Hello All,
I have 4 partitions, first two for XP and Vista. Next two for Fedora and Ubuntu with Ubuntu in logical partition. I boot the machine using NT loader.
I recently removed fedora (deleted the partition) and installed it again, at the same place. Fedora boots fine, but ever since, I get fsck failure (error 8 ) when booting Ubuntu. After I press ctrl+alt+del, Ubuntu boots just fine.

Here's the log from /var/log/fsck/checkfs
fsck 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007)
fsck.ext3: Unable to resolve 'UUID=740b8a34-acca-43c0-a247-00c04ab15435'
fsck died with exit status 8

Here's Ubuntu's menu.lst (ubuntu section only)
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=1cb9ddf5-9b46-4226-9959-ab3081913c75 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

I suspect something has changed with respect to UUID of the partition after deleting and recreating fedora partition. I tried replacing UUID section with proper partition name (/dev/sda6), but to no avail.

Is there a way I can fix the problem?

Thank you all in advance.

Have a look in /etc/fstab, since I'd assume fsck is using -A to pick up mount from fstab

Billy, Here's how it looks like

# /dev/sda6
UUID=1cb9ddf5-9b46-4226-9959-ab3081913c75 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

From what I gather, each partition seems to have a UUID. Is there a way to see what it is by using fdisk or some other utility?

And, how do I fix my problem?

Try changing that entry to

/dev/sda6 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

But please take a copy of fstab before you touch it

Thanks Billy, Unfortunately, it didn't work. The boot process still dropped me at shell after failing fsck, at which point, I had to do a ctrl+alt+del to get it going.

If you see my first post, you'll notice that the two UUIDs are different, i.e, one that it is looking for, and the one that exists. I suspect that's what's causing the problem. Is there a way to find out what the UUID is for my partition, and adjust the boot process such that they match?

dumpe2fs /dev/sd_whatever | grep UUID

Don't you have more partitions mounting in fstab than just that one? Are you sure UUID=740b8a34-acca-43c0-a247-00c04ab15435 isn't referenced?

Hi Billy,

Here's how my fstab looks like

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda6
UUID=1cb9ddf5-9b46-4226-9959-ab3081913c75 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda1
UUID=362C255F2C251B7F /media/sda1 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/sda2
UUID=3A70FF5D70FF1DF7 /media/sda2 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/sda3
UUID=740b8a34-acca-43c0-a247-00c04ab15435 /media/sda3 ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/sda5
UUID=DEB8AFB7B8AF8D19 /media/sda5 ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0 0


It seems I have /dev/sda3 refer to that UUID (740b8a34-acca-43c0-a247-00c04ab15435) in fstab. I have FC8 on that partition.

Now, how the hell do I get rid of whoever that is referring to that UUID and replace it with Ubuntu? When Ubuntu boots, why is it referring to that UUID, in first place?

Change

# /dev/sda3
UUID=740b8a34-acca-43c0-a247-00c04ab15435 /media/sda3 ext3 defaults 0 2

to

/dev/sda3 /media/sda3 ext3 defaults 0 2

or check the UUID as described above (dumpe2fs /dev/sda3 | grep UUID) and update in fstab if necessary.

It happens because the Ubuntu boot process is calling fdisk with the -A option, which walks through fstab to check all partitions that the system wants to mount. Makes sense when you think about it.

Hi Billy,
It seems the UUID of /dev/sda3 had changed after I removed the old partition and created a new one, at the same place. All I had to do was to update the UUID in /etc/fstab. Thanks you for dumpe2fs info. It helped.