FC6 boot problem

headly21 · 04-05-2007, 11:37 AM

I have a new FC6 install (and updated) and everything worked fine until I installed qtparted to try to get a second 2GB hard disk (/dev/hdb) formatted to use as extra storage. Upon reboot, it hung, so I went to the rescue disk to get to a command shell and used fdisk to toggle the boot flag off then on to set /dev/hda1 to boot. While I was in the shell, I made a partition and filesystem on /dev/hdb1. All went well, and I rebooted successfully. However, I decided to place an entry into fstab in order to automount /dev/hdb1 at boot time. Now, I can't boot anymore. I tried the rescue disk again to find that fstab is empty!
The fstab entry I used originally was something like the following:

Code:

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/2GBdrive ext3 defaults 0 0

Could I get a pointer as to where I need to go next to resolve this without reinstalling? Those updates on a fresh install took an entire day!

I am at work right now, but I can provide error messages when I get home.
Thanks.

camorri · 04-05-2007, 01:30 PM

All my ext2 and ext3 partitions have '1 2' at the end, not '0 0' Not sure if that is part of the problem or not. Here is an entry for one of my ext3 partitions.

Code:

/dev/hda8 /mnt/mdk9-2home ext3 defaults 1 2

Did you create the directory 2GBdrive in /mnt ?

What boot loader are you using? Lilo or Grub? Are the entries there for your system, and are they correct?

headly21 · 04-05-2007, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri

All my ext2 and ext3 partitions have '1 2' at the end, not '0 0' Not sure if that is part of the problem or not. Here is an entry for one of my ext3 partitions.

Code:

/dev/hda8 /mnt/mdk9-2home ext3 defaults 1 2

Did you create the directory 2GBdrive in /mnt ?

What boot loader are you using? Lilo or Grub? Are the entries there for your system, and are they correct?

I believe the last two numbers in an fstab entry are restore flags, with zeros telling the OS not to bother backing up this volume for restore (or something like that).

At any rate, I manually created the 2GBdrive folder in /mnt before I made the entry in fstab.

I am using GRUB, or at least was using it before it went kaput

If you are asking if there are entries there for my system (entries in fstab?), fstab doesn't even exist in /etc when I get to a command shell. I don't know how much anyone cam help me without my providing the messages that I get when I try to boot.

headly21 · 04-06-2007, 06:16 AM

So, when I start the computer, it goes through the usual Welcome to Fedora Core, Press 'I' to enter interactive startup, then sets the clock, starts udev, etc....

Then, after setting up logical volume management, and setting the logical volumes in VolGroup00 to active, it runs a filesystem check.

Code:

fsck.ext3: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/hdb1 [FAILED]

*** An error occurred during the file system check.
*** Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot
*** when you leave the shell.
*** Warning -- SELinux is active
*** Disabling security enforcement for system recovery.
*** Run 'setenforce 1' to reenable.
Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D to continue):

When I enter the root password, I get the prompt

Code:

(Repair filesystem) 1 #

What do I do here?

headly21 · 04-06-2007, 06:35 AM

At the prompt to which I referred in my previous reply, I typed

Code:

fsck -A -y

and I got the following response

Code:

/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00: clean, 205671/5124480 files, 1459755/5120000 blocks
fsck.ext3: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/hdb1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?
/boot: clean, 38/26520 files, 19262/105808 blocks

When I run the rescue disk, I set the keyboard type, don't enable networking, and when it looks for Linux installations, I get the error:

Code:

An error occurred trying to mount some or all of your system. Some of it may be mounted under /mnt/sysimage.

Press <return> to get to a shell.  .. etc...

So when I get to a shell, I try to vi /etc/fstab, and there is no fstab, or nothing in it. Anyway, what do I do with the filesystem mounted in /mnt/sysimage?

camorri · 04-06-2007, 06:55 AM

From what you have observed, I would suggest you create a /etc/fstab file, and at this point make entries just for your root, boot ( if you have a separate one for boot ) home, and swap. You will have to do that by booting from CD or the command prompt, if youcan get back there.

It would appear you have had some type of catastrophic failure caused by something like a power failure or hard drive failure or a real ugly shutdown.

headly21 · 04-06-2007, 07:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri

From what you have observed, I would suggest you create a /etc/fstab file, and at this point make entries just for your root, boot ( if you have a separate one for boot ) home, and swap. You will have to do that by booting from CD or the command prompt, if youcan get back there.

It would appear you have had some type of catastrophic failure caused by something like a power failure or hard drive failure or a real ugly shutdown.

Well, I was able to get back to my fstab (I booted and got to the (Repair filesystem) 1# prompt.
I typed

Code:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/

and then

Code:

vi /etc/fstab

So, now I have access to my fstab, but it won't let me write to it. All I want to do is delete the entry I made regarding the /dev/hdb1. That's what's been screwing with me. How do I write to my fstab when it says

Code:

 "/etc/fstab" E212: Can't open file for writing

?

camorri · 04-06-2007, 09:23 AM

Hmmmm, What permissions, owner, does it show? Better look at the directory too. Here is what I see on my system.

Quote:

ls -l /etc/fstab
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 894 Apr 6 05:59 /etc/fstab
cliff ~ 09:21:06 > ls -ld /etc
drwxr-xr-x 84 root root 8192 Apr 6 06:01 /etc

I guess it could be locked, I have seen a few threads on that, but never had the problem. Look at the user and permissions first.

headly21 · 04-06-2007, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri

Hmmmm, What permissions, owner, does it show? Better look at the directory too. Here is what I see on my system.

I guess it could be locked, I have seen a few threads on that, but never had the problem. Look at the user and permissions first.

Yeah, this might be more than I had suspected. I am root, and the permissions are

Code:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root

but I still can't write. I first get an E303 error, then when I try to write !, I get the E212 error.

I can't seem to get past this point

camorri · 04-06-2007, 01:39 PM

Here is what E303 means.

Quote:

*E303*
Unable to open swap file for "{filename}", recovery impossible

Vim was not able to create a swap file. You can still edit the file, but if
Vim unexpected exits the changes will be lost. And Vim may consume a lot of
memory when editing a big file. You may want to change the 'directory' option
to avoid this error. See |swap-file|.

and E212

Quote:

*E212*
Cannot open "{filename}" for writing
Can't open file for writing

For some reason the file you are writing to cannot be created or overwritten.
The reason could be that you do not have permission to write in the directory
or the file name is not valid.

What are the directory permissions?

I'm wondering if you need to boot with a live CD, say Knoppix and run E2FSCK on each ext3 partition. Not sure what to suggest for the swap partition. It could be part or all of the problem. I believe you can not have the partition mounted to fix errors.

headly21 · 04-06-2007, 02:44 PM

I didn't try changing permissions to /etc, but I am root, nonetheless, so I would expect to be able to write to fstab. Anyway, what did you mean by

Quote:

You may want to change the 'directory' option to avoid this error. See |swap-file|.

?
I tried 'umount' to unmount /dev/hda1, the partition that holds /boot. umount does not work.
If I reboot with, say, Damn Small Linux and run E2FSCK, what am I looking for that would be any different than running fsck or fdisk now?

camorri · 04-06-2007, 08:41 PM

Quote:

You may want to change the 'directory' option to avoid this error. See |swap-file|.

This is text from the error message. I went and found the error messages, so we could better understand what was going on. I'm guessing ( never done this ) but I guess you can cause VIM not to use swap. That was what led me to believe there may be something wrong with your swap partition.

I spent some time reading the man page for E2FSCK ( FSCK also ) and it is not recommended to make changes to any mounted partition. No surprise you could not umount /boot, that would be like disconnecting the brains...

So, what you gain by booting with DSL or any live CD is none of your HD partitions are mounted, or if they automount by the CD OS, you will be able to umount them. This should be the 'safest way' to try and fix any disk errors that may be there.

The directory permissions on rare occasions I have seen changed, it is not a likely problem, but at this point, who knows, it would be an easy fix if that is the problem. Easy to check, just do a 'ls -ld /etc' and you can see how they are set.

headly21 · 04-08-2007, 08:45 AM

I had tried to burn KNOPPIX twice, unsuccessfully, for some reason, so I burned DSL on my last CD. It didn't work on my PC (but works on my laptop). Something is telling me to just re-install fresh, which is what I am starting to do right now, as I type this from my laptop. My PC is getting a fresh install of FC6. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out the issue, and I am dreading the time it will take yet again to run all system updates. UGH! Thank you, camorri, for your time and efforts in helping me with this. It did not go unnoticed or in vain.

-Ed

camorri · 04-08-2007, 09:35 AM

Best of luck with the re-install.