrl-Alt-F(n) (with n of course being a number
> >either
> >> 1-7) and voila, an amazing black screen... also i dual-boot this
> >system and
> >
> >Ok, when you get the "lilo:" prompt enter "linux single" and see what
> >happens.
> >
> >> right now am writing an e-mail from the Win98 boot (seperate HDD's)
> >any
> >> ideas? mayhaps i should reformat the drive again and install all over?
> >
> >Stop re-intsalling!  This is a real operating system, that is NOT a
> >solution.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >