System won't boot, can't mount partitions

Ethan · 09-16-2002, 01:44 PM

My Thinkpad T-22 with RH 7.2 Linux would go into sleep mode and it was impossible to wake it up. I tried pressing the power buttom briefly, but that didn't work. It happened again this morning and I decided to press and hold the power button to force it to power down. Now when I try to boot Linux, it stops the process at a prompt saying "Enter runlevel:" If you type in a runlevel, e.g. "1" it returns an error along the lines of:

INIT: can't open(/etc/ioctl.save, 0_WRONGLY): Input/output error
INIT: Entering runlevel: 1
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel
keyboard: unknown scancode e0 63

I tried booting from a floppy, but once booted, the system won't mount any partitions. The mount command says there's a bad superblock. Trying to use an alternate superblock doesn't help.

I tried running e2fsck on the Linux partitions, but just got error messages.

I'd be grateful for any insight or suggestion that might help.

Ethan

MasterC · 09-16-2002, 01:46 PM

What were your error messages after running e2fsck?

Ethan · 09-16-2002, 02:05 PM

e2fsck: Filesystem has unsupported feature(s) while trying to open /dev/hda3

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 [...] then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

Then when I run it as suggested, I get:

e2fsck: Attempt to read block from finesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/hda3
Could this be a zero-length partition

Those are the results I get when running e2fsck. I'm not to familiar with e2fsck. Are there other ways to use it that I could try?

Thanks,

Ethan

MasterC · 09-16-2002, 02:12 PM

So I guess the next question is what perameters did you run it with?

e2fsck -p repairs the filesystem without any questions.
e2fsck -y answers y to all the questions.

What did you run it with?

Ethan · 09-16-2002, 02:18 PM

I tried

e2fsck -p

I'll try -y

Ethan

Ethan · 09-16-2002, 02:20 PM

I tried e2fsck with -y option and got exact same result -- "zero-length partition" question.

Ethan

MasterC · 09-16-2002, 02:21 PM

That was just 2 examples amongst many. man e2fsck gives quite a response.

Cool

Ethan · 09-16-2002, 02:23 PM

OK, I'll look into that. Maybe there's something in there that will help.

Ethan

MasterC · 09-16-2002, 02:24 PM

e2fsk -pf /dev/hda3

For me it works

Is your drive formatted ext2 (or 3) or something else?

MasterC · 09-16-2002, 02:27 PM

Also, are you sure it's the correct partition you are scanning?
fdisk -l (FDISK -L lowercase)
will provide information on your partition arrangement. Also make sure the partition isn't mounted.
umount /dev/hda3

Cool

<edit>
Here's my return:

Code:

root@masterc:~# umount /dev/hda7
root@masterc:~# e2fsck -p /dev/hda7
/dev/hda7: clean, 11/3211264 files, 108775/3187566 blocks
root@masterc:~# e2fsck -pf /dev/hda7
/dev/hda7: 11/3211264 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 108775/3187566 blocks

No problems, the second one there (e2fsck -pf /dev/hda7) took a while, but the partition is ~10GB, so that makes sense. The -f option forces it to check even if the partition was marked clean.
</edit>

Ethan · 09-16-2002, 02:39 PM

I tried the -c -p -f and -b 8193 options, all with exactly the same result.

Is there some tool other than e2fsck that might help?

Ethan

MasterC · 09-16-2002, 02:44 PM

-b 8139 is simply a suggestion. It's asking you to specify your superblock. Unless that really is your superblock (which I have no idea what that is) then leave that parameter out. Try them seperately.

I believe fsck is THE tool for this, but I will google around and see what I can find for ya.

Ethan · 09-16-2002, 02:46 PM

Thanks for the replies. I tried unmounting the filesystems, but they aren't mounted in the first place.

I tried e2fsck -pf /dev/hda3 and also with different superblocks specfied, still same results.

Not sure how fs is formatted. Could be ext3, but I did a standard install.

Ran fdisk /dev/hda: "Unable to read /dev/hda". Using the -l option, returns literally nothing at all, just an empty prompt.

I have to go to a meeting right now, but I'll try again when I get back.

Thanks again,

Ethan

MasterC · 09-16-2002, 02:46 PM

Check this bad boy out:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/e2salvage/?topic_id=136

Sounds good

MasterC · 09-16-2002, 02:47 PM

fdisk -l
is presented with no drives. Just the command alone and will return all drive(s) setup(s).

Cool

<edit>
And here is my example:

Code:

root@masterc:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 4866 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1       522   4192933+   b  Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda2           523      4867  34895931    5  Extended
/dev/hda5           523      1907  11124981   83  Linux
/dev/hda6          1908      3279  11020527   83  Linux
/dev/hda7          3280      4867  12750265+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2498 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *         1       814   6538423+  83  Linux
/dev/hdb2           815      2499  13527796+   5  Extended
/dev/hdb5           815      1851   8329671   83  Linux
/dev/hdb6          1852      2499   5198031    b  Win95 FAT32

If that helps any
</edit>