response to kernal panic?

[CHUCK@URIACC.URI.EDU]

I am new to Linux/Debian/Unix. I have Debian 1.1, kernal 2.0.25, on a K5-90
dual boot pc with a 1.0 linux partition that is about 25% full. I boot from lil
o. I have been experimenting with backups. I have a parallel port zip-drive and
 a Colorado/hp 100 meg tape drive. At the panic time the zip drive was mounted
 as was the floppy, /dev/fd0/, at /floppyA.
 had just tar'd a directory to /floppyA, as su, from an xterm in fvwm (fwvm?).
I'm not sure what I did next. (sorry).
 think it was cd /floppyA, or else ls after a successful cd /floppyA.
Then the message appeared: message from syslogd@chuck  EXT2-fs panic (device
02:00):  ext2_writeinode: unable to read i-node block - inode=2, block=
858796085.

fvwm was still alive so I closed it. I could access the virtual consoles and
did a few cd's and ls's fro one of them. I then typed exit and the console
responded logout but did not return to a prompt. Keyboard entry appeared on the
screen but had no effect otherwise. I went to another ^alt f-key and found it w
orking but died upon logout as the other one did. I have not yet lost all of th
em so I can still get commands in.
Virtual console #7 shows the following messages: floppy0: probe failed  (many t
imes), followed by end_request: I/O error, dev 2:00, sector 0
                                     (ditto)         sector 15
                                      (etc)                 33,51,69,87,105,123
 EXT2-fs error (device 02:00):
        ext2_find_entry: bad entry in directory #2
        directory entry accross blocks - offset=0,
        inode=808988208 rec_len=12336,
        name_len=9760
^alt del has no effect. What can I do or should I do to get out of this?
Thanks.
       Charles Kaufman
       chuck@uriacc.uri.edu


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