hda1 is win2K 10G
hda5 is a fat32 data partition 20G
hda6 is a fat32 data partition 30G

hda7 is root for ubuntu 6.10

ubuntu is all installed, and I have actually booted it a few times, but it usually fails to boot during what I assume is some sort of disk check, fsck, when it gets to hda5.

The splash screen comes up, the progress indicator moves along, and then it goes to text, and give me this:


activate swap OK
fsck (-some info deleted-)
There are differences between the boot sector, and its backup
Differences (and then it lists mbr sectors and numbers. I wrote em down, but
too
lazy to type em here )
Not automatically fixing this
/dev/hda5: 23745 files, 322825/1280053 clusters

and there is sits. Once it a great while, it will move past this quickly, but 99% of the time, it just hangs right here.

You guys are the geniuses :-) What the heck it going on here. I was in ubuntu today, did the 168M worth of updates, had it reboot, and it does at hda5. It even changed displayed message slightly, as now it reports:
/dev/.detail/hda5: 23745 files, 322825/1280053 clusters

Where the word "detail" comes from, I have no idea, but it appeared after the updates were put on.

I assume that there is a filesystem problem with the FAT32. I have run chkdsk a zillion times from windows, and even from a CD windows boot. The partition was, of course, created using Win2K, so how on earth to I get this fixed??

The idea was, to get ubuntu happy, install vmware server for the few Win apps I need, and once I proved I could use the virtual machine for window stuff, just run ubuntu as my OS with Win2K as a guest. If I can't boot it consistently, well..... :-(

Not off to a good start. I know this is not the usual kind of help request, but its gonna take a linux person to tell me how to deal, and that just isn't me.... yet.

Thanks a lot for any assistance.

John

When you run the Windows disk administrator does it show the hard disk as being a "Basic" type of volume or a "Dynamic" type of volume?

Windows and Linux may have some problems if the hard disk is a Windows "Dynamic Volume". It should be a "Basic Volume".

Or better, put Linux on a different disk. That is actually the ideal solution.

Thanks. Its a Basic volume. The ideal solution is an all linux machine, but that cannot happen, so I have to be able to share the hardware.

There must be reason why it fails on that partition, and I would think that even if it was on its own drive, ubuntu would still do the fsck on all the partitions, so would another drive do any good?

Does what I posted seem to indicate that its a 'chkdsk' function that is failing? Would it be different if it was not going to mount the drive?

I appreciate your time and consideration.

John

If it were me I'd take the check out of fstab - set the last field to "0" (zero).
Do it from a liveCD, even the Ubuntu one if you have it - personally I always have a Knoppix handy.

Thanks. That at least lets me boot ubuntu, so I can get started on it.

I assume that disables fsck for those partitions on boot up, so if the fat32 partitions get 'dirty' I will need to let windows fix it?

Much obliged for the assist.

John

Yes, or simply run fsck from a Linux terminal.
"man fsck.vfat"