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#1 2009-12-28 18:42:43

Qoph
Member
Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

First boot - filesystem check failed.

I just installed Arch on a clean drive. Newly partitioned with /, /home, and swap partitions. After installation and a reboot, GRUB loads. Then after a while loading the OS, it says filesystem check failed.

/dev/hda1:
The 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 comething else), then the suberblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

Running that command gives:

No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hda1

My machine is an IBM ThinkPad, model R40. The copyright year on the bottom is 2003. The hard drive is a 20 gigabyte Fujitsu. I don't know what else people need, but I always get asked for more info right away when enquiring about these things. So, the logo is on the bottom-right and the letters are red, green, and blue. The Intel Centrino sticker on the other side is starting to peel off. What else do you need to know?

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#2 2009-12-28 19:20:41

lucke
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From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

hdXY notation is kind of obsolete, even for PATA. GRUB's kernel line and fstab should apparently point to sda.

Have you used a recent installation medium?

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#3 2009-12-28 19:39:44

Qoph
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Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

When in cfdisk (on the Arch core disc), it lists the drive partitions as hda's. Also, when I started up the installation disc, I chose legacy IDE, no SATA. It doesn't work if I do the default. The disc is very recently burnt, yes. I've never successfully installed Arch on any system. I was trying to do Slackware, but my drive won't read the DVD most of the time for some stupid reason. That's another problem altogether, though.

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#4 2009-12-28 20:18:09

lucke
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

What doesn't work if you go with the default? I don't know why legacy does what it does in your case, but if I'm not mistaken this stuff is going to get removed from the kernel sooner than later, so perhaps that's why it's causing problems on newer kernels.

I'd try with an older Arch installation medium or Slackware's CD. Or even go *BSD.

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#5 2009-12-28 20:22:07

Qoph
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Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

I really want Slackware, but my disc drive won't read the DVD. My sister has an identical laptop and the disc bay is modular. So I just popped mine out and hers in. It started to boot, but kind of froze after the first few lines of text. I don't get it.

As for Arch, I forget exactly what it says. When it's starting up, it says something about a device not being ready. When it finally loads, and I get to the cfdisk part of the setup program, it won't detect the hard drive, basically.

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#6 2009-12-28 20:43:25

lucke
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Hm, you might try creating an ext2-formatted /boot partition. You formatted / as ext4, I presume?

Post your fstab if things still won't work.

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#7 2009-12-28 20:53:28

Qoph
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Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

I formatted root and home as ext3 because that was the newest version when I started using Linux. I also like the number 3 better than 4. I didn't think it mattered much.

I made a Flash drive into a Slackware boot disc. It boots from that, but it still needs an installation medium and it won't read the DVD after booting either. I'll get back to you on the fstab. I don't care which (Slackware or Arch) works at this point. I've been without my laptop too long.

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#8 2009-12-28 21:04:51

lucke
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

If booting Flash drive works for you, you could probably make a complete installation medium with unetbootin - if your Flash drive is big enough (I'd presume you can install off the first Slackware's CD, so at least 700 MB).

Last edited by lucke (2009-12-28 21:05:25)

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#9 2009-12-28 21:15:36

Qoph
Member
Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Actually, if I make the CD's, I can probably install from those. I wanted the DVD so I wouldn't have to make all the CD's. Here's my fstab, though:

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

#/dev/cdrom
#/dev/dvd
#/dev/fd0

/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 /home ext3 defaults 0 1

There's some stuff after the CD, DVD, and floppy entries, but I'm hand-copying this and it's commented out so I don't think it's important. I can't mount my Flash drive to copy the bloody file over. Humbug!

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#10 2009-12-28 21:33:40

lucke
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Seems all right.

When does that superblock error exactly occur in the boot process? Does it leave you in a console where you're getting that "No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hda1" message? Can you see hda/sda entries in /dev from that console?

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#11 2009-12-28 22:02:02

Qoph
Member
Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Mounting Root Read-only [DONE]
Checking Filesystems [BUSY]
/dev/hda1:
The 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 comething else), then the suberblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>


***************** FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED *****************
*                                                                                                  *
*          Please repair manually and reboot. Note that the root           *
*          file system is currently mounted read-only. To remount        *
*          it read-write type: mount -n -o remount,rw /                        *
*          When you exit the maintenance shell the system will             *
*          reboot automatically.                                                          *
**********************************************************

That looks better in monospace, but that's an exact copy. Else it'd have better grammar. In /dev, I can see:

sda
sda1
sda3

Yet no sda2. Nor any hda's. Hmm! What's all this, then?

[Edit] Ugh, submitting that thing makes it look even worse. You can read it, though. [End edit]

Last edited by Qoph (2009-12-28 22:03:30)

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#12 2009-12-28 22:08:35

lucke
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

It really does say "comething" and "suberblock"? Ueberb0rkage!

If it insists on sda, change the fstab entries to sda and the kernel line in GRUB to sda1 (I presume you have root=/dev/hda1 there?).

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#13 2009-12-28 22:37:25

Qoph
Member
Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Umm, well I copied+pasted that from earlier. Funny you only notice it now. :-P Also, I said nothing of spelling. Only of grammar. Anyway! Where do I find the GRUB file? I've only meddled with that once before. I usually use the graphical editor in SuSE. I used to love SuSE, but their latest two versions have been serious downgrades.

P.S. Oh! What do I change it to, exactly? Because it only lists sd0, 1, and 3. Whereas the hda entries are 1, 2, and 3. The sda entries skip a number.

P.P.S. That's sda, rather than sd0. I'm not focused tonight. Oh, hold on. I'm guessing that it only lists 1 and 3 because that's root and home, respectively. Whereas 2 is swap.

Last edited by Qoph (2009-12-28 22:40:55)

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#14 2009-12-28 22:52:36

lucke
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Noticed the spelling earlier, khkh.

GRUB config is /boot/grub/menu.lst, but you can always edit things on the fly when booting. Change all those three hda to sda in fstab.

(h|s)da2 is indeed swap, generally it should be shown in /dev anyways, but perhaps for some reason in this part of the boot process it isn't shown. You can check what cfdisk and dmesg say about partitions then.

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#15 2009-12-28 23:00:06

Qoph
Member
Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Wait, you don't change it in GRUB, do you? Because GRUB has its own syntax. I changed it in fstab, though. It still gives me an error, but it's different now. It says:

/dev/sda1: clean, 38856/393216 files, 202099/1572354 blocks
/dev/sda3: The filesystem size (according to the superblock) is 3048333 blocks
The physical size of the device is 2540100 blocks
Either the superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt!

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#16 2009-12-28 23:09:16

lucke
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Well, you change it in GRUB if it points to hda (root=/dev/hda1), but I guess it uses UUID in your case.

Try mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 and reboot. If it doesn't work, run cfdisk, delete sda2 and sda3 and create them anew, and run mkswap /dev/sda2 and mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3.

-edit-

mkfs.ext3 in your case, of course.

Last edited by lucke (2009-12-28 23:12:11)

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#17 2009-12-28 23:32:36

Qoph
Member
Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Oh, for that. Yes, it uses UUID. Umm, the whole mkfs thing? I have GParted booted up right now. How about trying to create a new partition table through that? Also, the default is to create an MSDOS type partition table. Should that be what I choose? I wouldn't think so, but I don't know. The choices are:

msdos
aix
amiga
bsd
dvh
gpt
mac
pc98
sun
loop

I'd guess AIX is a better choice, but if MSDOS is default, then perhaps not. Last time I wrote a partition table was in cfdisk on the Arch disc. Maybe I messed it up there.

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#18 2009-12-28 23:37:39

lucke
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2004-11-30
Posts: 4,018

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Go with the default, I'd say. Whatever you do in gparted, just don't delete your sda1 partition or you'll lose your root data.

I'm off for tonight, good luck(e).

Last edited by lucke (2009-12-28 23:38:46)

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#19 2009-12-30 04:05:07

rockin turtle
Member
From: Montana, USA
Registered: 2009-10-22
Posts: 227

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

I had this exact same problem a month ago.  See http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=85934

Look for my response towards the end of the thread to see how I fixed it.

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#20 2010-01-06 15:30:17

Qoph
Member
Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

Thanks to both of you. That is probably my issue - I installed using legacy IDE. The disc wouldn't load properly when I chose the default, though. Anyway, while I was away, I installed Slackware 13.0. The only two problems are 1) LILO didn't install and GRUB from the Arch install is still there, but doesn't load Slackware, and 2) my wireless won't work. I'll go to a Slackware forum for that, though. Unless anyone here has ideas (about GRUB).

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#21 2010-01-07 05:48:39

rockin turtle
Member
From: Montana, USA
Registered: 2009-10-22
Posts: 227

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

>   ...The disc wouldn't load properly when I chose the default, though. ...

Did this happen after you attempted the "Legacy IDE" install?  If you do the Legacy option first, then the standard install fails.  This is because the fdisk program, when run during the "Legacy" install, writes a partition table that can not be read by fdisk during a normal install.  I don't know why this is, I believe it's the same fdisc executable.

What I did was to

          1. re-start a "Legacy" install up to partitioning the disks
          2. delete the last partition on the disk (or just delete all partitions)
          3. write the partition table
          4. exit from the "Legacy" install
          5. do a standard install

I don't know why your GRUB won't load Slackware.  It could be due to the problems listed above (i.e. your partition table is still messed up from the "Legacy" install). If that is not the problem, maybe if you could post your menu.lst file.

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#22 2010-01-07 17:02:58

Qoph
Member
Registered: 2009-12-28
Posts: 11

Re: First boot - filesystem check failed.

No no, the GRUB install that's there was done by Arch. So Slackware doesn't know about it. I have to reinstall it now. As for the Arch setup program, I didn't use fdisk. I used my GParted disc and told Arch's setup to not do anything because there was already a filesystem there.

I don't think I'll be trying Arch again any time soon. Not for the bad install experience, but I'm rather liking Slackware. I WOULD like to try Plan 9 (on another computer), but I can't get that to boot either. It's supposed to be a live/install disc.

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