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Old 04-25-2004, 04:40 PM   #1
wgodois
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Registered: Jul 2003
Distribution: MDK 10
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Partition issues - Error messages during boot


After deciding the layout of my external (USB) 80GB harddrive, I used diskdrake to do the job of creating, formating and mouting the partitions. The layout is:
CODE

sdb1 - /mnt/windoze - 10GB - vfat
sdb2 - /altroot - 10GB -ext3
sdb3 - swap - 512MB
sdb4 - /mnt/storage - the rest - ext3

Diskdrake took almost 3 hours to format sdb4!!
In my first boot I got some error messages like:
Code:
poseidon fsck: /dev/sdb2:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
poseidon fsck: /dev/sdb5:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
Apr 25 09:33:35 poseidon modprobe: FATAL: Module scsimon not found.
So the system asked me if I wanted to fix the problem, I opted for Y and the boot went ahead.
What's the issue here? when creating the partitions I set all as being primary instead of extended, is it correct? That message saying the scsi module was not found is part of /var/log/message, don't know if the problem is related to it. I can read and write to /mnt/storage and /mnt/windoze as root
Here is my fstab:
Code:
/dev/hda5 / ext3 noatime 1 1
/dev/sdb2 /altroot ext3 noatime 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda7 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hdc,fs=auto,--,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,noatime 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sdb5 /mnt/storage ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs nls=iso8859-1,ro,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/windoze vfat umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/zip supermount dev=/dev/sda4,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb3 swap swap defaults 0 0
Thanks for the help or suggestions.
 
Old 04-25-2004, 08:30 PM   #2
wgodois
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Partition issues - Error messages during boot

[See above].

Last edited by Aussie; 04-27-2004 at 04:21 PM.
 
Old 04-26-2004, 11:43 AM   #3
kilgoretrout
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I had a lot of problems using diskdrake in mdk9.2 on my external usb maxtor HD as well. Mandrake couldn't read the factory partition on the drive and when I repartitioned with diskdrake it was a real mess with overlapping partitions. I wound up using Acronis Partition Expert to redo the partitions and everything worked fine afterwards. If your running mdk10-CE you might try upgrading to the OE version. I know there were a lot of bugfixes for drakx in the CE version. You might also try parted on the system rescue cd from partimage. Their site seems to be down at the moment so I can't give a link but the System Rescue Cd has parted on it and it's a nice graphical partioning tool which is a clone of partition magic but it can handle all common linux partitions.
 
Old 04-26-2004, 02:52 PM   #4
jailbait
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"What's the issue here? when creating the partitions I set all as being primary instead of extended, is it correct?"

Yes.

You got an error message on your first boot which indicated that there was a problem on sdb2 which contained an invalid ext2 file system ( but you told diskdrake to make an ext3 file system). You told fsck to fix the file system and so fsck repaired sdb2 as an ext2 file system. ext2 and ext3 are similar enough that fsck may have fixed the file system correctly anyway. At this point sdb2 can be in one of three possible states.

1. sdb2 may contain a valid ext3 filesystem and everything is OK.

2. sdb2 may contain a valid ext2 filesystem and you need to change the entry in /etc/fstab to ext2.

3. sdb2 is screwed up and you need to recreate it.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeB....home.page.html

Steve Stites

Last edited by jailbait; 04-26-2004 at 03:50 PM.
 
Old 04-26-2004, 03:38 PM   #5
wgodois
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Thanks jailbait:
I will check that When get home and let you know.
 
Old 04-26-2004, 03:44 PM   #6
J.W.
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It might also be useful to describe your hda partitioning scheme too. I notice you've got both /sdb3 and /hda6 defined as the swap partition. Whether or not that would have any negative impact is unknown to me but wouldn't surprise me if it did. -- J.W.
 
Old 04-26-2004, 03:56 PM   #7
J.W.
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wgodis - please do not double post, per the LQ rules http://www.linuxquestions.org/rules.php By keeping all the info in a single thread, it makes it easier for everyone to find useful information easily.

If you post a message that does not get any replies within 24 to 48 hours or so, it's generally OK to bump the original post (by adding a reply to it) but likewise it's generally frowned upon to create a second identical post. -- J.W.
 
Old 04-26-2004, 04:06 PM   #8
wgodois
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kilgoretrout: Thanks for the reply and I will check your suggestion.
J.W.: It was not done on purpose, I'm sorry for that.
 
Old 04-26-2004, 04:25 PM   #9
wgodois
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Registered: Jul 2003
Distribution: MDK 10
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Quote:
Originally posted by J.W.
It might also be useful to describe your hda partitioning scheme too. I notice you've got both /sdb3 and /hda6 defined as the swap partition. Whether or not that would have any negative impact is unknown to me but wouldn't surprise me if it did. -- J.W.
The hda scheme is what you can see in the fstab:
Code:
hda1 - /windows - vfat - 10GB
hda5 - / - ext 3 - 10GB
hda6 - swap - 512
hda7 - /home - ext 3 - the rest.
My second HD will be mostly used for capturing and editing video (in /mnt/storage partition). Someone told me that it'd be nice to have an "altroot" partition if I wanna try another flavor of linux in the future, that's the reason for having another swap partition (not sure if It's write). Actually, I'm open to any sort of suggestion. The /mnt/windows is there just to give me an oportunity to access from windows this 2nd HD, who knows the future!?!?!?

Thanks for the inputs and sorry again for the double post.

All the best.

william
 
Old 04-29-2004, 10:38 PM   #10
wgodois
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Registered: Jul 2003
Distribution: MDK 10
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Thanks kilgoretrout and jailbait for the valuable inputs. Actually, the supposed "new" hd was full of bad blocks from the 30GB partition onwards, that's the reason for not being able to format and mount it. It was replaced and now everything here is working like a dream.
Thanks a lot.
william
PS: my thanks to the mods for fixing the double post issue.

Last edited by wgodois; 04-29-2004 at 10:40 PM.
 
  


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