Yes, but ext3 should be written without spaces, here is a line from my fstab:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/sda3 /newsys ext3 defaults 0 1*
-----------------------------------------------------------------

After that, just do Ctrl-o + Enter, and reboot with fingers crossed...

* You should always use 1 here on your root filesystem, to make sure it is checked first. All others should have 2. Also, if you have no options after the "file system" field, defaults will be used, so you should not change anything here unless things does not work.

Tried to explain the different fields in my last post, but tabs do not work, so it got a bit confusing. What I meant was this:

The first field is the drive/partition you want to mount. ("/dev/sda5")
The second is where you want to mount it (in your case "/")
The third is your filesystem. (You should use "ext3")
The fourth is mount options, defaults should do nicely here.
The fifth defines wether the filesystem should be dumped.
The sixth defines the check order for the drives, your root drive should always have 1 here, and all others have 2 if you want them to be checked. Use 0 for removable drives or drives you do not want to check.

Hi Retrievil ,
just booted , but still no change
grub is still trying to boot from the former UUID blah blah . i guess the changes didn't stay put , OR this is not solution to this exact issue ..
will i have to re install ubuntu 8.10 .?? is htat the only option left now . and am i only going to come across these same issues/ errors again ? hmm

i wonder if i booted from the install cd correctly because i was in Gnome desktop and then went to terminal .. should i have choose option boot from first hard drive instead ?

Hmm....well, if you've not updated your kernel or changed something there...I am stumped... If you have not changed much or done anything to your install, I'd try to install it again.

Since it did not "take" the change, it would suggest to me that your kernel simply does not see the partition, or that something is wrong with your config elsewhere. Maybe your grub.conf? How far does the startup come before it halts?

But anyway, if you have no information on your pc that you need to take backups of, I'd reinstall anyway, as it's probably faster than to search for errors on the install. I'd still go into the fstab one more time though, just to see that the changes were in fact written. If they were not, I'd simply try again

Still, cannot help but worry about your first partition, if you only have Linux on this pc, there really should be no need for a FAT partition there? It might be a restore-partition for the laptop though, IBM and others always have a separate partition for Windows/Setup in case you break your windows...

Hang on... Have you got a "root=" string in your kernel configuration?

Can you check the file /boot/grub/grub.conf? (or /boot/grub/menu.lst)

If you point grub to a partition that does not exist, you could get the same type of errors, I believe.

(I really hate not finding a solution to a problem, makes me sleep poorly...

PS. If you "boot from first hard drive" it is the same thing as booting without cd. So you got it right..

i ran through all your steps again , and checked the fstab changes .. i made changes this time using tab key to move under the correct headings.. and rebooted without cd , but still no luck
upon booting it reads
Boot from (hd0,4) ext3 b ba9e blah blah
starting up ...
then flashes to ubuntu page with indicator bar , then returns back to boot screen with
loading, please wait ...
gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
- check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
- missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)

i did mention that i had installed some updates last night using the package manager ..
what do you think should i re install
if i have to re install how do i first uninstall , including the game files and the pictures i loaded to folder ?

...

im now in busy box built in shell . how can i get to ubuntu@ubuntu from here
ps it was compaq@compaq before

Busybox? compaq@compaq? Did you start your FreeDOS installation? Is it listed in the Grub menu?

I've been reading up on your laptop, seems a lot of people have trouble installing XP on it as well, since it has a relatively new SATA harddisk controller, it requires at least WinXP SP2 to install correctly. Not sure, but this could be related?

Still, if you get it to boot with the original install, I cannot figure out why it would halt after a simple update. My best guess would be that some of the kernel options are wrong, or that your kernel has been updated, and the new version lacks support for your hardware.

Either way, if you are not tired of error checking, could you post the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab, so I can read through them?

If you are tired of error checking though, just do a reinstall, and format /dev/sda5 in the process. This will reset your ubuntu installation and remove your changes. I assume your /dev/sda1 is the FreeDOS installation that came with your computer, you can just leave that partition and you could add it to grub later, to be able to dual boot the systems. /dev/sda6 could also be left unchanged, just add the swap space during install (if it is not done automatically)

Hiya Retrievil ,

I did a re install . i hope that has re formatted the sda5 partition automatically. i was nt sure when i was asked about the partition options so i choose full disk. the install program then made 2 separate partitions , one being swap and the other i cant really remember now.

Mmm u got me thinking about the free-dos and if that was on sda1 i may have been able to boot up with that. but i started to get really lost when started to talk about kernel 's ?? and configuration etc ... i'm sure this problem has something to do with a) a conflict with my computer hardware and the upgrades or b) the upgrades/updates themselves. thank you for taking your time to look in to my little problem.

i will proceed with caution now with any new packages to install. which brings me to one last question. is there a forum or website which might list any errors with the packages or troubles like i have had because of my laptop somewhere ?