FC3 "read only file system" after Ubuntu install

[Phil Schaffner]

On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 11:42 +0200, Duncan Lithgow wrote:
> I just installed Ubuntu - I was careful (I think) and created a
> '/boot', '/home' and '/' for it. Ubuntu starts fine. I did not install
> grub to the MBR (as you can see it has it's own partition).
> 
> Now when I try and start FC3 it gets to 
> 
> '/var/lock/subsystem/kudzu': read only file system
> starting system logger:
> 
> a fair sized pause, and then a list of things which are read only -
> which of course means it can't start and hangs.
> 
> The only possible cause I found was something about having two '/'
> partitions being a problem - fair enough I guess. I then found this
> (unresolved) possible solution at
> http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=32977
> 
> ---

I presume the following is a quote, at least I made it look like one...

> > I am pretty certain that the problem you are running into is that BOTH
> > the FC3 disk, and the previously "mirrored" disk both have a partition
> > "labeled" as "/" (root).
> > ...
> > you can avoid this by either changing the "/etc/fstab" root device to
> > use a physical device instead of the partition label.
> > 
> > To boot FC3, with two partitions labeled as "/" (root), you have to
> > explicitly tell the grub bootloader which one to use. At the "grub"
> > boot menu, hit the "a" key for "appending" to the kernel boot line.
> > Then add "root=/dev/whateveryourrootpartitionishere" to the end of the
> > kernel parameters line.
> > 
> > You can will then have to relabel one or the other of the two
> > partitions that are labeled as "/" (root), and update your
> > "/etc/fstab" accordingly.
> ---
> 
> I don't understand this, and don't know how to do it. Can anyone help?
> 
> What I do know how to do is:
> - start in rescue mode and navigate from the command line

Very difficult to give detailed help without system details such as
"fdisk -l" output with notations as to what is on which partition,
e2label output from relevant partitions, and fstab.  The thread you
cited gives some clues/suggestions as will as the [mis]quoted message
above.

In general, if you can boot to rescue mode, use e2label to display/fix
ext3 partition labels to avoid conflicts, and fix /boot/grub/grub.conf
and /etc/fstab to match; OR use device names rather than labels
in /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/fstab.

> I don't know:
> - how to edit and save using vi

Google "vi tutorial"

Phil