VM Player 3: VM Oracle Linux 5 Login Errors

[user1234567]

Folks,

Hello. I am running Oracle Linux 5 in VM Player 3. The host OS is Windows 7.

VM Player 3 and Oracle Linux 5 have been working correctly for a long time. Today, a strange error occurs below:

After start up Oracle Linux 5 in VM Player 3, I type in username and password to login. It takes quite a few minutes abnormally. Then 6 errors comes up one by one below:

1) An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for Nautilus. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly.

I click on "Details" button and the message below comes up:

Failed to contact configuration server; Some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash.

see http:// www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/ for information.

Details -

1: IOR file '/tmp/gconfd-user/lock/ior' no opened successfully. no gcond located: No such file or directory.

2: IOR file '/tmp/gconfd-user/lock/ior' no opened successfully, no gconfd located: no such file or directory.

2) An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for Power Manager. Some of your configuration setting may not work correctly.

In Power Manager popup Window, there is Yellow triangle with black !.

The message is: GConf schema installer error, battery_low_percentage cannot be zero.

3) An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for Print Notifier. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly.

I click on "Details" button, the message is the same with error 1) Details.

4) An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for gnome-settings-daemon. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly.

I click on "Details" button, the message is the same with error 1) Details.

5) An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for gnome-session. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly.

I click on "Details" button, the message is the same with error 1) Details.

6) There was an error starting GNOME Settings Daemon.

Some things, such as themes, sounds, or background settings may not work correctly. The latest error message was:

Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply. The message bus security policy blocked the reply. The reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken. GNOME will still try to restart the settings Daemon next time you log in.

After a few minute, Desktop screen becomes black background with all icons on it.

But no Bar. I cannot click anywhere to run it.

This is the first time for me to confront such a strange error. I don't understand what causes this kind of errors.

I have checked VM > Settings > Hard Disk > Capacity:

Current Size: 96.9GB

System Free: 41.7GB  (This is free disk space of Host Windows 7)

Maximum Size: 100GB

I created the Virtual Hard Disk for Oracle Linux 5 as 100GB. The current size 96.9GB indicates 96.9GB out of 100GB has been used. Thus, 100GB - 96.9GB = 3.1GB.

My questions are:

1) How much free disk space is needed to boot VM Oracle Linux 5 ?

2) What causes the 6 errors when login into Oracle Linux 5 ?

3) Does "not enough disk space of vm" cause the 6 errors when login Oracle Linux 5 ?

4) How to fix these errors ?

Thanks in advance.

[wila]

Hello,

Wow that's an old version of VMware Player

I think your problem hasn't anything to do with VMware Player per se.

All errors are on the guest and they are specific for your setup, to me it seems like the errors that you are seeing are just symptoms and not the actual problem.

What might have happened is that the guest OS wasn't shut down properly and that the linux OS has decided that your disk is damaged and mounted it in readonly mode.

You can easily test that by trying to create a file:

eg:

  touch ~\testReadWrite.txt

If it comes back with an error that it can't write then that's your main issue.

In your case I would try a linux live CD and check the virtual disk using fsck.

Sorry I do not have the specific steps, please google it. (or try for example Redhat Linux How to Fix Read only root Filesystem Issue - UnixArena )

--

Wil

[user1234567]

Folk,

Hello. Thanks a lot for replying.

You say "You can easily test that by trying to create a file: eg: touch ~\testReadWrite.txt "

I cannot boot the VM to Menu to login into the Single mode. I don't have Linux CD either. I cannot do anything on the screen at this time.

My question is:

How to create a file  ~\testReadWrite.txt  as you say in the post because I cannot do anything on the screen ?

Thanks in advance.

[wila]

Hi,

In regards to "have no linux CD" .. they can be downloaded from the internet.

For example for fixing disk related issues I tend to use System Rescue CD

No need to burn the CD, you can connect to the iso file directly and then boot from it.

After booting you end up in a text console.

As for "cannot do anything in the screen" .. press CTRL+ALT+F2 (try again with F3 F4 etc.. if it does not work) and you should drop into a text only console mode.

--

Wil

[user1234567]

Folk,

Hello. Thanks a lot for replying. Let me explain the 2 points below:

1) You say in the post "you can connect to the iso file directly and then boot from it."

Oracle Linux 5 CDs has 5 folders, the file in the first folder is Enterprise-R5-GA-Server-x86_64-disc1, I double click on this file, Burn disc Image comes up. It doesn't boot Oracle Linux 5.

2) You say in the post "press CTRL+ALT+F2 (try again with F3 F4 etc.. if it does not work) and you should drop into a text only console mode."

After login into Oracle Linux 5, the black screen already has some text files and some folders on it as they used to be.

I can open the text files and folders, but cannot manipulate them because no tool bars to open a terminal.

I press Ctrl+Alt+F2 (F3, F4), nothing happens.

Thus, I have 2 questions:

1) My Oracle Linux 5 is a Virtual Machine in VMware Player 3. I simply open it in VMware Player 3. How to connect it with ISO file Enterprise-R5-GA-Server-x86_64-disc1 and boot it from ISO file ?

2) The black screen already has some text files and folders but has no Tools Bar. Is the black screen Text only Console mode ? If not, what is text only Console mode ? How to get into it ?

Thanks in advance.

[user1234567]

Folk,

Hello. I power off the VM and boot Oracle Linux 5 again. I login as "root" user with Username (root) and Password (rootPWD). User "root" login successfully. I checked the VM disk space below:

[root@linux ~]# df -h

FlieSystem: /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00

Size: 95GB

Used: 87GB

Avail: 3.4GB

Use%: 97%

Mounted On: /

As you see the number above, 3.4GB disk space is available. The virtual disk doesn't have problems.

User "root" run other functions correctly. But user "MyName" cannot login and comes up 6 errors. I don't understand this kind of issue.

My question is:

Why the user "MyName" cannot login into Oracle Linux 5 and comes up 6 errors now ? How to solve these errors ?

Thanks in advance.

[wila]

Hello,

Yes your disk is full and the only user that is allowed to use the current free space is the root user.

So the errors make perfect sense.

See also:

http://serverfault.com/questions/315181/df-says-disk-is-full-but-it-is-not

re. mounting an iso file, From the menu in your vmware player, select connect CD, then navigate to the CD iso image.

I cannot remember the VMware Player 3 interface much, it is too long ago that that version was recent, but you might still have to click "connect" in the menu.

--

Wil

[wila]

Also from the terminal where you typed "df -h" when you were root you can simply type "su MyUserName" (where MyUserName is replaced by the actual user name) and your user changes to that actual user.

That's when you can run that test I talked about in my first reply.

I don't want to make a snarky comment, but maybe it is time to contact the Oracle Linux administrator for that VM?

For successfully running Oracle on Linux it does help to have basic linux troubleshooting skills and if this already gets you in trouble I am worrying about when real issues happen.

Anyways... you would have to end up extending the VM disk size.

Mark the empty disk space as a new LVM partition and add that partition to your VM.

Personally I consider that advanced enough to ask somebody around you that knows his LVM and Linux.

And _please_ make a backup copy of your VM, with the VM shut down, copy it to an external disk that you disconnect, before doing anything in that direction.

--

Wil

[user1234567]

Folk,

Hello. Thanks a lot for replying.

You say in the post "Mark the empty disk space as a new LVM partition and add that partition to your VM."

My questions are:

1) What is LVM partition ? Is the empty disk space the 3.4GB on my VM Oracle Linux 5 ?

2) How to mark the empty disk space as a new LVM partition ?

3) How to add the partition to my VM ?

Thanks in advance.

[user1234567]

Folk,

Hello. I login as user "root" successfully.

[root@linux ~]# su MyName

[MyName@linux ~]$ Some programs at this prompt run correctly and some other programs cannot run.

[root@linux ~]# df -h

FlieSystem: /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00

Size: 95GB

Used: 87GB

Avail: 3.4GB

Use%: 97%

Mounted On: /

I have checked Computer > FileSystem > tmp > Properties below:

Basic tab:

Name: tmp

Type: folder

Contents: 836 items, totalling 3.5MB

Location: /

Volume: Root Volume

Free Space: 3.4 GB

Permissions tab:

Owner: root

Folder Access: Create and delete files

Group: root

Folder Access: Create and delete files

Others:

Folder Access: Create and delete files

Execute: Allow executing file as programs

Apply Permissions to enclosed files

As you see on directory /tmp Permissions tab, the owner of 3.4GB disk space is user "root" and not the user "MyName".

That's why user "MyName" cannot login into Oracle Linux 5.

If on Permissions tab, select Owner "MyName" and Group "MyName", the user "root" will not be able to login into Oracle Linux 5.

Because at the prompt [MyName@linux ~]$, some programs run correctly and some other programs cannot run.

I cannot login as "root" user and then su "MyName" to do my work in Oracle Linux 5.

In the past, user "MyName" can use all disk space until "Avail" is 0.

My question is:

Can we assign the available free disk space 3.4GB to user "MyName" instead of user "root" or both users ? If yes, how to do it ?

Can we simply select Owner "MyName" and Group "MyName" on Permissions tab of /tmp directory properties ?

Thanks in advance.

[user1234567]

Folk,

Hello. I have tried to delete some files to free up some disk space. I am using VMware Player 3.

Oracle Linux 5 is Virtual Machine. When I download files from Internet, I download files into Host machine Windows 7 at first and then copy/paste to VM Oracle Linux 5.

If the VM is Windows Server 2003, the file is copy/paste into the directory VMwareDnD in Windows Server 2003 and then copy into Desktop. This means the file occupies double space of the file size in Windows Server 2003. I clean the directory VMwareDnD usually to free up much disk space in Windows Server 2003.

But in Virtual Machine Oracle Linux 5, I copy/paste many files from Host machine Windows 7 into VM Oracle Linux 5. But I don't know whether the file occupies double space of files in Oracle Linux 5 or not. I don't know which directory store the file at first and then copy the file into Desktop. If we can free up this directory like VMwareDnD, we can get much disk space.

My question is:

When copy/paste file from Host machine Windows 7 into VM Oracle Linux 5, does the file occupies double space of the file size in Oracle Linux 5 as the file in Windows Server 2003 ?

If yes, could you please find out which directory in Oracle Linux 5 stores these files so that clean this directory ?

Thanks in advance.

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

For the question on what is LVM see: Logical Volume Manager (Linux) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For tips on how-to use LVM please see this article:

Linux Sysadmin: How To Manage LVMs With a GUI

Before you can add more space you will have to resize your virtual disk and make it bigger or you will have to add another virtual disk to the virtual machine.

The 3 GB you want to use is only available to the root user as it is in the 5% safety margin.

If on linux the drag and drop interface uses a temp folder then that is under /tmp

For finding out where the diskspace is used the du commando can be used.

Use command "man du" to learn more about the options.

eg.

du -hs /tmp

will show how much the tmp folder uses.

du -hs /home

shows how much space the home folder takes

etc..

--

Wil

[user1234567]

Folk,

Hello. Thanks a lot for replying. The issue is solved. I can login into Oracle Linux 5 successfully now ! Thanks.

[wila]

Glad to hear it works again!