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115552
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 09 Aug 2005
Posts: 108

PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:27 pm    Post subject: really need help with boot error, superblock issue Reply with quote

Alright, i desperately need some help here. I've been working on this problem for over 9 hours now, and even asked many in #gentoo and #gentoo-amd64 but no one could really find the solution.

I installed gentoo from the livecd on an amd64 sempron, with a scsi hd and scsi card running aic7xxx. All went well until i decided to upgrade from ck-sources 2.6.15 to 2.6.17, and all went hell.

Now, when i reboot, i get the following error message
Code:
* checking root filesystem...
fsck.ext3: no such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda3
/dev/sda3:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the devices is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the supoerblock is corrupt, and you might try running t2fsck with an alternate sperblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
 
* Filesystem couldn't be fixed :(
Give root password for maintanace


I have no idea where to begin to explain.. I get that in about 29 out of 30 tries.
/dev/sda3 is my / partition, and it IS ext3, NOT ext2. I don't know why it insists on that. If i type my root passwd, it mounts it but read-only only, and it all seems perfectly fine. My old ck-sources runs and boots fine.. it's just with this new one.

The scsi card is detected, the disks are there, also, dmesg looks normal. No errors there. It just stops at the
'freeing unused kernel memory : 210k freed'

The way i upgraded my kernel is to emerge the new one, copy over .config from old one to new one, and run make oldconfig && make && make modules_install && (copy the new one to /boot). Both configs are more or less identical.

Some suggested that i update my udev, which was 079. Now it's 087-r1 but still the same problem. Some suggested i go through the whole menuconfig, and i did 4 times now, all fine. They also suggested i remove initrd, which i did, and still the same problem.

my grub is just
kernel /kernel-ck root=/dev/sda3

I've almost lost hope here, and i really need help.


edit: one other thing i noticed, when i enter through that prompt, and type df -a, i get something like
rootfs 16% used .......
/dev/root 16% used ........

i mean they were identical..

edit 2: my /etc/fstab is normal, and linking right,
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/sda2 none swap defaults sw 1 1
/dev/sda3 / ext3 defaults 0 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
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nixnut
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Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 10974
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Kernel & Hardware.
Not about getting Gentoo installed, kernel problem so moved here.
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vibrokatana
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Since the other kernel works, the filesystem is probably ok. A driver update from the old to new kernel may have updated the device to something else. like /dev/mdx (if its a raid). Hopefully the scsi card is initializing properly and loading in the devices for your drive..
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115552
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 09 Aug 2005
Posts: 108

PostPosted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 7:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

vibrokatana wrote:
Since the other kernel works, the filesystem is probably ok. A driver update from the old to new kernel may have updated the device to something else. like /dev/mdx (if its a raid). Hopefully the scsi card is initializing properly and loading in the devices for your drive..


Thanks for the advice. Hmm, after loggin in from the 'password' message above, dmesg and cfdisk shows me that the partition names are the same, but anyway, this is reply does make sense. I kinda messed up the distro so i'm repeating stage 3 again now, and i'll give gentoo-sources a try this time. Starting with the stable one (2.6.15), and moving upwards slowly.

I'll keep the thread alive
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andmag
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Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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Location: Sweden

PostPosted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi!

I had the same problem today when I started my computer, but my problem is with my raid drive. I think the issue is related to the new baselayout, which I upgraded to yesterday. It seems the /dev/md* nodes are not created during boot.

Code:
> cd /dev
> MAKEDEV md
> raidstart /dev/md0
> mount /home


Worked for me, to get my machine up and running again (/home resides on /dev/md0). Perhaps it is the same with the scsi device nodes. However, I do not know which file to edit in order to get it working automatically at boot time.

Cheers,

Andreas


Last edited by andmag on Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:28 am; edited 1 time in total
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115552
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 09 Aug 2005
Posts: 108

PostPosted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

andmag wrote:
Hi!

I had the same problem today when I started my computer, but my problem is with my raid drive. I think the issue is related to the new baselayout, which I upgraded to yesterday. It seems the /dev/md* nodes are not created during boot.

Code:
> cd /dev
> MAKEDEV md
> mount /home


Worked for me, to get my machine up and running again. Perhaps it is the same with the scsi device nodes. However, I do not know which file to edit in order to get it working automatically at boot time.

Cheers,

Andreas


Did you have to create them at every boot or just once ?

That's strange, but plausable. I only checked my /dev/ directory once, and it was loaded so i didn't look for the sd* links.

btw, which baselayout are you on now?
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andmag
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Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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Location: Sweden

PostPosted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have not tried to reboot yet, I just guess I will have to do it again. I am using baselayout 1.12.4-r2.

Cheers,

Andreas
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115552
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 09 Aug 2005
Posts: 108

PostPosted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm really losing hope here... I've done two more installations, and tried a different kernel this time,
gentoo-sources

and above the same error, i get the following too now

Code:
 ext2fs_check_if_mount: no such file or directory while determining whether /dev/ROOT is mounted
fsck.ext3: no such file or directory trying to open /dev/ROOT


and then the superblock error.. Wtf is going on? what am i doing wrong here?
The scsi drivers are loaded and working, the disks and partitions are there (sda1, 2, 3)..



Edit, so i looked at it logically, and i did some serious editing. I think i've solved it, but i can't really tell how exactly or what it was.

I did a reinstall
i redid the fstab again from scratch and checked its permissions
i took away a few things in the kernel that might have caused the problem (unwanted driver, and this weird NFS Root thing)
i redid grub

and so far 3 successful boots. So i'll leave it emerging a few more packages while i catch some shut eye and continue this in the morning, but i think i (finally) with the help of everyone here, #gentoo and #gentoo-amd64 got it to work.
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nomadsoul2
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Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 7
Location: St.M - Switzerland

PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i got the same problem, making me crazy.... but i got normal ide drive... i tried everything.. with mtab, with fstab, and so on.. wtf is wrong?
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115552
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 09 Aug 2005
Posts: 108

PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If it's this problem,

Quote:
ext2fs_check_if_mount: no such file or directory while determining whether /dev/ROOT is mounted
fsck.ext3: no such file or directory trying to open /dev/ROOT

Double check, and tripple check your /etc/fstab and make sure the example lines in there are commented out, particularely the one which starts with
/dev/ROOT
just search for it (ctrl+w in pico/nano).

If it's this problem,
Quote:
* checking root filesystem...
fsck.ext3: no such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda3
/dev/sda3:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the devices is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the supoerblock is corrupt, and you might try running t2fsck with an alternate sperblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

* Filesystem couldn't be fixed :(
Give root password for maintanace

Good luck.. I seriously don't know what the cause and or solution is/was. It was so horrible that once whatever i did made it work, i didn't touch it at all.. And i may not even ever upgrade the kernel or any package on it again... it works, it does the job it's supposed to do, so why mess with it.

What you could try is,
*) Using another kernel version
*) Using another kernel package with another version (gentoo-sources, ck-sources, etc..)
*) Double check your grub settings. Completly remove any comment or line that has no real effect or might cause confusion/mistakes.
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