[resolved] Computer will not boot

js-x.com · Last edited by js-x.com on Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:18 am; edited 1 time in total

I have a Raid5 with SATA drives and a normal IDE HD with the boot loader on it.

Been running Gentoo on it for quiet some time.

This morning the computer was off. This was a bad sign.

I can boot, POST looks fine. When it jumps to booting the HDs it locks, the drives spin for a bit and then stop.

I can boot the install/live CD, then I follow these steps, as they have worked before, but now do not:

# modprobe raid5
# mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 --auto=yes /dev/sd[abcd]1
# mdadm --assemble /dev/md1 --auto=yes /dev/sd[abcd]2
# mount /dev/md1 /mnt/gentoo

This errors with:

widan · Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:55 am Post subject: Re: Computer will not boot

js-x.com · Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:13 am Post subject:

thanks for the tip. it did get me past that error, but the strange thing is that I've done this before with out the -t option. but i'll take it as a good thing to do every time.

It was able to mount the root partition now.
I can chroot into it and find all the files.

when i did the mount of the boot, i received a message about e2fsck needing to be run.
so i ran it on /dev/md1
it ran and checked out okay. [e2fsck -p /dev/md1]

There are only 3 partitions:
1) this md1 that we discussed,
2) the swap which is a raid 5 also [made with mkswap /dev/md0]
3) the IDE drive boot partition [where grub is installed]

So I did a fsck on /dev/hda1 which is the boot IDE drive.
It showed that it was not un-mounted correctly.

So I did it again just to check that it fixed the drive.. it said it was now okay.

Upon a reboot I see now that there is still a problem, so it must be with the swap partition. [this is a question ?? is this correct to assume] I'll google for information about the type of file system the swap is and how to check it/ fix it.

thanks for any help.

I did find that the power went out last night [for a long time as my UPS didn't survive the length of the power outage]
_________________
Cheers.

--Mike Robb
http://js-x.com/
[Gentoo: AMD-64 3800, 2gigram, Raid-5 S-ATA + 1 IDE, Radeon-X300-SE(128MB PCIe)]
[Gentoo: P4 dual 3ghz, 1.5gigram, S-ATA + 1 IDE, GeForce 6200 (AGP 8x 128MB)]
[Smoothwall: P3, 256Mram, 1 IDE]

js-x.com · Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:45 am Post subject:

I found that doing a mkswap over an existing swap is non destructive to any other mount device, so i did:
# mkswap -c /dev/md0

The command ran, and returned success, but the pc will still not boot into Gentoo. the drive light comes on for a while and then goes off. apparently the pc hangs on boot.

thinking the boot loader was corrupted, ive re-run grub-install:
# grub-install --no-floppy /dev/hda1
it runs and looks good.

for now, i've chrooted in and am taring up files to ftp them off this pc just in case.

any ideas on what is bad?
_________________
Cheers.

--Mike Robb
http://js-x.com/
[Gentoo: AMD-64 3800, 2gigram, Raid-5 S-ATA + 1 IDE, Radeon-X300-SE(128MB PCIe)]
[Gentoo: P4 dual 3ghz, 1.5gigram, S-ATA + 1 IDE, GeForce 6200 (AGP 8x 128MB)]
[Smoothwall: P3, 256Mram, 1 IDE]

widan · Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:53 am Post subject:

js-x.com · Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:09 am Post subject:

thanks for the clarification. very good information.

I'll track the UPS monitoring as a separate issue, but am grateful for the advice.

For now, to make it clear this is what I've done and what happens upon booting:

What I've done:
1) performed e2fsck on the root partition /dev/md1
2) performed fsck on the boot partition /dev/hda1
3) regenerated the swap on /dev/md0
4) reloaded the boot loader with grub-install on /dev/hda1

What happens on boot:
1) POST occurs - no errors
2) Tries to boot CD1
3) Tries to boot CD2/DVD
4) Tries to boot Harddrive /dev/hda1
- at this point the light indicator for hard drive access comes on and stays on for about 30 seconds, after which it goes off, and nothing more happens. i've left this for about 5 minutes and then reboot manually to the live cd.

Since nothing comes up, would it make sense that the problem is with the /dev/hda1 drive as it has the boot loader on it, and the grub boot screen does not appear?
_________________
Cheers.

--Mike Robb
http://js-x.com/
[Gentoo: AMD-64 3800, 2gigram, Raid-5 S-ATA + 1 IDE, Radeon-X300-SE(128MB PCIe)]
[Gentoo: P4 dual 3ghz, 1.5gigram, S-ATA + 1 IDE, GeForce 6200 (AGP 8x 128MB)]
[Smoothwall: P3, 256Mram, 1 IDE]

js-x.com · Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:18 am Post subject:

BIOS settings were changed.

The boot order was still CD, HD, but the HD has a setting for order of HDs and it was altered.

Thanks for the hints and help.

now to tackle the UPS monitoring and better backups!

_________________
Cheers.

--Mike Robb
http://js-x.com/
[Gentoo: AMD-64 3800, 2gigram, Raid-5 S-ATA + 1 IDE, Radeon-X300-SE(128MB PCIe)]
[Gentoo: P4 dual 3ghz, 1.5gigram, S-ATA + 1 IDE, GeForce 6200 (AGP 8x 128MB)]
[Smoothwall: P3, 256Mram, 1 IDE]