[NTLUG:Discuss] /etc/mtab input/output error

[kbrannen@gte.net]

Bug Hunter wrote:
>   I crashed and burned and booted back up.  the fs check failed. /etc/mtab 
> is gone, and can't be set up.  df complains about being unable to read 
> table of mounted file systems.
> 
>   Any ideas on how to get it back?
> 
>   fsck says "entry in 'mtab' has deleted/unused inode in xxxx, cleared."  
> However, that does not fix the problem.
> 
> bug (creator)
> 

It's just a file that says what's mounted.  The first 4 lines of mine look like:

/dev/hda3 / ext3 rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/hdc1 /backup reiserfs rw 0 0

You'll need the first 3 at least.  So assuming you can mount / as rw, then 
just create the file with an editor and put those lines in (assuming you're in 
init 1 or single mode).  But the system should create that file automatcally.

Good Luck!
Kevin