I tried starting my Linux machine and it did not come up.

I have installed Fedora Core 4 on my system around last year and have data on the hard drive that i want to restore before reinstalling any linux distribution.

I use grub as the boot loader, this is what i see on the screen

----------------- start of what i see when i try to boot fc4 -------
Booting 'Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)'

root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
[Linux-bzImage, setup-0x1e00, size=0x18e473]
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img
[Linux-initrd @ 0xfe0e000, 0x1a1416 bytes]

Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.
ACPI: BIOS age (2000) fails cutoff (2001), acpi=force is required to enable ACPI
Red Hat nash version 4.2.15 starting
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...
Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2
2 logical volume(s) in volume group "VolGroup00" now active
EXT3-fx: can't read group descriptor 3
mount: error 22 mounting ext3
ERROR opening /dev/console!!!!: 2
error dup2'ing fd of 0 to 0
error dup2'ing fd of 0 to 1
error dup2'ing fd of 0 to 2
switchroot: mount failed: 22
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
----------------- end of what i see when i try to boot fc4 -------

Q. Any suggestions?

I have burnt a linux resuce CD for FC4 and will try it with that as well.

Since FC4 is obsolete, why not just boot with a Live CD, get your data, and then install the modern distro of your choice?

Most of the top distros come as a Live CD so there is no extra effort.

Yes, i tried with Knoppix 3.6 but was not able to mount the hard drive in a read or read-write mode.

Can you suggest me any other distribution of Live CD, that can help me do this.

Thank You

I tried booting using a FC4 linux rescue CD

1. Not able to mount the file system on the first go

2. Booted without mounting the file system, so it put me to the bash shell prompt

i. ls /dev/mapper -> did not show anything
ii. fdisk -l -> to see what partitions are there
/dev/hda1 -> boot partition
/dev/hda2 -> LVM partition
iii. lvm diskscan -v
/dev/loop0 77.65 MB
/dev/hda1 101.94 MB
/dev/hda2 76.23 GB LVM phy volume
0 disks
2 partitions
0 LVM physical volume whole disks
1 LVM physical volume
iv. lvm lvscan -> to see if the partition is active
Both the partitions are not active
v. lvm vgchange -a y -> to activate all the partitions
vi. lvm lvscan -. to see if the partitions are active now

# Tried mounting the LVM volume now
vii. mkdir /mnt/hda2
viii. mount /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 /mnt/hda2
It gives an error
"mounting /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 /mnt/hda2 failed invalid argument"
I tried this with different options
mount -t ext3 /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 /mnt/hda2
mount -t reiserfs /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 /mnt/hda2
mount -t ext2 /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 /mnt/hda2

Don't know what the problem is and why i am not able to mount the LVM volume.

Q. Any suggestions what i can do further?

If you are booting with the FC4 rescue CD then you should be able to "run_qtparted" This will let you examine and repair the disk partitions as needed.

If you are unable to run qtparted:.... With FC7 there is an install option that lets you upgrade/fix your OS without overwriting your data. When you get to the options to select Overwrite all partitions, Overwrite all Linux partitions...etc there should be an option to keep your existing Linux partitions and reinstall without overwriting your personal data. I assume that option is also in FC4.

pixellany, tried using a live CD from Knoppix and had no luck mounting the lvm volume.

I put the details in this link.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi....php?p=2811756

Any suggestions?

Enochs, i tried using qtparted tool from knoppix (graphical version) and it can see
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol001 [75.69 GB] and
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol011 [512 MB]

Q. Is there a command that i can run from the command line to run qtparted to check the drive i am interested in?

Thank You

According to your earlier post, the FC4 rescue CD identified your boot partition. You ran qtparted from knoppix and it did not appear to identify your boot partition. I would go back and boot the rescue CD again. You can run qtparted from the command line once you boot from the rescue cd "run_qtparted". This will open a graphical version as well and you can then select the drive/partion that you want.
I would also have to agree with pixelly(?) above. If you can't repair or retrieve your data with the rescue CD then I would try downloading the Live DVD for FC7. You will boot the live CD and right on your desktop you will see the icon to upgrade to FC7. When you get to the right point, select keep all existing linux partions (this option should indicate that your user data will be saved). This "should" pull all of the user data from FC4 and upgrade to FC7 at the same time. Try the rescue CD and qtparted again first because if the upgrade option does not work, you may lose the data.
If you are not sure what file to download and burn for your FC7 live DVD just let me know.

Thanks Enochs.

QTParted also did not work for me. I tried installing/upgrading FC4 and FC6 but both these fail at the step when they try to see what previous OS is installed on my system.

I saw in some other forum suggesting to run Knoppix and run smartd or smartctl to see if there are any errors on the hard drive.

I have a Maxtor Hard Drive and seems to have some history saying that memory is bad. Don't have any screen shots with those messages.

I formatted my hard disk with QTParted when running Knoppix and installed FC6 on my system and it is up and running.

Seem to have lost the data on my hard drive. Planning to add a 2nd hard drive to my system and do frequent backups to have another copy of the data.

Sorry to hear about the lost data but glad to gear you have your FC7 up and running. May I recommend Norton Ghost 12.0. The 12.0 version is Visa compatible and it backs up Linux drives as well as Windows. When I screw up, I just apply my last Ghost image. No reinstalling ANYTHING or downloading updates for hours. Most OS backup/recovery utilities are not designed to recover your entire system but let's get real....if you boot multiple OS then you need the ability to recovery the entire system. No, I don't work for Norton....I just screw up a lot!

Take care,

Jay

Thanks Enochs.

Is Norton Ghost Free? or can i get a free trail version to try it out before i want to buy it?

satishp

A lot of the issue you had with recovery is using lvm. A lot of us avoid it like the plague. If you format to straight ext3 (no lvm) recovery is almost always very simple.

Good Luck
Lazlow