On 04/04/12 19:26, cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk wrote:
Hello Jim,
I've fixed the fstab file but it's still doing it. I *think* the problem is the grub configuration. Is there any way I can fix that without another re-install? I have to say I'm getting quite adept at that now though!
Hi Chris,
Depending on how your installer has managed the disk partitioning, you will either find the grub configuration in /boot/grub on your root partition, or on its own boot partition (check in the afore-mentioned fstab file for an entry mounted at "/boot"). In here you'll have a grub folder containing menu.lst
This config file drives your grub bootloader, its possible that the commands in here are pointing at a uuid or partition thats incorrect - make a note of all the partitions you've installed to, and ensure they appear something like the following for your linux boot entry:
I've fixed the fstab and grub configs and now I can successfully log in so thanks to both you and Wayne for your help.
But I need some more :-(
All of the icons on the desktop (I'm the only user) have a red exclamation mark against them and won't run.
I've looked at the properties of the icons and they show 'User: 500' and 'Group: chris'.
If I look at the /etc/group file, part of it shows this :-
chris:x:500: vboxusers:x:502:chris boinc:x:419:chris gnokii:x:418:chris nas:x:501:chris
I've looked at various sites online trying to get to grips with groups and users but to no avail. What should I change/add/delete in this file to fix the problem? I think somebody did try to explain this to me in the past but although I kept the mail, I can't get Thunderbird to run so I can't find the relevant mail. The various files in /home/chris show up as 'chris chris' when listed with ls -la
I have to confess that it may be caused by a typo on my part! I'm not sure if my account should be Chris or chris so is that likely to be the problem or a red herring?
As usual it was a combination of many things. Most of them were through lack of knowledge and finger trouble on my part.
I think it could be described as (a) thrombosis of the keyboard - there's a clot on it, or (b) an ID 10 T error.
I've learnt a bit and hopefully I'll remember it! The final problems were access to various directories. I used Windows 7 and VirtualBox to create a virtual copy of Mandriva 2011 so that I could see what was what with regard to directories (part of my learning phase) and then compared that to what I saw when logging in via Ctrl-Alt-F2 and using root. I looked at /etc/passwd (which I had assumed was a binary file - ID10T error!) in both environments and realised that Chris/chris was a red herring.
In playing with the various files I made it worse before I made it better - it wouldn't allow me to login at one point - but I'm now writing this from my resurrected copy of Mandriva 2011. I'll now do some more backups so that if it does suffer from more finger trouble - I have yet to investigate why BOINC still doesn't run for example - I will hopefully be able to recover it a bit quicker.
Many thanks for both Jim and Wayne for their ideas and help. They were much appreciated.