hi...

am very new to linux... i installed mandriva 2007 and was amazed by its features.... but all of a sudden after 3 days am not able to boot into the linux....
it's telling "vfs: unable to find ext3 filesystem on hda8 "

and ending with the msg.. "kernerl panic: not syncing.Attempted to kill init"

but am able to boot into xp which is in my primary c drive..

do i need to reinstall??? or some other way is there??

plese help me out soon...

For the Linux not booting issue looks like you have somehow deleted the partition or changed the type of it. Windows not booting could be because of some similar issue.

Recollect if you have changed any partition/filesystem related change u made recently on the system. Make use of rescue mode to get access of the partitions on the disk and see if you can mount them manually in rescue mode.

i didn't do anything except uninstalling system mechanic in xp. i dont think it ll be a prob , right?.... am able to boot into xp....

and when i put the mandriva installation dvd and choose rescue.. it also showing some error and asking me to reboot..
is there any other way??
pls help me....

Use a rescue disk to check out what you have.


Mandriva Disk one probably can function as a rescue disk as well. Boot from CD and at the boot prompt type linux rescue. This is how most installer work, but I don't know Mandriva well enough to say for certain.

hd8 is a strange device. Usually it is hda or sda,depending on if it is ATA or SCSI. I assume you meant hda. /sbin/fdisk /dev/hda and then print the partition table. Do not make any changes to your partition table or you may screw your windows partition as well.

What do you have there?

My guess is something correupted either your /boot or / (root) partition.

I think there is something wrong with lilo configuration, Mandriva does not give you the option of using ext3 file system. It formats ext2 by default. If you installed the default boot loader it is lilo, you will have to search for knowledge on how to re-build lilo configuration with the installation disc, grub is an option as a boot loader in Mandriva and is easier/better to work with.

i ll try using rescue disk.. and get u back...

and while installing mandriva 2007 it showed an option of ext3... and i used that...

sorry to tell this very lately....

my linux is sitting on hda7 and i gave around 700 MB as linux swap which is hda8...
hda8 is linux swap partition

i donno why it is showing the following:

"No resume device specified
echo: cannot open /proc/suspend2/do_resume for write: 2
Mounting root filesystem /dev/root
vfs: can't find ext3 filesystem on dev hda8
mount: error 22 mounting ext3 flags defaults
vfs: can't find ext3 filesystem on dev hda8
mount: error 22 mounting ext3
vfs: can't find ext3 filesystem on dev hda8
mount: error 22 mounting ext3
switching to new root
Error opening /dev/console!!!: 2
unmounting old /proc
unmounting old /sys
switchroot: mount failed: 22
initrd finished
kernel panic-not suyncing: attempted to kill init"

and when used rescue disk through mandriva installation cd
and choosing mounting partitions /mnt
it is showing all the partitions followed by the message:

"found: /dev/hda7 already mounted or /mnt/mnt/win_f busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/hada7 is mounted on /mnt
your system is ready on /mnt"

mounting other partitions
.
.
.
"found a Mandriva Linux Root partition on /dev/hda7
"type ext3, version 'Mandriva Linux Release 2007.0 (official) for i586' "


and hwo to print the partition table???
when i type /sbin/fdisk/dev/hda in console window under rescue option it is showing no such directory ....

You must be root but should not matter if using rescue on CD
/sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda (that is a small L)

on typing /sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda... i got the following info in rescue mode

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
units = cylinders of 16065*512 = 8225280 Bytes
Device Boot start end blocks id system
/dev/hda1 * 1 1946 15631213+ c W95 FAT32 [LBA]
/dev/hda2 1947 9729 62516947+ f W95 Ext'd [LBA]
/dev/hda5 1947 3731 14337981 b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda6 3732 5102 11012526 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda7 5103 5828 5831563+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 5829 5905 618471+ 82 Linux Swap/Solaris
/dev/hda9 5906 9729 30716248+ b W95 FAT32

This is what i got...

any idea???? pls help me out.....

Partition table looks ok.

Post your /etc/fstab file and your bootloader configuration file
grub i.e /boot/grub/menu.lst
lilo i.e. /etc/lilo.conf

You must have used a different utility to format you root partition, because I tried everything to get ext3 when I installed Mandriva 2007 and it would not give me ext3, only ext2. Or...maybe it's because I used an existing partition that was not formatted, I did not use Mandriva to make the partition, only format it.



I still think it is a boot loader problem, although /etc/fstab may be involved, but according to the error I quoted above, there seems to be some problems with pointers to root and swap partition. If you installed the default boot loader, it is lilo, I changed mine to grub in the final configurations at the end of installation. I post my /boot/grub/menu.lst to show what it should look like in case you used grub also. When using the install disc in rescue, you should be able to look at your lilo.conf with command:

Or if you used grub:

Here is my /boot/grub/menu.lst:

Notice in the first section called "title linux" it has "root=/dev/sda1 resume=/dev/sda2", this is reference to which partition is root and which is swap, the resume=/dev/sda2 is swap. Because according to the errors you posted, it cannot find the /boot sector of the root partition, which tells me it can't read /etc/fstab yet which is in the root partition.

when i type the following in console am getting the following

/etc/fstab
permission denied

/etc/lilo.conf
no such file or directory exists

/boot/grub/menu.lst
no such file or directory exists

less /etc/lilo.conf
no such file or directory exists

less /boot/grub/menu.lst
no such file or directory exists

am using the right commands???

Something tells me you're not mounted properly, you may have to include the directory in the command including the mount point, I have not had the opportunity (lucky me) yet to use rescue mode.
BUT: This link below looks like a simple, easy to understand tutorial on using the Mandriva CD in rescue mode. I would not be afraid to try the "Re-install bootloader" option, but that's me. You should give this article a good skimming over.

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Sys...CLI/DiskRescue

i too tried re-installing bootloader.... but the problem still persists...

pls help me out to get out of this prob......

do i need to re-install the entire mandriva????

am left for more than 4 days with the same prob....