New install, filesystem problem

zpr · 03-12-2009, 03:06 PM

Hi. I'm posting here after I have googled much with little success. I installed gentoo linux (kernel-2.6.27-r8) last night on my Acer Aspire 5672 and everything seemed fine. The only problem I had was when configuring grub, I put hda instead of sda. When I was initially partitioning my drive, fdisk -l showed all my partitions as hda, but later it changed to sda, and grub would only work when I used sda. Note that my fstab was configured under hda as well (perhaps that's why it's not working..). I never really understood why it kept switching between the two, and I would like to.

But my problem is this: When I boot, I get the following error:

Code:

* Checking root filesystem ...
fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hda3
/dev/hda3:
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>
* Filesystem couldn't be fixed :(
Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D to continue):

I ran a check and it appeared to clean up some errors and told me to reboot, so I did and nothing. My next guess was an incorrect fstab file, so I proceeded to check it, and remembering my problem with grub, decided to try to change all the hda's to sda. However, it wouldn't let me edit it, or even chmod it. I did some more research and apparently some people had the same problem and resolved it by adding a sleep at the top of /etc/init.d/checkfs so I tried, but again it wouldn't let me edit it (read-only filesystem)

Note that in the error it mentions an ext2 filesystem, which I find strange because both my root and boot partitions are ext3.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
zpr

x_terminat_or_3 · 03-12-2009, 04:50 PM

ext3 basically *is* ext2 with Journals, so not so strange at all.

Your best bet is to boot up a rescue disc, such as Knoppix, or a live cd, and then make the changes.

zpr · 03-13-2009, 01:24 PM

That did it, it was the fstab. Thanks a bunch!

peterlowrie · 01-19-2010, 04:27 PM

All the above is good information except insofar as it is not entirely clear.

For an installation of Linux on a Sparc machine the following works.

Lets assume the installation has gone without a hitch until it comes time to beet for the first time when you get:

Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D to continue):

What to do is enter the password and reboot.

Stop a

boot cdrom rescue

When you can get your filesystem to /mnt/sysimage go ahead and edit fstab. All you need to do is change the 1 1 or 1 2 at the end of the line to 0 0 on any lines where you see it.

Reboot and your system will now boot properly.

:-) Peter