[IT at shap.com: [Samba] Couldn't read /dev/null]

[Joel Hammer]

This problem was send to the samba list I subscribe to. This isn't a samba
problem, I think. Can anyone offer some ideas? Either send them to the
original poster, send them to me, or just post them back to this list (This
is an item of general interest) and I'll forward them.

Thanks,
Joel

----- Forwarded message from Dale Mirenda <IT at shap.com> -----

To: <samba at lists.samba.org>
Subject: [Samba] Couldn't read /dev/null
Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 01:32:44 -0700

I'm migrating an NT fileserver to Samba 2.2.3a on SuSE 8.0. Until yesterday,
the Samba server had running perfectly for several weeks. Yesterday
afternoon, I performed a normal shutdown of the Linux box. When I restarted
the system, the Samba server, Webmin, netatalk, etc. did not start. I
checked the login screen and found the phrase "/dev/null: Read-only file
system" at the end of every line as the system attempted to start processes.
When I log in to the console, it reports "bash: /dev/null: Read-only file
system." Also I saw "ERROR: cannot fsck because root is read-only."

If this is a filesystem corruption problem, it is my first. Proceeding on
that assumption, I've been researching recovery methods all day but I cannot
find any example that refers to this "/dev/null" message. That makes me
nervous. Eventually I attempted to run e2fsck manually by starting from the
SuSE CD but I'm possibly a bit confused by the instructions on how to access
the normal filesystem from the rescue system. Whatever the reason, I have
not been able to figure out how to access

I was able to determine that all of my files are still where they are
supposed to be, so at this point I seem to have not lost any unique data.
I'm afraid that if I go any further without competent advice, that happy
situation will evaporate. Is there some easy way out of this "/dev/null:
Read-only" situation that I just don't know about? If not, can someone
explain what it means and point me in the right direction towards finding a
repair procedure?

Dale Mirenda