Re: Problem in trying to boot system
On Tue, Nov 01, 2011 at 07:13:07PM +1100, bret@busby.net wrote:
> Hello.
>
> Our mailserver will no longer boot.
>
> In the weekend, I think it was, it was off when I tried to access it.
> (it had not been turned off by a human here)
>
> When I tried to boot it, I could no longer access it across the LAN.
>
> I have this afternoon, shifted it and connected it to a monitor, and
> tried to boot it.
>
> The boot sequence fails, and, I get
>
> "
> cramfs: wrong magic
> FAT: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
> Found signature1 0x0 signature2 0x0 sector= 1.
> request_module[nls_cp437]: Root fs not mounted
> Unable to load NLS charset cp437
> request_module[nls_cp437]: Root fs not mounted
> Unable to load NLS charset cp437
> request_module[nls_cp437]: Root fs not mounted
> Unable to load NLS charset cp437
> request_module[nls_cp437]: Root fs not mounted
> Unable to load NLS charset cp437
> Directory1: bad FAT
> Filesystem panic (dev 03:01)
> FAT error
> VFS: Mounted root (vfat filesystem) readonly
> Freeing unused kernel memory: 280k freed
> Warning: unable to open an initial console
> Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel
> "
> (boot sequence stops here)
>
> Does this mean that the FAT is stuffed?
>
> Can the system and the data be recovered?
>
> The system had to be booted via a FDD, each time the system needed booting.
It sounds to me like your boot floppy has gone bad. They do that :)
You might be able to get your system back up by creating a new boot
floppy. The traditional way to do this is to "dd" the kernel onto the
floppy disk and set the root device. For this you will need the
following: A PC running linux (it can be a virtual machine if that
helps), a fresh floppy diskette (don't overwrite your existing one) and
the Debian 4 kernel (Choose an appropriate one from
http://archive.debian.net/etch/linux-image)
* Unpack the kernel deb file
$ ar p linux-image*.deb data.tar.gz | tar zx
* Find the 'vmlinuz' file
$ find . -name '*vmlinuz*'
* Write the kernel to the floppy
$ dd if=/path/to/vmlinuz of=/dev/fd0 # Check that's the right floppy
device
* Set the root filesystem
$ rdev /dev/fd0 /dev/hdaX # Set this to the root device on your server
You should now be able to insert that floppy into your mailserver and
get it booted.
Alternatively, you might try downloading any of the various rescue
floppy images (SuperGrubDisk for example) and see if they'll boot.
--
Darac Marjal
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