From: Jim Winstead Jr. (jwinstea@fenris.claremont.edu)
Date: 03/17/93


From: jwinstea@fenris.claremont.edu (Jim Winstead Jr.)
Subject: Re: [Q] Rootpart. with EXT2 and mount ???
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 10:52:47 GMT

In article <jason.732288986@sorokin> jason@sorokin.anu.edu.au (Jason Andrade) writes:
   arnd@rea.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Arnd Gehrmann) writes:
   it's just irritating but what is happening is that in /etc/rc,
   a line like rdev > /etc/mtab creates that first line ..
   and hence by default.. mount assumes its a minix filesystem..

   i've commented out that and have something like

   echo "/dev/hdb3 / ext2 defaults 0 0" > /etc/mtab
   mount -av

Before Doug Quale wrote the new mount program for Linux
0.97.something, you needed to use kludges like that and like using
rdev to get the /etc/mtab file to include the root partition so it
would show up in 'df' listings.

Since then, all you need to do is (taken from my current /etc/rc):

        # remove /etc/mtab* so mount creates the /etc/mtab file
        rm -f /etc/mtab*

        # mount all partitions specified in /etc/fstab except nfs
        echo; echo "/etc/rc: mounting filesystems..."
        mount -avt nonfs

If you have the proper entry for the / partition in your /etc/fstab,
the correct entry will be added to your /etc/mtab, and everything will
be just fine. No need for special rdev or echo kludges. You just
need a line like this in your /etc/fstab:

        /dev/hdb2 / foofs defaults

That's something a decent installation script can do for you with
no extra effort involved.