[TriLUG] Help Please - Strange Filesystem Error on Boot

[Andrew Perrin]

Is it possible that your new kernel doesn't have ide (or scsi, if it's a
scsi disk) drivers compiled in? That's a common kernel compilation
"gotcha" that I learned the hard way.

ap

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
clists at perrin.socsci.unc.edu * andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu


On Wed, 25 Feb 2004, Scott Chilcote wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> I've dealt with several Linux filesystem problems but this one has me
> stumped.
>
> I have a notebook computer with an upgraded hard drive that has worked
> fine for a couple of months.  It has Redhat 9 and a slightly newer
> kernel (2.4.20-20.9).
>
> I started up the machine today and found that it's failing to initialize
> the filesystem at bootup.  Some of the messages are:
>
> > loading default keymap(us):
> > /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 16222:/dev/null: read-only filesystem [failed]
> >
> > setting hostname localhost.localdomain: dup2: bad file descriptor [failed]
> > /etc/rc.sysinit:line 173: /dev/null:read only filesystem
> > initializing USB controller [failed]
> >
> > awk: cmd.. line:2: fatal: cannot open file "/proc/mount for reading(no such file of directory)
> >
> > checking root filesystem
> > dup2: bad file descriptor [failed]
> >
> > *** dropping you to a shell
> > *** give root password for maintenance
> > (or type control-d to continue):
> > repair filesystem 1#:
>
> It looks like one of the partitions is bad, however, when I run e2fsck
> on both of them it returns and says they are clean.  It reports no errors.
>
> The drive has two ext3 partitions: /dev/hda3 (boot) and /dev/hda4 (/).
> /dev/hda2 is swap.
>
> I've done the following so far, and they have not worked:
>
> 1. Used e2fsck to check both partitions for bad blocks (-c), none found
> 2. Booted using the RHL9 CD-ROM using "linux rescue" and looked at all
> of the recently modified files in /etc to see if anything was hosed
> (looks clean)
> 3. Rebooted and used the old kernel (.20-8) from grub, no improvement.
> 4. Used the RH9 CD-ROMs to reinstall the RPMs, kernel, modules, and boot
> configuration.  This ran without errors but did not have any effect.
>
> My first thought when I have a problem like this is "What did I mess up
> the last time I had it running?"  but scout's honor, the worst I've done
> to the machine lately is try a PCMCIA modem, which runs fine.  It also
> boots and runs fine from /dev/hda1, which is a Windows Me partition
> (yes, for games).  I've had it that way for several months.
>
> I miss the first couple of lines of errors reported during the boot
> process.  I've run dmesg and they aren't being captured there.  If
> anyone has some ideas to try for zeroing in on the problem I'd be most
> grateful.
>
> How can this computer fail to boot and yet e2fsck say it's clean?
>
> Thanks for any help!
>
> --
> Scott C.
>
>
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