Can't boot, LVM and inode problem
 

I got a BIG pronlem.

When I try to start my Fedora 3 (with LVM) I get the following error .

root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel <version> ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quit

Uncompressing Linux, Ok, booting the kernel
audit(1130670158:0): initialized
Red Hat nash version 4.1.18 started
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00"now active
EXT3-fs error (device dm-0): ext3_get_inode_loc: unable to read inode block - inode=507905, block=1015810
mount: error 5 mounting none


And from there it is just haning there.

I am no expert and have no clue what I can do to repair this , I got some data on there that I realy must have.

THe problem started yesterdat, while I was working, I clicked on the bar to start my email program and I got the error that my mail program was not installed.

I then tried some other things but nothing was starting, I checked the messsage file (/var/log/ ) but nothing has been writting to this file for the last 30 minutes, Then I did something realy stupid, I rebooted

I tried to boot from FC3 DVD and the boot was mounted without a problem ( I think because this is outside LVM ) but the rest gives me problems.

Is there some tool I can run to recover from this.

Raoul.

It sounds like you need to check one of the logical volume's ext3 filesystem with e2fsck.

Using your installation disk, boot into rescue mode (boot: linux rescue), but don't search for or mount the linux installation.

Since you have two logical volumes, one is probably “/” and the other is probably swap. From the rescue command prompt, run:

lvm vgscan
lvm lvscan
lvm vgchange -a y
e2fsck /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
e2fsck /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

Only one of the e2fsck commands may run correctly, since one of the logical volumes may be swap. The first three lvm commands are included just in case the logical volumes are not activated in rescue mode.

For more details, see:

man e2fsck
man vgscan
man lvscan
man vgchange

finaly got it working
 

oke,

I finaly got this working. I used the following steps for this :


Boot from Fedora DVD, entered rescue mode
didn't search for installed distro
lvm vgchange --ignorelockingfailure -P -a y
fdisk -l ( to find partitions )
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/boot
fsck -f -y /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00


This did run for 8 hours, before I finaly decided to break the fsck.
When I tried to boot, I got another error, so I wan't happy.
Desided to try again with the same procedure (found somewhere on the internet)
and it repeated the last two inodes from the first try, but did continue and was finished within 30 minutes.

Rebooted, and everything was ok. Did even say that system wasn't shutdown properly and if I wanted to do a filesystem check :-)

Thanks for WhatsHisName, as he almost dictated the same procedure, and because not mounted, could even work better.

I made my backup more up to date and a script to do this everytime I issue a shutdown command.

Thanks.