RE: /etc/fstab OR harddrive crash
<josh action="stumbles out of cave, blinks in light" />
OMG
I was supposed to START the installation! That's where the shell is?
<josh tries="counting the number of times I've reinstalled since 2.2.16">
<count>50</count>
<count>51</count>
</josh>
e2fsck -cf /dev/hda[134] and BANG! it works!
<josh sob-style="metaphorical" relief="astronomical" />
-----Original Message-----
From: Pigeon [mailto:jah.pigeon@ukonline.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 6:39 PM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: /etc/fstab OR harddrive crash
On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 11:17:43AM -0500, Narins, Josh wrote:
> Dear Debian folk,
> Important Question... If my hard drive crashed, and my machine boots
> from the hard drive, how far in the boot process would it get?
How long is a piece of string?
> If I just messed up /etc/fstab (1), how can I fix it?
> I've got some rescue disks, but NONE for any of my 2.4.x kernels.
> They were all too big to fit on a floppy. They are for 2.2.x
I recently managed to nuke my 2.4 system and booted it just fine from
a 2.2 kernel floppy, made from the boot image on my Debian CD. I just
ignore all the stuff about configuring the installation and go
straight to "Execute a shell". I can then fsck /dev/hda4, mount
/dev/hda4 /target and go into it and mess about. (Adjust dev
appropriately for your system...)
I can't, of course, use the boot floppy to make it boot from the HD.
The boot floppy incorporates an editor "ae" with which you can fix
/etc/fstab. Well, that's the theory. The version of "ae" on my boot
floppy locks the system up if you try and run it. That's the slink
one, you probably have a newer one which probably works. Try it out
BEFORE you mount the HD otherwise you'll have to fsck it all over again.
> After (IF?) this gets resolved, I'll have to learn to make a
> bootable CD "rescue" disk. :)
Even if you successfully resolve it without one? :-)
> By the way, the boot goes for a while, obviously some modules are
> being looked at, then I get a kernel panic, and the suggestion I pass
root=
> to tell it where to look for the hard drive.
I don't think it's looking at any modules - how can it see them if it can't
find the root? What messages does it give?
> This happens with any of my kernels on the machine, or any of my
> rescue disks.
Is there a terminology confusion here? My "rescue disk" is a floppy
made from resc1440.bin on my Debian CD. It boots - even if there are no
hard drives in the machine at all - into a single-user mode whence you
can either install Debian, or execute a shell in which to mount the
hard drive and fix stuff. It doesn't try and look for anything on the
hard drive while it's booting.
> Thanks a ton, I'm really working hard to use Debian always. I love
> the multiple-arches,
I like viaducts too. Amazing to think they were all built by hand.
> I love apt-get and dselect, but it ALWAYS seems like I
> am having one trouble or the other :)
Whereas in Windoze, either you can't fix the problems, or you can fix
them but you have to do so time and again because the OS keeps
re-breaking them.
> (1) trying to swtich from /cdrom to /cdrom0 and /cdrom1, maybe I
> accidentally edited the wrong line, also?
Could be...
Pigeon
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact
listmaster@lists.debian.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the designated recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. This communication is for information purposes only and should not be regarded as an offer to sell or as a solicitation of an offer to buy any financial product, an official confirmation of any transaction, or as an official statement of Lehman Brothers. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. Therefore, we do not represent that this information is complete or accurate and it should not be relied upon as such. All information is subject to change without notice.
Reply to: