Re: [gentoo-user] Re: After /usr conflation: why not copy booting software to /sbin rather than initramfs?

["Canek Peláez Valdés" <caneko@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:41 AM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> Canek Peláez Valdés wrote:
> <<< SNIP >>>
>> I'm a little confused: you log in KDE as a regular user, open a
>> Konsole, type "su -", and what happens?
>>
>> What do you mean with "Konsole won't even try to come up"?
>>
>> In the shell that Krusader provides (which I assume you run as a
>> regular user), what it's the result of "which su"? And also, what
>> happens when (inside the shell from Krusader) you run /bin/su?
>>
>> If not for the fact that you say that in a virtual console su works, I
>> would be willing to suggest that your initramfs never does the
>> switch_root, and so you end up with the minimal / from the initramfs,
>> and your normal /usr. That would be beyond bizarre, but if you *can*
>> use su in a virtual console, then it should be there.
>>
>> I usally log in in GNOME, open a gnome-terminal, and set a fixed
>> number of tabs in gnome-terminal where I "su -", and work as root in
>> there. I also can run an X11 program as root with "su -lc
>> /usr/bin/gedit", but I almost never do that (although it works; I just
>> checked).
>>
>> I don't think I understand how do you use su. Could you explain it to
>> me, please?
>>
>> One last thing: create a  directory /tmp/whatever, and inside it
>> unpack your initramfs:
>>
>> zcat /boot/init-thingie | cpio -i
>>
>> Could you do a "ls -R /tmp/whatever" so we can see what actually ends
>> up in yout initramfs?
>>
>> Regards.
>
>
> Actually, I log into KDE as a user and when Konsole opens, it asks for
> the root password.  I have the KDE session saved so it opens all this on
> its own.  Anyway, since I have it set that way, Konsole never opens, I
> assume because it can't find the su command.  I have been doing it this
> way since back in the KDE3 days.  It has never done this before.

Oh, I see; so you always use an X terminal as a root session. You
never use a terminal as a regular user? I have never been able to do
that.

> I finally got around to rebooting to check on this, hence the delay in
> replying, and found this in the boot up process, the stuff that scrolls
> up the screen.  I'm having to type this in since it is NOT in dmesg or
> the logs but just printed on the screen.
>
>
> dracut: switching root
> switch_root: failed to mount moving /dev to /sysroot/dev: Invaild argument
> switch_root: forcing unmount of /dev
> switch_root: failed to unlink dev: Directory not empty
> INIT: version 2.88 booting

Do you have /dev listed in your fstab? Actually, can you show us your
/etc/fstab file?

> Keep in mind, the three middle lines with the problems are NOT shown in
> dmesg, messages or anywhere else but the screen.  I had to boot with nox
> to even see this.  This is what ticks me on this mess.  With the way it
> logs things, you better hope you got video buffer to scroll up with or
> you don't get to see the failure.

Add this to your kernel command line:

rd.debug rd.udev.debug

Also, remove quiet and splash (if any) from the kernel command line.
All this info is in the dracut man pages:

man dracut
man dracut.cmdline

> Also, while booted with the init thingy, I made sure the real /
> partition was mounted.  It shows sda3 was mounted and based on the space
> used, I believe it.  I got to clean out some old kernels pretty soon.  ;-)

Yeah, but it is mounted as it should? As I said last mail, could you
check if in the shell that Krusader provides, what it's the result of
"which su"? And also, what happens when (inside the shell from
Krusader) you run /bin/su?

Also, an "ls -l /bin/su" would be helpful (even from the virtual
console: Ctrl+Alt+F1); it may be a permissions related thing. I think
you can make that "ls /bin/su"; it seems that you have "ls" aliased to
"ls -l".

The listing of your initramfs seems fine; therefore, probably the
problem is elsewhere. Again, please show us your fstab, and lets also
see your kernel command line (in either GRUB, GRUB2 or LILO, whichever
you use). And, I repeat, if you want to see the dracut output in
dmesg, add the following to your kernel command line:

rd.debug rd.udev.debug

and remove "splash" and "quiet" from it, if they are set.

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México