Hello everyone

I just got Red Hat 7.1 and i wanna dual boot with Windows ME.
So i installed its onto my pc and when it came round to rebooting it brings up the redhat screen and i select linux then it loads so far and comes to...

Checking root file system
WARNING: Bad format on line 1 of /etc/fstab
WARNING: Your /etc/fstab does not contain the fsck passno field. I will kludge around things for you but you should fix your /etc/fstab file as soon as you can.

(null):
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>

fsck.ext2: Is a directory while trying to open /
[FAILED]

***An error occurred during the file system check.
***Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot
***when you leave the shell
Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D for normal startup):

This is my first time installing Linux so please excuse the long winded description.

I anyone could help me with this i would be dead chuffed!!!

You may try booting from a floppy. If you don't have one you should be able to do a search and find one.

is it possible for you to post your /etc/fstab file?

How will i get this to post the /etc/fstab file.... btw its on another pc than the one i use to post here and i have never used Linux before up until this time

ok... well, here's what i can tell you offhand - the /etc/fstab file is used to define and mount the file systems at boot time. since you're trying to dual boot, you should have 4 partitions : the root partiton, the swap partition, the boot partition, and your MS Windows partition. if you didn't partition correctly, then this COULD create the error you're seeing, but i've never seen it before myself.
the passno field in the fstab file is the last entry in the line that defines a file system. it should either be 0, 1, or 2. 0 means that the file system won't be checked at boot time, 1 represents the root partition, and 2 represents a non-root partition. what's happening is that your root partition doesn't have a passno field in the fstab file, so it's defaulting to 0. you need to change this to 1.

Hmmm.... from what you have told me..... it looks like i forgot to put a boot partition in.... but i did the auto partition thing soooo???
If i was to take Linux off to put it on again how do i go about that?
Just go into DD and delete the linux partitions?

yeah... i'd recommend re-partitioning and trying again.

about 100 megs for swap(it's supposed to be the size of your physical memory), 16 is plenty for boot, and the rest of the non-windows partition can be root.

A thousand thanks isajera..... that did the the trick just fine!!
Now its time to have a play!!

Checking root file system
WARNING: Bad format on line 1 of /etc/fstab
WARNING: Your /etc/fstab does not contain the fsck passno field. I will kludge around things for you but you should fix your /etc/fstab file as soon as you can.

(null):
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>

fsck.ext2: Is a directory while trying to open /
[FAILED]

***An error occurred during the file system check.
***Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot
***when you leave the shell
Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D for normal startup):

I have this exact same problem. The dual boot has been working fine.
Unfortunately, I can't repartition because I have got files I need save on linux.

I used cd1 to launch linux rescue, then I got to a shell prompt. I don't see a /etc/fstab file.

I ran a fdisk -l and got something like this:

boot
/dev/sda1 * .... ... .. HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 .... .. ... Win95
/dev/sda3 .... .. ... . Win95
/dev/sda5 ... .. .. .. Win95
/dev/sda7 ... .. ... . Linux
/dev/sda8 .. . ... .. Linux
/dev/sda9 ... ... .... Linux Swap

I am not sure what I should put in the /etc/fstab file and how to mount stuff. Can someone tell me exactly what needs to be done to boot up the linux again? Also I don't know what file system I should use (ext2 or ext3)

THanks.

I am able to login as root to the repair filesystem prompt.
I found the /etc/fstab file but I can't vi or delete it because it is in ready-only file system. How can I edit/delete the file?

nevermind, i solved the problem

changed filesystem to writable by running
mount -o remount,rw /

lucky that i have an old copy of fstab. just rm the current bad one with the old one, reboot and everything is fine

I am haaving the same problem, so what should I do to solve the problem?