We're running Mandrake..

Our fsck on an extended filesystem failed.



Message it gives us:

"The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock: e2fsck -b 8193 (device)"

How do we determine what the alternate superblock is?

How do you determine what the proper syntax for using e2fsck?

What is the correct procedure for running e2fsck in this type of situation?


Any help would be appreciated..

--Joey

If the superblock is corrupted, you can't determine the block size anymore. If it is not currupt yet, you could find out with "dumpe2fs" device | more" (displayed something like "Blocks per group", nr 1 would be first superblock, next would be e.g if blocksize is 8192, 8193). In most cases, the 2nd alternate superblock is at offset 8193.
--> e2fsck -f -b offset device

In general, correct syntax you get with
--> command --help
and / or
--> man command

Are you sure you have ext2 and the partition is corrupted?
Are you still able to mount it?
fsck should be applied on non-mounted partitions only.