[TriLUG] Help Please - Strange Filesystem Error on Boot

[Jason Tower]

you might try booting off a knoppix cd and trying to mount the 
filesystems, depending on the results that might point you in the right 
direction.  also, if you can mount / try changing /etc/fstab to mount 
them as ext2 instead of ext3.  i doubt it will make a difference but 
it's worth a try.

jason

On Wednesday 25 February 2004 20:37, 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.