I have been trying to do a stage one install on a K6-III using
gentoo-sources: 2.6 kernal. I got the intial install completed and
everything seemed fine and was attempting to install additional
software and had problems. I installed Xorg with no error messages.
But when I rebooted shortly after there was were error messages during
start up. This occurred on the line, < Populating /dev with with device
nodes...[oops]. >

Then is says, <"sbin/rc: line 25: cannot redirect standard input from
dev/null: No such file or directory

*The "tar" command failed with errors", and suggests a compressed file
has become corrupted. >

It goes on to say that since this is a critical task startup cannot
continue

< dev/console: no such file or directory. >

It then allows you to boot as root into a only very limited
functioning system. There are none of the usual devices in /dev,
cannot use more than one terminal etc. You cannot write to any of the
file systems, says they are write only and mount command does not show
any file systems mounted. If you try to mount it says the the special
device doesn't exit, which I guess makes sense if /dev lists no
devices.

Using fsck from knoppix does not show major problems with the
filesystems.

So I am wondering I have have to totally start install over again from
stratch or if there any easier way to fix this.

Malcolm M wrote:
>
> I have been trying to do a stage one install on a K6-III using
> gentoo-sources: 2.6 kernal.
> [snip]
> But when I rebooted shortly after there was were error messages during
> start up. This occurred on the line, < Populating /dev with with device
> nodes...[oops]. >
>
> Then is says, <"sbin/rc: line 25: cannot redirect standard input from
> dev/null: No such file or directory
>
> *The "tar" command failed with errors", and suggests a compressed file
> has become corrupted. >
>
> It goes on to say that since this is a critical task startup cannot
> continue
>
> < dev/console: no such file or directory. >
>
> [snip]
>
> So I am wondering I have have to totally start install over again from
> stratch or if there any easier way to fix this.

You need to create the missing device nodes. I expect this was caused by
trying to install from an old Stage-1 file.

For the solution, take a look at
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml#doc_chap3

Hth,
--
Ben M.

Malcolm M enlightened us with:
> Then is says, <"sbin/rc: line 25: cannot redirect standard input
> from dev/null: No such file or directory

You must have /dev/null and /dev/console. Create them with the mknod
command.

> So I am wondering I have have to totally start install over again
> from stratch or if there any easier way to fix this.

Much easier way ;-)

mknod /dev/console c 5 1
mknod /dev/null c 1 3

Sybren
--
The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a
capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the
safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Sybren Stuvel wrote:
> Malcolm M enlightened us with:
>
>>Then is says, <"sbin/rc: line 25: cannot redirect standard input
>>from dev/null: No such file or directory
>
> You must have /dev/null and /dev/console. Create them with the mknod
> command.
>
>>So I am wondering I have have to totally start install over again
>>from stratch or if there any easier way to fix this.
>
> Much easier way ;-)
>
> mknod /dev/console c 5 1
> mknod /dev/null c 1 3

Would that work?

By the time you get to a command prompt, dev will already have been
mounted. Thus, wouldn't a mknod create the node on the /dev/ ramfs, and
so disappear next boot?

In http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml#doc_chap3 they bind / to
a temporary directory first, and I expect this to be a vital step.

TTFN,
--
Ben M.

I'm getting it that this is probably some kind of problem wiht
udev. I've tried some of the suggestions on the Gentoo udev page
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml . But hasn't worked so
far.

Ben Measures enlightened us with:
> Would that work?

Why on earth do you think I tell you to do stuff? Because it won't
work?

> By the time you get to a command prompt, dev will already have been
> mounted. Thus, wouldn't a mknod create the node on the /dev/ ramfs,
> and so disappear next boot?

So don't mount /dev

> In http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml#doc_chap3 they bind /
> to a temporary directory first, and I expect this to be a vital
> step.

If you mount /dev first then yes, that's a vital step. If you mount
your root filesystem through other means (Knoppix LiveCD for instance)
it won't matter.

Sybren
--
The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a
capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the
safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Sybren Stuvel wrote:
> Ben Measures enlightened us with:
>
>>Would that work?
>
> Why on earth do you think I tell you to do stuff? Because it won't
> work?

I thought you'd made a mistake. Rather than outright accuse you of it, I
explain my doubt.

>>By the time you get to a command prompt, dev will already have been
>>mounted. Thus, wouldn't a mknod create the node on the /dev/ ramfs,
>>and so disappear next boot?
>
> So don't mount /dev

Afaik that's not optional when booting the system, and you didn't say
anything to the OP about booting with external media.

--
Ben M.

Malcolm M wrote:
> I'm getting it that this is probably some kind of problem wiht
> udev. I've tried some of the suggestions on the Gentoo udev page
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml . But hasn't worked so
> far.

Did you execute the following sequence?

# mkdir test
# mount --bind / test
# cd test/dev
# mknod -m 660 console c 5 1
# mknod -m 660 null c 1 3
# cd ../..
# umount test
# rmdir test

--
Ben M.

Ben Measures enlightened us with:
> Afaik that's not optional when booting the system, and you didn't
> say anything to the OP about booting with external media.

I never said anything about how to boot. I just said "don't mount
/dev". If that requires OP to boot in another way, so be it.

Sybren
--
The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a
capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the
safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Sybren Stuvel wrote:
> Ben Measures enlightened us with:
>
>>Afaik that's not optional when booting the system, and you didn't
>>say anything to the OP about booting with external media.
>
> I never said anything about how to boot. I just said "don't mount
> /dev". If that requires OP to boot in another way, so be it.

Not to the OP you didn't, and not until I pointed out that what you
instructed wouldn't work for just that reason.

I guess tact is lost on the technical, and has resulted in this thread
going sour. Perhaps I should simply have written:

>> mknod /dev/console c 5 1
>> mknod /dev/null c 1 3
>
> You should make sure /dev/ is not mounted, or that won't work.

--
Ben M.