Hosed fstab, won't boot how to edit?

[Robert Moskowitz]

john wendel wrote:
> Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>> Bill Davidsen wrote:
>>> Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>>>> So I mistyped noatime in /etc/fstab; wished there was a way to test 
>>>> this first!
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, since this is my ASUS Eee and my swap is on the SD card, by 
>>>> pulling the SD card the boot halts and puts me into Repair 
>>>> Filesystem mode.
>>>>
>>>> Thing is /etx fstab is readonly. vi fstab won't let me save the file.
>>>>
>>> I assume you have done the normal "write a ro file" command (:w!) 
>>> and that failed as well?
>>>
>>>> I really don't want to do a complete reinstall yet. I want to buy a 
>>>> 8Gb SD card first (and next time I am putting /usr on the SD card). 
>>>> So how can I edit this? 
>>
>> Yes, that did not work. I am home now, and will just do a reinstall. 
>> I was planning one anyway as I figured out the 'best' way to 
>> distribute everything between a 4Gb SSD drive and a 4Gb SD drive. 
>> When I just had everything (/) on the 4Gb SSD drive as a ext3 
>> partition, the install failed. Moving /var/cache over to the SD drive 
>> worked. But now after looking at things, I am going to put /usr on a 
>> 4Gb ext3 partition on the SD drive, a 1.5Gb swap and 2.5Gb / ext3 on 
>> the SSD drive. I think that is the best I can do until I get a 8Gb SD 
>> card, or figure out how to unsolder the SSD drive and install a 
>> larger one....
>>
>>
> I'm far from an expert, but I read that you should use EXT2 on a SSD 
> instead of EXT3, the drive will last longer due to less I/O activity 
> (the ext3 journal does too much I/O). 

I have been seriously considering using ext2 on the SD drive. Afterall, 
it will have /usr on it and not a lot of activity happens to files in 
/usr (or am I missing something?). I figure to run the check program 
(I'd have to research that again) after yum updates...

I have mixed feelings about ext2 for the SSD drive that would have the 
rest of the / tree. adding 'noatime' (and NOT misspelling it this time!) 
is a big win. Also need to look into nodiratime, seems it goes with 
noatime. Don't see any other options that will cut out writes...