Can't boot up Mandrake 9.0 after messing w/HardDrake
 

Help! Help! I'm stuck inside of Windows with the Mandrake Blues Again!
Sad story:(
I run Mandrake 9.0 and Windows 98 SE on the same hard drive a Seagate 16 Gig. I spend most of my time in Mandrake. I decided to install a second hard drive, a 30 Gig Seagate. I got it used on eBay, okay! After I got it physically installed and then got the BIOS to recognize it as the "primary slave," I decided to use HardDrake to format and partition the new hard drive. That part didn't go very well, which I know is not a very good thing to say when you're logged in as su. But I thought in the end it formatted one huge ex2 partition. I wanted to partition about a third of the drive in Fat 32, but HardDrake didn't exactly show me the way to do Fat 32, so I decided to go into Windows and use Partition Magic to format for both file systems. I started from scratch in Windows, downloading Seagate's DiscWizard 2003, to format the new hard disc, then I used Partition Magic to create both a Fat 32 and a ex2 partitions. When I tried to reboot into Mandrake it just would not mount the hdb and gave me the error messages that I have copied below. So back in Windows I downloaded a hard drive utility from Seagate, Seatool, or similar; sure enough after writing over six bad sectors which succeeded, then another complete scan, the new hard disk failed the test. "DST - Errors - Status: 05". So I completely disconnected the hard drive, got BIOS to auto detect its new (original) configuration, then tried to boot into Mandrake but the error messages have continued. Is there a rescue?

Thanks in advance. Even though I've been in Mandrake for a little over a year, I'm still as green as green can be in the shell, so if there's anything to do I'll really need to have my hand held. Oh, mea culpa, already;)

{Error messages that occurs at "checking file systems" part of boot up, even though hdb is no longer attached:}

"fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hdb5
fsck.ex3/dev/hdb5:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ex2
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>

fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hdb1
/dev/hdb6:
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 (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>

fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hdb1
/dev/hdb6
The superblock could not be read or does not descrive a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), the the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock
e2fsck -b 8193 ,device>

fsck.ex3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hdb6
Failed to check filesystem. Do you want to repair the errors? (Y/N)
(beware, you can loose data)
y

{More error messages as above. 3 ‘No such file or directory' and 2(?) ‘The superblock etc.' And then:}

[failed]
***An error occurred during the fsck
***Dropping you to a shell; the system will reboot
***When you leave the shell
(Repair filesystem) 1#"

That's where I usually exit. :(

I am guesing that MDK stuck some entries in the /etc/fstab file. When it drops you to the shell you need to edit the /etc/fstab file and remove any entries associated with /dev/hdb and then reboot.

You can also boot the 1st install CD to rescue mode. If I remember the rescue options the hard drive partitions will be mounted at /mnt/something. Go to the / partition and edit the fstab file.

You can manually add the hdb partitions back into /etc/fstab. To see how the drive is partitioned log in as root (su) and then do the following:
fdisk -l /dev/hdb (thats a small L)

And add for the FAT32 partition.
/dev/hdbx /mnt/<some_mount_point vfat user,umask=000 0 0

Where x = partition ID
/mnt/<some_mount_point> = an existing directory

I would change the ext2 to ext3 using tune2fs and then add
/dev/hdbx /mnt/<some_mount_point ext3 defaults 1 2

Thanks Guru,

I've had a look at the /etc/fstab file and indeed there are at least 8 entries refering to hdb* bla bla, but I don't know how to edit. I tried pico but the shell said it didn't know that command. Did I mention I din't know anything?

Thanks again,

M

[QUOTE]Originally posted by michaelk
[B]I am guesing that MDK stuck some entries in the /etc/fstab file. When it drops you to the shell you need to edit the /etc/fstab file and remove any entries associated with /dev/hdb and then reboot.

Use the vi text editor.

http://www.chem.brown.edu/instructions/vi.html

Thanks, looks like fun!

I am having a similar problem. Problems arose after usin hardrake to format a second harddrive. When I boot up I get the following message.

-----------------------------------------------------------
fsck.ext2/:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 file system. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or somthing else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

: Is a directory while trying to open /
Failed to check filesystem. Do you want to repair the errors? (Y/N)
(beware, you might lose data)
-----------------------------------------------------------

I dont know how to use "e2fsck" to do the repair. When I try to do it I end up with the same message as above. This happened to me last week and I ended up reinstalling and losing all of my stuff that I hadn't backed up. I really don't want to do that again. Right now I have booted using a Knoppix cd and I can access all of the info on my hard drive. If I look at /etc/fstab while running Knoppix it looks like this.

-----------------------------------------------------------
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
pts /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/auto/floppy auto user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/auto/cdrom auto user,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/auto/cdrom1 auto users,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda5 none swap defaults 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda7 /mnt/hda7 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda8 /mnt/hda8 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda9 /mnt/hda9 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0 0
-----------------------------------------------------------

I would assume that this means very little except that I see no reference to an ext2 filesystem. I am very new to linux only been usng it for about 3-4 weeks, and I am at a total loss. Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks.

Hi questone,

I was hoping Guru would reply to this coz I don't know nothin'. So I apologize ahead of time. Here's a cheat sheat I used to plunk my way through the terminal:

http://www.cmm.uklinux.net/steve/ntt.html

It's under the title of "Newbie's Top Ten Commands."

I think if you stay in your MDK log in, when you get to the part about do you want to repair, caution some datta may be lost, probably you can hit "n" and it will end up with a prompt that will mean you are in a "shell" mode, even though it doesn't look like it. Also, I think at that point you will be in the "su" mode, so be careful. I think to get from there to the /etc/fstab file (see Guru's first post) you have to change directories, so that mean you have to type in something like cd /etc. That should get you to the /etc directory, then you can ask it list (ls) what is in the /etc directory. The /fstab file should be there. See the above mentioned Ten Commands to figure out how to see the content of the /fstab file. I think it's the CAT command. Then follow Guru's advice about using vi to edit.

I'm sorry I can't be more precise. I'm in the middle of two very busy days and I don't have time to run through it all again to get all the commands to you. Good luck.

(Also, just a final caveat, I notice you are in MDK 10.0, I'm still in 9.0)