Member Avatar for owenr

I have successfully installed RH AS 2.1 as a guest on XP using VMWare 4 Workstation. The Linux directory structure I need is extensive as I will be installing Oracle 9i on it. This is as follows:
-home
-usr
-swap
-u01
-u02
-u03
-u04
The virtual machine starts and AS starts but fails when it comes to mounting the structure I need.

Does anyone know why this is happening?:confused:

  • 5 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 243 Views
  • 4 Years Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by DimaYasny

Dani AI

Generated

A few common causes make an otherwise-working VM stop at "mounting filesystems" when you add several Oracle mount points. is creating multiple partitions for Oracle; asked about sizes and raised virtual hardware — both are relevant. Quick checklist first, then fixes.

Run these inside the guest (or from rescue mode) and inspect output:

cat /etc/fstab
cat /proc/partitions
fdisk -l
dmesg | egrep -i 'scsi|sd|hd|buslogic|lsi'
mount -a
pvdisplay; vgchange -ay; lvdisplay

What to look for: fstab entries that name devices that do not exist (eg. /dev/hdaX vs /dev/sdaX), missing filesystems on partitions, LVM volumes that are not activated, or kernel messages about missing SCSI drivers.

If mounts are failing, typical remedies:

  • Boot single-user or rescue, comment out the problematic /u0x lines in /etc/fstab, reboot, then fix one device at a time. This gets the system up without hanging on mounts.
  • If partitions exist but are unformatted, create filesystems (example: mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdX) and then mount manually to verify.
  • For LVM: run vgchange -ay to activate VGs; ensure the initramfs includes LVM modules if logical volumes hold critical mounts.
  • If extra virtual disks aren’t visible, check the VM SCSI controller type (BusLogic vs LSI) and either switch the VM setting or make sure the guest kernel has the matching module. Rebuild the initrd if you add drivers (use mkinitrd /boot/initrd-$(uname -r) $(uname -r) from the installed system).

Oracle notes: for a development VM, /u01 for ORACLE_HOME (5–10GB) and /u02 for data (10–20GB) are common starting points — scale to your DB. Give Oracle-owned mounts correct ownership (chown oracle:oinstall) and avoid putting Oracle data on swap. Always snapshot the VM or take backups before repartitioning.

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for Member #2466

What size of partitions are you using?

Member Avatar for WEATHER CHANNEL

Yeah, but I am fatigued at the moment. Ill get bsck


cheers

Member Avatar for basselhe

thanks to you you and for all y efforts

Member Avatar for DimaYasny

what virtual hardware are you setting up for this?

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.