Hello.

I have the distribution SUSE 10.2 32 bit, kernel 2.6.18 (default). Recently I decided to change the type of my root partition /dev/hdc2 from ext2 to ext3. (Long ago I performed this operation on other partitions, and now it was the turn of root one). I created journal with
tune2fs -j /dev/hdc2
and changed the entry in fstab.

But after next reboot the kernel falled into panic saying:

Unrecognized fs type: ext3


Even after I changed back the / fstab entry to ext2 (using rescue cd) the problem persisted.

What is the matter? How maybe should I pass the correct options to kernel during boot (I use GRUB)? Or maybe how I fall back to the ext2 filesystem if nothing other helps?

Thank you.

Do you have a separate /boot partition, or does your /boot reside in the root partition? If your boot partition does reside in your root partition, then this problem might be the following: your kernel doesn't understand ext3 filesystem, and because it needs to access the partition where /boot is and it can't do that, it's unable to boot. It's the same thing than with Slackware11; if one installs it with the 2.6 kernel on the cd and has root partition as ext3, a special step is required to make the kernel able to boot. If I'm not completely mistaken, you'll need to create an initrd file for the kernel; a quick search from Google turned this page up:

http://www.cpqlinux.com/ext2andext3.html

it's oldish I guess but might shed some light for you. What should be learned is: when changing the filesystem of your boot partition (or creating it), make sure your kernel can read it, because otherwise you might bump into problems.

Thank you. My /boot partition is a separate small partition at the beginning of the disk, and it always had ext2 filesystem, I have only changed the /dev/hdc2 to ext3 where the / is. And more - I have other partitions running on ext3 for long time, and there seemed no problems.