RH9: Boot Problems

[MachineHead]

Don't call me stupid, this is my first time with Linux. :D

Anyways, I used Partition Magic 8.0 to create an Ext3 and Swap partition, and then
proceeded to install RH9 on them.

My problem is when I boot from the boot-loader, it returns an error about being unable to mount. Any ideas what it could be?

[hkwint]

Well, not sure 'bout this (I haven't used linux very long, so just trying to help), but you could do the following:

Take a linux-startup diskette (3,5"), and start linux. Since it should be single-user, you hate root access. Usually with the ls command you can found a directory /mnt. Try:
#df
Which should give you a list of possible harddisks such as /dev/hdb7. Then try
#mount -v /dev/hdb7 /mnt/usr
(if your hdb7 was the user partition, this is just an example).
Now, when no errors occur, you can try
#cd /mnt/usr
#touch a
#ls
cd changes to your mounted hdb7, touch a makes a file a, so if you try ls you should see a file named 'a' was created. If this all works, the problem isn't your harddrive, but is in your redhat config files maybe. Then you should check /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab.
You can find info on this file with
#man fstab
or http://www.rt.com/man/fstab.5.html since man-pages usually aren't available when you use linux from a floppy.

Good luck!

[happybunny]

1. I have been on many linux forum sites and so far this 1 has been the best. I have been looking around for nearly an hour now and have not come across a singe RTFM or "stupid newby" answer, so I would feel comfortable asking anything to these guys/gals.

2. Why did you use Partition magic? Is this a multi-boot system? linux install would have done a fine job partitioning for you.

3. Also, did you create a single ext3 filesystem? I "think" you need 3 partitions to load linux....one for / (root) one for boot and one swap partition.

Not sure this helped you but there you are.

Good luck