FC3 "read only file system" after Ubuntu install

[Duncan Lithgow]

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

Yes, it was a quote
 
> 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.

Well, digging around got me no-where...:

# fdisk /dev/hdb
Unable to open /dev/hdb

I get the same for /dev/hda. And fdisk -l gives:

# fdisk -l
cannot open /proc/partitions

When I tried the same on Knoppix I get:

knoppix at 1[knoppix]$ fdisk -l
Can't open /dev/hda
Can't open /dev/hdb

So let's try e2label:

# e2label /dev/hdb
e2label: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hdb
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock

Ok, what about parted?

knoppix at 1[knoppix]$ parted
Error: No device found
Retry/Cancel?

Anyone have any ideas on what I should try now?

Please help me get this straight...
- I can't have two partitions with the label '/' (even though Ubuntu
starts fine!)
- I therefore should change one of the '/' labels to something else -
what could that be?
- After I've changed it I need to edit 'grub.conf' and '/etc/fstab'.
Since it's tricky for me to even read those files just now, could you
give me an example of which bit to edit? In 'grub.conf' I think it's
something like root=Label='/' should change to root='/dev/hdb1 and
something pretty similar in fstab.

Am I getting the idea of this problem?

Duncan