I have a dual-boot SuSE with 98.
I altered the Linux partition from Partition Magic on 98.
Since then, whenever I boot (in SuSE), I get a message in the beginning that there is no Logical Volume Group defined. And it asks to run e2fsck (file system check, I guess). If I enter Yes, it runs e2fsck program which is very similar to Scan Disk on Win 98. If I select 'no', it starts shutdown.
1. What is Volume Group. If it's not there, how can I create it? ( I tried doing it from YaST, but was afraid it might damage the file system)
2. What is e2fsck? And why does SuSE ask me to run it only since I altered the partitions?

I am a newbie trying to migrate to Linux. There are many things in Linux which are above my head. So,pls bear with me if I asked stupid questions.
Thanks in advance..

[Edited by Concoran on 06-03-2001 at 01:49 AM]

Are you sure that the logical volume groups are the actual cause of the problem?

Did you install SuSE Linux using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) partitions? If you didn't, the message you see is just the 'vgscan' looking for logical volume to mount. If you aren't using LVM then it doesn't affect anything - it's just part of the default kernel. Chances are you trampled over one of your linux partitions when you Partition Tragic-ed it. When you get the system up after e2fsck, can you shut it down clean for a 'normal' reboot?


First of all if you did not set up with LVM then don't try and use it until you have fixed your first problem.
LVM is a means of combining multiple physical devices or partitions into 'volume groups' on which you can create several 'logical volumes'. These volumes can then be mounted just like any other partition in fstab. For example if you had 3 - 10GB HDDs you could combine them into one volume group of 30MB. On this you could create logical volumes - say one volume of 25MB for your monster web server haiku collection. We could call it /dev/wwwpages and we could mount it on '/usr/local/httpd'. You could then create a volume for your root filesystem, /dev/rootfs and mount it on '/'. There are other options and methodologies for setting up LVM. As well there are performace considerations you should take into account. Have a look at the LVM web site at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/ (after you figure out why you can't boot nice)


Think of e2fsck as scandisk for linux. For some reason your partitions are reporting that there is something wrong with the filesystem. You will see this if you dont shut down properly (/sbin/halt would be a good start). Again I can't tell you why yours is wanting to run when you boot. If you could supply us with more info on what you did to your drives I'm sure some folks around here can help out. FYI you might want to look at the 'reiserfs' journalling file system as SuSE seems to have a nice setup for it. (You can do it in YaST)
[QUOTE][B]
I am a newbie trying to migrate to Linux. There are many things in Linux which are above my head. So,pls bear with me if I asked stupid questions.
Thanks in advance..

[Edited by mcleodnine on 06-03-2001 at 03:31 AM]

mcleod,
Thanks for the reply. It was pretty useful information.

I am trying to answer some of your questions here..

NO, I am not sure if the problem stems from LVM. However, I strongly feel that partitioning was the problem, because the problem started occuring only I altered the size of SuSE partition from 98 using Partition Tragic

NO, I didn't install SuSE using LVM (rather I am not sure). I have only 1 hard drive, but with many partitions though. I boot SuSE using boot floppy.

(When you get the system up after e2fsck, can you shut it down clean for a 'normal' reboot?)
It looks like it shuts down normally. I don't see anything going wrong. It says /dev/hda8 (linux native) partition was unmounted cleanly as it does about other partitions.
The startup and shutdown activities happen so fast that i can't see what has already scrolled up. BTW, is there a way I can see the startup log or shutdown log? or the entire screens?

During startup, I see the following messages,

EXT2-fs warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended.
...(some more messages)
....
mounting /proc device
...
..
Run file system check on root for LVM activation
...
/dev/hda8 is mounted
WARNING! Running e2fsck on mounted partitions can severely damage filesystem (something to that effect)..
run e2fsck(y/n)? 'Y' (i have no option but to say 'y', If I say 'n' it starts shutdown.)
/dev/hda8 not unmounted cleanly
filesystem check .............. 100%
....
...
vgscan : no groups found.

:END
Is it possible to infer anything from above messages?

Please also note that it is not an intermittant problem. It happens every time.

Thanks in advance for any help..

I've never seen a default install use LVM and you'd know if you had done it as it's a little more involved.

So I don't think that LVM is the cause or even a sypmtom.

/dev/hd8? Ok. Did you create a logical partition in linux or did you create a logical partition with Partition Magik?

When things don't go nice and you have to e2fsck, try the remount command as stated after the warning that you are mounting a read-only filesystem. It's something like 'mount remount rw... I forget the exact statement but it should be right before the (broken) login. Then you can look around adn see what got trashed. Maybe you just trimmed the tail off a partition. I'd wait for some more input from the group before doing anything drastic. I really hate broken fs problems. (Backup lots and keep a stable image)

IMHO it's a good excuse to either learn a lot really fast about fs repair or get another run at installing