Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

SWE|OggE · 2010-03-15 15:54:01

Hi all happy Archlinux users out there!

Im going to try to describe my strange little problem,

After I've installed Arch, everything seamed to be fine, followed the official guide, installed gnome, and ATi drivers (yes, with xorg-server 1.6) and everything worked without issues.

However after a couple of reboots I suddenly got this strange error:

"The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem [...]"

Arch recommended me to run "e2fsck -b 8192 /dev/sda3" but it just says that the file does not exist.

No other Linux distribution has given me this kind of error.

If I manually disconnect all drives except the one with Arch it boots without issues. I can also connect the Arch drive with ONE of my storage drives (doesn't matter witch one), and it also works fine.
However as soon as it gets more that one storagedisk connected at the same time, it gives me "The superblock.."-error on boot.

Arch is installed on a Intel X25 G2 SSD with ext4, used "autopartitioning" when i installed arch.

All other disks on the system are NTFS at the moment. Also got a separate sata-card for two disks, but they are just in regular mode, no raid or anything.

Pretty sure that my disks are OK. S.M.A.R.T gives no error.

Thanks in advance!

// Oscar

lagagnon · 2010-03-15 16:05:45

SWE|OggE wrote:

Arch recommended me to run "e2fsck -b 8192 /dev/sda3" but it just says that the file does not exist.

I assume you ran that command as root and that the partition /dev/sda3 is the damaged partition?
I would also try using UltimateBootCD hard drive tools to do a proper check on your hard drive. SMART tools only pick up so much...

SWE|OggE · 2010-03-15 16:21:11

lagagnon wrote:

SWE|OggE wrote:
Arch recommended me to run "e2fsck -b 8192 /dev/sda3" but it just says that the file does not exist.
I assume you ran that command as root and that the partition /dev/sda3 is the damaged partition?
I would also try using UltimateBootCD hard drive tools to do a proper check on your hard drive. SMART tools only pick up so much...

Tried to boot it again, it complains about /dev/sdc3, sorry!

And yes, I were root.

took a picture of the screen when the error occured:
http://pici.se/pictures/medium/vmXcYelFb.jpg

Running HD-Tune on the disks atm, but pretty sure that they will pass the test.

// Oscar

SWE|OggE · 2010-03-15 19:35:59

Yup, diskscan turned out fine.

Ideas?

lagagnon · 2010-03-15 20:38:49

Try "e2fsck -p /dev/sdc3" and see if that works. Otherwise read "man e2fsck" and see if any other options might help fix your filesystem. You definitely have a corrupt fs.

btouellette · 2010-03-16 02:15:47

Try specifying a UUID or label for your hard drive and setting your boot options to use that (in GRUB or wherever). I was getting this error and I'm pretty sure it was because Arch was trying to boot off the wrong drive.

SWE|OggE · 2010-03-16 15:16:45

btouellette wrote:

Try specifying a UUID or label for your hard drive and setting your boot options to use that (in GRUB or wherever). I was getting this error and I'm pretty sure it was because Arch was trying to boot off the wrong drive.

Yes, that might actually be the case, right after the Arch installation, grub was set to boot from disk 2,0 , however that gave me grub error 17. Only worked to boot with disk set to 0,0.

Managed to boot into arch today, but the next reboot the superblock error ruined my day again.

Thanks for the reply!

// Oscar

mandog · 2010-03-16 19:17:06

Are you using sata and Ide drives as that gives strange errors, If you don't label them.

theapodan · 2010-03-16 23:27:07

SWE|OggE wrote:

btouellette wrote:
Try specifying a UUID or label for your hard drive and setting your boot options to use that (in GRUB or wherever). I was getting this error and I'm pretty sure it was because Arch was trying to boot off the wrong drive.
Yes, that might actually be the case, right after the Arch installation, grub was set to boot from disk 2,0 , however that gave me grub error 17. Only worked to boot with disk set to 0,0.
Managed to boot into arch today, but the next reboot the superblock error ruined my day again.
Thanks for the reply!
// Oscar

If the device naming in grub was incorrect after installation, it is more than possible that the /etc/fstab created during installation is also incorrect, and therefore maybe needs to be fixed too.

SWE|OggE · 2010-03-18 20:21:40

mandog wrote:

Are you using sata and Ide drives as that gives strange errors, If you don't label them.

Hm, got one IDE disk in the system atm. However it is labeled. =/

theapodan wrote:

If the device naming in grub was incorrect after installation, it is more than possible that the /etc/fstab created during installation is also incorrect, and therefore maybe needs to be fixed too.

This is my fstab atm:

# 
# /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/cdrom             /media/cd   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/dvd               /media/dvd  auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/fd0               /media/fl   auto    user,noauto             0      0

/dev/sdc1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdc2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdc3 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdc4 /home ext4 defaults 0 1

EDIT:

Another intressting thing:

When I manage to boot the system, i can see and mount all of my NTFS drives, however I only get read access, cant copy data to the disks.

Last edited by SWE|OggE (2010-03-18 20:25:27)

perbh · 2010-03-18 21:30:17

When I manage to boot the system, i can see and mount all of my NTFS drives, however I only get read access, cant copy data to the disks.

Yup - you have to mount'em using ntfs-3g rather than ntfs ;-)

Could you also post your menu.lst file (sans all the comments!!)

egrep -v "^\s*(#|$)" {/whatever}/grub/menu.lst

theguzz · 2010-03-18 22:17:02

I also had this error, when I didn't shut down the computer correctly...

for me the issue had sth to do with, the time when the superblock was written. The date was in the future!

Editing the clock in BIOS helped me.

Greetz,

theguzz

theapodan · 2010-03-19 03:20:09

SWE|OggE wrote:

This is my fstab atm:
...

You mention that you had to change the grub config to boot hd(0,0) instead of hd(2,0)
In grub,
hd(2) would be /dev/sdc
and
hd(0) would be /dev/sda

You should try changing your fstab to:
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda4 /home ext4 defaults 0 1

since that would be consistent with what grub needs to boot. This should work.

As a better solution, try changing your fstab to use UUIDs, these wiki pages will help:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Per … ng#by-uuid
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab

seriouslycgi · 2010-05-01 12:58:46

i have the same problem, in my case the sata drive is causing the problem (with ide also), when its plugged in a get superblock error, sometimes i can stop it by causing a delay by ejecting the cdrom just after post and putting a cd in there, its like the delay give something else enough time to react (like sata hdd spinning up) my drives are set uuid so i will try set them manually see what happens.

Last edited by seriouslycgi (2010-05-01 13:00:11)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-03-15 15:54:01

Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#2 2010-03-15 16:05:45

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#3 2010-03-15 16:21:11

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#4 2010-03-15 19:35:59

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#5 2010-03-15 20:38:49

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#6 2010-03-16 02:15:47

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#7 2010-03-16 15:16:45

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#8 2010-03-16 19:17:06

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#9 2010-03-16 23:27:07

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#10 2010-03-18 20:21:40

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#11 2010-03-18 21:30:17

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#12 2010-03-18 22:17:02

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#13 2010-03-19 03:20:09

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

#14 2010-05-01 12:58:46

Re: Strange "superblock" error appears a couple of reboots after install?

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