[gentoo-user] [OT] moving mountpoint to folder

[gentoo-user] [OT] moving mountpoint to folder

[michael higgins]

Hello, all.

Some time ago, I moved my /usr/lib folder to a separate partition to net some space on /. Now, I want to fix my partitions on that second drive, so I've moved all the linux folders to / again. (The /usr/lib files are in a folder called /usr/lib2 for now.)

The problem I've come across this time is that so many things are using files in /usr/lib, I can't unmount it. Stopping all services leaves me with my login being the only thing still hanging the umount.

So, my question is, does anyone know what will happen if I try to umount -l, remove the /usr/lib mountpoint, and rename /usr/lib2 to /usr/lib? It would seem that there'd be no problem as long as I don't need to log into a new shell? Going the other way wasn't a problem, as I just renamed the old folder and mounted the partition on a new one.

Any suggestions appreciated.

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] moving mountpoint to folder

[Richard Fish]

On 12/13/05, michael higgins <linux@evolone.com> wrote:
> Hello, all.
> So, my question is, does anyone know what will happen if I try to umount -l, remove the /usr/lib mountpoint, and rename /usr/lib2 to /usr/lib? It would seem that there'd be no problem as long as I don't need to log into a new shell? Going the other way wasn't a problem, as I just renamed the old folder and mounted the partition on a new one.

That should work, I think.  If nothing else, you should be able to
boot with init=/bin/bash to get a really basic environment with
nothing mounted or running.

-Richard

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] moving mountpoint to folder

[Glenn Enright]

On Wednesday 14 December 2005 09:33, michael higgins wrote:
> So, my question is, does anyone know what will happen if I try to umount
> -l, remove the /usr/lib mountpoint, and rename /usr/lib2 to /usr/lib? It
> would seem that there'd be no problem as long as I don't need to log into a
> new shell? Going the other way wasn't a problem, as I just renamed the old
> folder and mounted the partition on a new one.
>
> Any suggestions appreciated.

If you are willing to take the system down for a few minutes, try booting with 
a copy of knopix or your gentoo livecd, and doing your filesystem mods that 
way. Then you can be more comfortable with the sanity of your os. after all 
there is so much important stuff in there.

Or maybee drop to single user mode, that may work.
-- 
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need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or major motion
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success.
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[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] moving mountpoint to folder

[Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.]

On Tuesday 13 December 2005 03:33 pm, michael higgins wrote:
> Some time ago, I moved my /usr/lib folder to a separate partition to
> net some space on /. Now, I want to fix my partitions on that second
> drive, so I've moved all the linux folders to / again. (The /usr/lib
> files are in a folder called /usr/lib2 for now.)
>
> Does anyone know what will happen if I try to
> umount -l, remove the /usr/lib mountpoint, and rename /usr/lib2 to
> /usr/lib?

Should be fine as long as nothing starts any more processes (that need 
libraries in /usr/lib) between the 'umount' and the 'mv'.  Also, you 
system may still be accessing the partition you've umount-d (since you 
used -l) so you really won't be safe modifying it (deleting the 
partition, etc.)

> Any suggestions appreciated.

You may be able to go down to single user mode with
init 1
and stop any remaining services, which might free up your /usr/lib.
If that doesn't work you may be able to use 'fuser' to kill the 
processes accessing /usr/lib forcefully.  You can get a list of the 
processes with
fuser -mv /usr/lib

Altenatively:
mount -o bind / /mnt
rm /mnt/usr/lib
mv /mnt/usr/lib2 /mnt/usr/lib
umount /mnt
vim /etc/fstab
/* Remove the line that mounts /usr/lib */

After you reboot the offending partition should no longer be mounted, 
but this is really not much better than umount -l.

-- 
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
bss03@volumehost.com
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] moving mountpoint to folder

[Michael Kjorling]

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On 2005-12-13 12:33 -0800, linux@evolone.com wrote:
> So, my question is, does anyone know what will happen if I try to
> umount -l, remove the /usr/lib mountpoint, and rename /usr/lib2 to
> /usr/lib? It would seem that there'd be no problem as long as I
> don't need to log into a new shell? Going the other way wasn't a
> problem, as I just renamed the old folder and mounted the partition
> on a new one.

If it was me, I'd probably simply reboot from a live CD (the Gentoo
installation CD comes to mind), make the changes that cannot be done
while the system is running normally, and reboot.

-- 
Michael Kjörling, michael@kjorling.com - http://michael.kjorling.com/
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] moving mountpoint to folder

[Dale]

Richard Fish wrote:

>On 12/13/05, michael higgins <linux@evolone.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>Hello, all.
>>So, my question is, does anyone know what will happen if I try to umount -l, remove the /usr/lib mountpoint, and rename /usr/lib2 to /usr/lib? It would seem that there'd be no problem as long as I don't need to log into a new shell? Going the other way wasn't a problem, as I just renamed the old folder and mounted the partition on a new one.
>>    
>>
>
>That should work, I think.  If nothing else, you should be able to
>boot with init=/bin/bash to get a really basic environment with
>nothing mounted or running.
>
>-Richard
>
>  
>
Or you may try doing it from the CD.  That is how I move things around, 
just to make sure I don't get one of those pisky file is busy or locked 
things.

Dale
:-)

-- 
To err is human, I'm most certainly human.

I have four rigs:

1:  Home built; Abit NF7 ver 2.0 w/ AMD 2500+ CPU, 1GB of ram and right now two 80GB hard drives.  
2:  Home built; Iwill KK266-R w/ AMD 1GHz CPU, 256MBs of ram and a 4GB drive.
3:  Home built; Gigabyte GA-71XE4 w/ 800MHz CPU, 128MBs of ram and a 2.5GB drive.
4:  Compaq Proliant 6000 Server w/ Quad 200MHz CPUs, 128MBs of ram and a 4.3GB SCSI drive.

All run Gentoo, all run folding. #1 is my desktop, 2, 3, and 4 are set up as servers.  

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] moving mountpoint to folder [solved]

[michael higgins]

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 16:08:17 -0500
"Boyd Stephen Smith Jr." <bss03@volumehost.com> wrote:

> On Tuesday 13 December 2005 03:33 pm, michael higgins wrote:
> > Some time ago, I moved my /usr/lib folder to a separate partition to
> > net some space on /. Now, I want to fix my partitions on that second
> > drive, so I've moved all the linux folders to / again. (The /usr/lib
> > files are in a folder called /usr/lib2 for now.)
> >
> > Does anyone know what will happen if I try to
> > umount -l, remove the /usr/lib mountpoint, and rename /usr/lib2 to
> > /usr/lib?
> 
> Should be fine as long as nothing starts any more processes (that need 
> libraries in /usr/lib) between the 'umount' and the 'mv'.  Also, you 
> system may still be accessing the partition you've umount-d (since you 
> used -l) so you really won't be safe modifying it (deleting the 
> partition, etc.)
> 
> > Any suggestions appreciated.
> 
> You may be able to go down to single user mode with
> init 1
> and stop any remaining services, which might free up your /usr/lib.
> If that doesn't work you may be able to use 'fuser' to kill the 
> processes accessing /usr/lib forcefully.  You can get a list of the 
> processes with
> fuser -mv /usr/lib
> 
> Altenatively:
> mount -o bind / /mnt
> rm /mnt/usr/lib
> mv /mnt/usr/lib2 /mnt/usr/lib
> umount /mnt
> vim /etc/fstab
> /* Remove the line that mounts /usr/lib */
> 
> After you reboot the offending partition should no longer be mounted, 
> but this is really not much better than umount -l.
> 

Well, after all that, it just worked. After stopping the services (named, cupsd, postfix, apache2) the fuser -mv command showed nothing in the way. Unmounted cleanly and moved the folder. Edited fstab, started services, off to the next task: tweaking partitions. I may just be able to use parted now, I think. 

Thanks for the backup, folks!

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] moving mountpoint to folder

[Francesco Riosa]

michael higgins wrote:
> Hello, all.
>
> Some time ago, I moved my /usr/lib folder to a separate partition to net some space on /. Now, I want to fix my partitions on that second drive, so I've moved all the linux folders to / again. (The /usr/lib files are in a folder called /usr/lib2 for now.)
>
> The problem I've come across this time is that so many things are using files in /usr/lib, I can't unmount it. Stopping all services leaves me with my login being the only thing still hanging the umount.
>
> So, my question is, does anyone know what will happen if I try to umount -l, remove the /usr/lib mountpoint, and rename /usr/lib2 to /usr/lib? It would seem that there'd be no problem as long as I don't need to log into a new shell? Going the other way wasn't a problem, as I just renamed the old folder and mounted the partition on a new one.
>
> Any suggestions appreciated.
>   
Already solved but waiting for something to finish so here's my version:

#mkdir /mnt/tmp
#mount -obind / /mnt/tmp
#cp -a /usr/lib/* /mnt/tmp/usr/lib
#umount /mnt/tmp
#rm -r /mnt/tmp
#umount -l /usr/lib/

At this point restart as much services as possible is a good idea (but
not really needed).

The trick is done by "bind" option _not_ binding mounted subdirectory
(i.e. after step 2 /mnt/tmp/usr/lib should be empty) as opposite of 
"rbind" that bind also all mounted subdirectoryes (and is useful
sometimes with /dev)


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