read only file system

[fubaronu]

i'm running mandrake 8.2 but the annoying thing is that the filesystem is read only. how do i change this to a read-write filesystem?

[askrieger]

You actually have a whole bunch of file systems. Some of which are read only and some aren't. Which file system is ro? (and what message told you so?)

[fubaronu]

i was trying to use rpm from the command line to uninstall ghostscript 6. because ghostscript 6 doesn't support my lexmark e210. i wanted to install ghostscript 5.5 so i could get my printer back on line. the uninstall of ghostscript said unable because the filesystem is read-only. this is a dual-boot system so the entire filesystem is /

[askrieger]

If your /etc/fstab file shows /dev/hda? (the file system in the linux partition of your hard drive) as ro you could try changing the fstab entry. The fstab entry for my linux root is :

/dev/hda5 / ext2 defaults 1 1

[michaelk]

Are you trying this as root or a normal user?

[fubaronu]

I'm logged in as root.

[slapNUT]

Type mount if you are really on a read/only fs then it will show up as a (ro). Here is my / entry when I type mount:
/dev/hda3 on / type reiserfs (rw,notail)
Notice the (rw) which means read/write. If yours is (ro) then it must be in /etc/fstab. If it is in /etc/fstab then you need to change /etc/fstab to correct the problem. But you can't write changes to a ro filesystem? So you need to remount the filesystem as RW. I would do this, but you may us a different partition.
mount /dev/hda3 / -o remount,rw

[fubaronu]

Great the files system was ro. Thanks, why mandrake 8.2 if defaulted as such is really dumb. But now i can start modifing the installation to my tastes better. Thanks again.

[slapNUT]

You're welcome.