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

[Matthew Carpenter]

Hi Dale-

First:  Do you have a recent, valid backup of this system and data?

After that, what are the contents of /proc/mounts?  
If you reboot, does the problem persist?  
Could  you also include the contents of /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab?
Also, please include the results of "ls -al /dev/null".

I am not certain what the /dev/null part of the messages mean since
/dev/null itself is not a filesystem, but I'm guessing it is indicative of
some other filesystem being mounted read-only. 

Thanks,
Matt

On Fri, 5 Jul 2002 07:18:09 -0400
"Joel Hammer" <Joel at hammershome.com> wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
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