Please help with new install

Vladman · 2009-10-06 17:37:28

Superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem and not SWAP or UFS or something else, then the superblock is corrupt and you might try running e2sck with and alternate superblock: e2sck -b 8193 <device>

I get this error after a new install and reboot, any idea what this mean and how to fix it.
Appreciate all the help.

This is a AMD 1.8mgz and 1 gig of ram on Asus mb.

lilsirecho · 2009-10-06 19:06:20

More info is needed to establish helpful recommendations.

Data helpful is does your system boot to desktop? You only mention "reboot".

Perhaps a posting of the grub menu list would be helpful.

Be aware that data must accompany a forum post of this kind...always.

Vladman · 2009-10-06 19:34:55

Ok sorry if was no very clear, this is a new install, no desktop or anything else, after installing and rebooting you are greeted with this error.
I'm trying to convert my friend to arch but he is getting this error, I have to comunicate over skype so I can't see exactly what he is doing wrong.

After a bit of digging it seems like the grub is mounting hda instead of sda?
What file do I need to check for that info?

I've never had this problem before after installing arch about 10 times on 4 or 5 computers here...

lilsirecho · 2009-10-06 20:06:21

File to check is /boot/grub/menulst.

When booting at the boot prompt you can check the grub menulst by using "e" for edit...(follow the instructions at boot prompt).

Vladman · 2009-10-06 21:09:05

Thank you, I will heve him do that and report back.

rockin turtle · 2009-10-22 18:46:36

I've been looking for this exact problem, as I have it also. I believe I know the cause of the problem.

During boot, the appropriate fsck program gets run to check the root partition. I am using the ext3 filesystem,
so for me the system initialization tries to run /sbin/fsck.ext3 on this partition.

After the fresh install on my computer, the programs

/sbin/fsck.ext2
/sbin/fsck.ext3
/sbin/fsck.ext4
/sbin/fsck.ext4dev

were all the exact same size. I did a diff fsck.ext2 fsck.ext3 >foo which resulted in file foo being 0 bytes in size.
This implies to me that these four files are all exact copies of the same executable. Perhaps this as intended, but
I think that each file type should have a unique executable for fsck. This would cause the problem we are seeing.

The solution would be for the Arch net install images to have the proper executable for each of these files. I don't
know who to notify to get this corrected, so I would appreciate if someone would show this post to the appropriate
person. Thanks.

leepesjee · 2009-10-22 20:07:54

I think I had this once. Indeed it was Grub trying to boot from the wrong partition (or trying to find the root partition at the wrong location, can't remember).
If you have more than one hard disk, there might be some confusion. The first drive seen by Grub (hd0) might not be the first drive seen by the kernel, so might be labelled sdb. You might need to adjust the root=/dev/sdx line in menu.lst. Or better, use the /dev/disk/by-uuid/ system, which solved my problem.

Last edited by leepesjee (2009-10-22 20:08:19)

rockin turtle · 2009-10-23 21:56:34

Thanks for the response. I've checked my menu.lst over and over - it appears to be correct (I'm using the /dev/disk/by-uuid/ method).
The boot process seems to work ok up to the point where it begins "Checking Filesystems". The message then claims that my root
partition (/dev/hda5) does not have a valid ext2 filesystem and the boot process aborts. This suprises me as I have an ext3 filesystem
on /dev/hda5.

My /etc/fstab indicates that /dev/hda5 should be ext3. Also I am able to boot from the CD then mount my / by

mount -t ext3 /dev/hda5 /mnt/root

and then navigate into this and everything appears to be ok. Because of this, I believe that I have a valid filesystem on /dev/hda5.

I'm using the 2009.08-netinstall-i686.iso CD and doing a very standard (Linux only, no Windows) type install - my computer is an older
Pentium 4 with a single IDE disk (not sata) with a very standard partition scheme (/boot on hda1, / on hda5, /usr on hda6, swap on
hda7, and /home on hda8). I had Arch running on this computer earlier this year with no problems so I can't understand why it's not
working. I keep going back to the fact that /sbin/fsck.ext2 and /sbin/fsck.ext3 appear to be exactly the same executable. I realize
this may be correct, but as I can't figure out anything else, I'm suspicious.

grey · 2009-10-23 22:09:21

Vladman: Assuming menu.lst is correct (though I'd still like to see the entry you're trying to boot), what about /etc/fstab? Since your error message doesn't mention any filesystem specifically it doesn't have to be root that is causing the problem.

Last edited by grey (2009-10-23 22:15:53)

leepesjee · 2009-10-23 22:59:13

rocking turtle: I don't think the fsck's are a problem:

diff /sbin/fsck.ext2 /sbin/fsck.ext3

gives me nothing. Seems normal.
Can't help you further with your problem, though.

rockin turtle · 2009-10-24 19:19:01

I've been playing around some more. I was wrong about fsck.ext2 vs. fsck.ext3 being the problem although it's definitely failing during fsck. I can boot from the CD, then run

fsck /dev/hda5

which shows hda5 to be clean with no problems. Booting from the hard disk, however, always results in failure at this point. The rc.sysinit file does a

/bin/mount -n -o remount,ro /

which appears to work, then follows that with

NETFS="nonfs,nonfs4,nosmbfs,nocifs,nocodafs,noncpfs,nosysfs,noshfs,nofuse,nofuseblk,noglusterfs"
/sbin/fsck -A -T -C -a -t $NETFS

which fails on /dev/hda5 which is my /. I suspect that I have udev or mkinitcpio configured incorrectly but I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. This is a very basic installation and I think I'm doing everything correctly during setup. I've re-done the installation about 5 times and each time I get the same failure.

More info:

my /etc/fstab:

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

/dev/hda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/hda5 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/hda6 /usr ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/hda7 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda8 /home ext3 defaults 0 1

my /etc/mkinitcpio.conf:

MODULES=""
BINARIES=""
FILES=""

HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata filesystems"
#HOOKS="base udev autodetect ide scsi sata filesystems"

I've tried each of the "HOOKS" lines - neither makes any difference.

leepesjee · 2009-10-24 20:30:27

Just to rule things out, you might want to use UUID's in fstab as well.

bodyhead · 2009-10-25 01:09:31

I'm getting the exact same error. I have been trying to install Arch all day. I've installed on two different computers now following the instructions for the install to a T and every time I reboot, I get the same error as your friend with:

Superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem and not SWAP or UFS or something else, then the superblock is corrupt and you might try running e2sck with and alternate superblock: e2sck -b 8193 <device>

I'm just trying to do a basic install and cannot get past the reboot on two separate computers with completely different hardware.

Well not completely different hardware. Both are one hard drive, ide, no windows, basic install. I have tried letting the installer walk me through the partitions and setting them up myself.

I also am using the same install image as rockin turtle.

I am going to try to use the next version older of the installer.

This appears to be some type of bug that our hardware has brought out unless we are all doing the same exact thing wrong.

I have yet to boot into arch after the install.

Last edited by bodyhead (2009-10-25 01:19:32)

lldmer · 2009-10-25 01:38:49

Last week a new arch user I know (a friend's dad) was having the same issue. It appeared he installed Arch using the "Legacy IDE" option in the livecd Grub menu. This meant the hd was known to the livecd as /dev/hda, which was what the installer wrote to /etc/fstab. However, when he booted from hd, no legacy IDE modules were loaded and the hd was detected as /dev/sda. After editing his fstab to refer to sda (or by UUID) he could successfully boot his system.

Hopefully this helps;)

Last edited by lldmer (2009-10-25 01:39:07)

bodyhead · 2009-10-25 01:50:19

I just downloaded the image archlinux 2009.02 core i686 and was able to install with no issues. I was able to reboot successfully. It appears to be an issue with the newest installer specificly. turtle, try the old installer and see if you can't get things working. This should work for the OP too.

I got it to boot after an install for the first time using this older install image.

I wasted 8 freaking hours trying to figure out the problem and the answer is as simple as use the older installer. Shesh.

I was wrong. I installed once successfully in one of the computers on an 80 gb hard drive. When trying to reinstall on two different 120 gig hard drives the error repeated itself. I'm spent on this. I'm going to have to try another distro.

After two more installs I can get it to load but I'm now having a superblock last load time is in the future error.

Used fsck on all my partitions to fix the problem and now I have a successfully booting arch system. Guess I won't have to jump ship just yet.

------update, maybe this will help somebody----------

I'm not sure why but the partitions on my first disk are all referred to as sda and not hda even though all my hard drives are IDE (via command 'df', fstab has them listed by UID).

Even weirder, when I installed a new hard drive into the machine, I had to format it and mount it by referring to /dev/sdb and not /dev/hdb like I expected. This is odd as I don't even have any sata connections in my machine. Could someone tell me why this is happening. Is it a 'feature' or a 'bug' of arch?

lldmer, I wish I had listened to you when I was trying to install over and over the day before yesterday. Looks like you hit the nail on the head on this one. I wish I had tried what you suggested. The weird thing is that when I was originally having problems, the fstab did have the drives listed by UID. I wonder if changing those UID entries to /dev/sda style entries would have fixed my problems.

If I install arch again, I'll have to try that.

Last edited by bodyhead (2009-10-26 14:55:14)

rockin turtle · 2009-10-27 21:56:11

I did successfully get my system to boot. Thanks to all for their suggestions. What worked for me was to re-install using the standard installation. When the CD boots, the GRUB menu allows for a standard installation or a "Legacy IDE (no sata)" option. As my computer does not have sata, I assumed that I needed to use this option, which did not work.

To make matters worse, if you try the Legacy IDE option first and partition your disk (using cfdisk) then you will be unable to re-install using the standard install. If you try, cfdisk will complain that your disk has a bad partition table (or something like that, I can't remember exactly), and will abort without allowing you to re-partition your disk.

What I had to do was re-boot from the "Legacy IDE" option, run /arch/setup to the point of partitioning the disk, delete the last partition, write the partition table, quit cfdisk, and quit setup. Then re-boot again using the standard option, run /arch/setup and everything worked.

bodyhead · 2009-10-27 22:00:22

Then that probably was my problem too. I assumed that I should pick legacy ide but apparently not. Weird it should be named that if people with legacy ide drives shouldn't choose it.

Freduardo · 2009-11-09 16:47:57

I just reinstalled arch on my old desktop (after messing about with several other distro's for a few months) and encountered the same issues.

Tried a few things first which were suggested here and in this thread.
My time and date was set correctly, I was using a sata disk, at first glance both the grub config and /etc/fstab seemed ok...

So I booted into maintenance mode and, after issuing fdisk -l I saw that somehow my drives had been 'swapped' in comparison to what the live cd reported. Sdb was now sda and vice versa. So after making the proper changes to /etc/fstab everything seems to boot ok now.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-06 17:37:28

Please help with new install

#2 2009-10-06 19:06:20

Re: Please help with new install

#3 2009-10-06 19:34:55

Re: Please help with new install

#4 2009-10-06 20:06:21

Re: Please help with new install

#5 2009-10-06 21:09:05

Re: Please help with new install

#6 2009-10-22 18:46:36

Re: Please help with new install

#7 2009-10-22 20:07:54

Re: Please help with new install

#8 2009-10-23 21:56:34

Re: Please help with new install

#9 2009-10-23 22:09:21

Re: Please help with new install

#10 2009-10-23 22:59:13

Re: Please help with new install

#11 2009-10-24 19:19:01

Re: Please help with new install

#12 2009-10-24 20:30:27

Re: Please help with new install

#13 2009-10-25 01:09:31

Re: Please help with new install

#14 2009-10-25 01:38:49

Re: Please help with new install

#15 2009-10-25 01:50:19

Re: Please help with new install

#16 2009-10-27 21:56:11

Re: Please help with new install

#17 2009-10-27 22:00:22

Re: Please help with new install

#18 2009-11-09 16:47:57

Re: Please help with new install

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