From: sct@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Stephen Tweedie) Subject: Re: Linux destroys itself? Date: 29 Jun 1993 17:25:32 GMT
On 29 Jun 93 06:12:06 GMT, U43610@uicvm.uic.edu said:
> Okay-- I found that suddenly the Linux will not boot-- it returns:
> kernel panic: cannot mount /root--this from a floppy boot..
> I went into a version a floppy based system.. tried to mount the /rood (/dev/
> hda2) -- can't do it..
> Tried to simply boot from the hard disk (the defaulted means of doing such..)
> locked system.
> when doing an fdisk, there is a partition #5-- with completely
> insane values.. which cannot be deleted. (without a core dump..)
Uhoh. Looks like you didn't make up your partition table properly.
I'm not sure if it has been fixed in the latest version of fdisk, but
some older versions would allow you to create overlapping partitions
(especially in the extended partition). So, one filesystem has
overflowed into another, corrupting the partition table and also,
incidentally, the next filesystem itself.
> can I recover this system?
I don't know. You should first of all try remaking the partition
table as it was in the first place, and then see how badly the
filesystems have been corrupted. If the filesystem *has* gone, then
there is a chance you might be able to get some of it back by advanced
use of e2fsck, but it will be tricky. The first thing to do is to get
the partition table straightened out.
> Will this happen again?
It depends - it might unless you get the partitioning right.
> Is anyone else having a problem with linux messing with the file
> system partition table?
It happens occasionally, but not as a fault of Linux as such: it
usually occurs because of hardware incompatibilities or partitioning
errors.
> Oh-- btw: before the disk crashed (or whatever happened) -- the
> system was recomending that I run e2fsck.. is this an indicator of
> something wrong?
Nope, that's just a diagnostic warning which is relevant to some new
kernel features, but which you can currently just ignore.
> Help, folks.. There was some important stuff on that system.. To
> reinstall it would a) obviously make me lose my beloved crap.. and
> b) worry this is gonna happen again..
Yup; I'll do my best to help you get through this. The first thing
you could do would be to mail me a copy of the current partition table
and the original one before corruption (as best you can remember it).
Use the 'p' command from fdisk on the boot floppy.
Cheers,
Stephen.