crash 2228

the following words to the mbuttes incomp.os.linux.misc...:

Hmm... Quite a few more than should normally be there...

It is possible that your system is at that stage still running from theinitrd- orinitramfs,depending on the distribution. In other words, *if* this is the case, then the current root filesystems is just aramdisk.

Note: I'm not familiar with the boot procedure of every distro, especially not since there are so many differences these days... :-

This is very peculiar. *If* your system is attempting to mount the root filesystem on *-root,* then *-root* can at this stage only be a directory in the root directory - i.e. "-" - of theinitrdorinitramfs.

On the other hand, if your system is already capable of reading *-etc-fstab,* then you have obviously made some typo in *-etc-fstab* - or an earlier version of this file that got to replace a more recent one as the result of a filesystem journal playback - because the on-disk *-root* directory is supposed to be the root user's home directory. And naturally, the kernel won't find *-sbin-init* there, nor any *-dev* entries.

You say "built-in"... This leads me to suspect that you are indeed referring to a shell on theinitrdorinitramfs. Most distributions usebashas their default shell.

Obviously there is no *-etc-mtab* or the file was symlinked to *-proc-mounts* while *-proc* isn't mounted yet... Makes sense, since the root filesystem seems unmountable, or at least: it looks for it in the wrong place.

I would recommend forensics from a live CD. Try to mount the on-disk root filesystem under *-mnt* or something similar and investigate what is still there, and how it is configured.

Best (and only) advice I can give you at this stage... ;-)

Dust can be a real person on stability due to clogging of the coolers or obstruction of the airflow... Clean out the box with an airspray can and a vacuum cleaner - be careful not to touch the circuits! - and then try keeping furry animals away from your computer... ;-)

I'm afraidashis very minimal, somewhat similar to the original Bourne Shell but with less functionality, I think - I'm not quite sure as I've only used it once or twice in the distant past.

What I do know however is that its minimal design will require lots ofbash-builtinsto be present in their external form, i.e. *-bin-echo,* *-bin-test* et al. And since your working root filesystem seems a bit handicapped in that respect, I seriously doubt that you could pull it off like that.

Once again I must stand by my advice to use a Live CD and work from there...

Hope this was helpful... ;-)

-- With kind regards,

*Aragorn* (Registered GNU-Linux user #223157)