Partitioning Malfunction- Cant't boot into ubuntu partition
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Partitioning Malfunction- Cant't boot into ubuntu partition
Hi,
I am running Ubuntu Dapper on a Toshiba Tecra A8. I had 4 partitions, in this order: Xp, swap, ubuntu, and a hidden partition that contained the initial xp install. I recently decided that it would be a good a idea to free up some space and to use as a universal data partition. I took off some space from my xp partition, and I deleted my swap partition. Now that I had only 3 partitions I would be able to create a 4th one. So with this newly unallocated space, I created an extended partition, and within this partition I recreated my swap partition. I also used the extended partition to create the data partition that I wanted. So now my new partition set up was: windows(sda1),extended(sda4), swap(sda5),data(sda6),ubuntu(sda3), and the hidden one.(sda2) I did all this partitioning with gparted , and after initially creating the unallocated space from the xp partition everything still booted up fine. I finished the job at another time, and I went back in with gparted, deleted swap, and then did everything as said. After doing this with gparted, I rebooted, and the ubuntu loading up sequence got stuck at mounting root fs. I wanted to see what was wrong so I booted up with the recovery mode, and this is what I got:
Code:
[17179572.632000] ide0:I/O resource 0x1f0-0x1f7 not free
[17179572.632000] ide0:ports already in use, skipping probe
[17179572.632000] ide1:I/O resource 0x170-0x177 not free
[17179572.632000] ide1:ports already in use, skipping probe
Done
Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount
[17179572.676000] Attempting manual resume
[17179572.676000] attempt to access beyond end of device
[17179572.676000] sda4:rw=16,want=4,limit=2
[17179572.676000] Kernel Panic - not syncing:I/O error reading memory image
I hope someone could explain to me why I can't boot into my ubuntu partition. If anyone has advice, it would be greatly appreciated. Oh, my ubuntu partition is still intact because I can boot into it from xp. Thanks, Hal
Because it used to be sda4, now it's sda3.
Reboot, and when the grub menu comes up, highlight your selection, hit <e> to edit the selection, the <e> on the kernel line.
Change sda4 to sda3, and hit <Enter> to save the change. Then <b> to boot it.
This is a "one-time only" change - if it works, update menu.lst to match.
Your fstab will be wrong as well - unless you used UUID.
Hey it's me again,
My Ubuntu partition was never labeled as sda4. I am pretty sure it has always been sda3. Here's my menu.lst file (It is unchanged since before I wasn't able to boot into ubuntu):
Code:
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-28-386
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-28-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-28-386
savedefault
boot
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-28-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-28-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-28-386
boot
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-27-386
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-27-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-27-386
savedefault
boot
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-27-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-27-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-27-386
boot
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386
savedefault
boot
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386
boot
title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows NT/2000/XP
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
Please Help. Hope Someone can see something in my grub configuration. Thanks again.
Okay Now I am confused. Here's the output from fdisk -l:
Code:
[/home/dsl]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 1024 MB, 1024966656 bytes
32 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1009 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1984 * 512 = 1015808 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1009 1000897 6 FAT16
Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 6374 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 9154 9729 4626720 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda3 7650 9153 12080880 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 6375 7649 10241437+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 6375 6501 1020096 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 6502 7649 9221278+ 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
I was able to access fstab and menu.lst because my ubuntu partition is mounted in my xp partition. For the fdisk output I had to boot up with my live-usb dsl distro. I have no idea what is going on, but hopefully someone understands what's going on and why the partition labels have changed. Thanks, Hal
Right, that is why I was so confused from the fdisk output, but I don't think that is the problem. I believe that damn small linux has a driver problem or something similar, and that's why the drives were named as PATA drives. My drive is a fujitsu MHV2080BH PL, and it is definitely SATA. In gparted the drives are labeled as SDX and just to make sure, I booted up with my Dapper live-cd and here's the fdisk -l output:
Code:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6374 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 9154 9729 4626720 1b Hidden W95 FAT32
/dev/sda3 7650 9153 12080880 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 6375 7649 10241437+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 6375 6501 1020096 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 6502 7649 9221278+ 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
So I do not think the problem has to do with HDX/SDX, but I agree that the problem resides with sda4, the extended partition, and anything inside. Thanks everybody,keep the help coming, Hal
You did not change the fstab entry for your new swap partition i.e. from sda4 to sda5. The OS is dying because it can not read data saved to the old swap partition. Did you also format your new swap partition using mkswap?
You might need to add resume=/dev/hda5 as a kernel option in grub.
Well that is what your disk looks like (not v pretty IMO ). sda4 used to be your swap partition, and I think this is why you are getting the I/O error. So edit /etc/fstab to redirect swap to sda5 and see if that makes a difference.
Well the fstab that I posted earlier is a dated one, and I already updated it to mirror my new drive structure. However, Michaelk is right, and the problem is with the new swap drive. I added resume=/dev/sda5 to the boot config, on the fly, and it finally got past mounting root fs. Then a new problem came up, and I realized that I had earlier renamed everything in the fstab to HDX, thinking that was problem. Since I now know that dsl was misreading the drive, I immediately changed my fstab back to SDX, and ubuntu booted up properly. The resume=/dev/sda5 addition seems temporary and sort of like a fix. How do I make everything right so it is as if nothing went wrong.
Daws, I understand that my drive configuration is not pretty, but what are the alternatives. Is it bad because it is not in order, or because I had to use an extended partition. Thanks again guys, Hal
Good catch about the resume michaelk. In a normal (non sw-suspend) system swap is irrelevant to startup - it'll just fail to "mount", and moan about it.
You should only need the resume keyword once I'd imagine - once swap comes up, it should be found o.k. after that.
As for your partition layout, don't worry about it, it'll be fine.
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). sda4 used to be your swap partition, and I think this is why you are getting the I/O error. So edit /etc/fstab to redirect swap to sda5 and see if that makes a difference.
