Mandrakelinux is destroyed!!!! - SOLVED

[a13x]

I've just tried to boot my MDK 10.0 OE and it's totally broken. I don't have a boottheme so here are some of the things I get when I try to boot:

 

 

L **: unknow class "dri" at line 80 in /etc/security/console.perms (I believe I caused this one .... I had to edit that in order to make de GLMatrix screensaver to work - I was guided by the NVIDIA FAQ) Loading default ???? : /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: line 255: /dev/tty0: No such file or dir

 

fsck.ext3/dev/hda5

 

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 fs. If the device is valid and it really contains and ext2fs ...... (blah, blah) then the superblock is corrupt and you might try running ext2fsck with the alternate superblock.

e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

 

:No such file or dir while trying to open /dev/hda5

 

 

This is what I've copied on a piece of paper.

My linux fs was (? :unsure: ) ext3. I also use ext2ifs in WinXP for accessing my linux partition (read-only). The ext3 partition is still accessible from WinXP.

What in the world caused all this and is there a way to fix it without reinstalling ?

 

Edited September 29, 2004 by a13x

[arctic]

don`t reinstall everything yet. i once got a similar message that no partitions were found etc and everything was dead. after several reboots in rescue mode, the linux-os (it was not mdk though, but munjoy) was able to boot again. and even if there might be something more serious, you can always use a live-cd in order to repair certain parts of the system. give it a try before killing everything. :)

[a13x]

OK I have the MDK disks plus Mandrake Live and Knoppix. I'll give it a whirl. Let's say I manage to fix it. Will this ever happen again ? If so I'll be extremely disappointed.

And the billion $ question: What caused this ?

[papaschtroumpf]

if you do have to re-install, try in "upgrade" mode first, I found that it can fix a lot of problems while leaving your system the way you had it before the "bad thing" happened.

[a13x]

But what about my trust in Mandrakelinux as an OS ? If this keeps happening from time to time I can't continue to use it. An OS must be reliable.

 

Is this a known bug ? Did I do something wrong (I don't remember doing anything special) or maybe it is one of those "hidden features" ?

[a13x]

Mods, you can mark this as solved :D

 

I would have never thought that a stupid line like the dri one in console.perm could cause so much trouble. I booted Knoppix, edited the console.perm (I removed the dri line) and now it works flawless. I would still rate this as a bug. Linux scared me by giving false error messages. It made me believe, at first, that the partition was ruined or something. Why did Linux had to cause panic by doing this ?

Why didn't it say something like this instead: "There is an error at line # in console.perm. I refuse to boot :P" ?

 

It would have been far more useful.

[Crashdamage]

Aww...c'mon...No OS is going to hold your hand and guide you through the millions of possible f*sk-ups users can do. You're asking for the system to trouble-shoot itself and tell you what to do, something incredibly difficult. And anyway, Linux actually gave you the info you needed, even though not perfectly definitively. How much help do you think a Windows OS would have given you if it failed to boot because you mucked up system files editing stuff as root to make something work?

 

Consider yourself lucky to be running Linux...otherwise you'd probably be calling Billy Bob Gates begging for the code to let you re-install XP.

 

I haven't re-installed Linux (Mandrake 8.2) on my main gotta-get-work-done box in 3 years. I think the reliabilty is just incredible, and I trust Linux (and Mandrake) completely. That doesn't mean I've quit doing backups...

[a13x]

Don't you think it is odd to report that the FS is broken although the error has nothing to do with it ? I mean, how did Linux link the PAM problem with the filesystem ? That's kinda weird. I agree with you, it gave me useful information but also a lot of false stuff.

 

I'm not praising Windows. The only thing I admire in Windows is the ability to run tons of games.

[adamw]

console.perms is a pretty important file that sets a *lot* of permissions away from their default values to values which mdk's startup scripts expect. my guess is after the error, console.perms stopped being interpreted, so a bunch of permissions were set wrongly, and somehow some process could not access what it needed to (this is probably the cause of the /dev/ttyS0 error too) and this led to the rather misleading error message. It does seem a bit worrisome that this one file can cause *so* much trouble, though. I'd think there'd be a way to ensure at least a minimal boot with a non-functioning (or non-existent) console.perms...

[Crashdamage]

Don't you think it is odd to report that the FS is broken although the error has nothing to do with it?

Nah, not really. It gave the other errors because of a 'domino effect' kinda thing. One thing leads to another...and another...soon you've got lotsa seemingly unrelated errors.

 

Windows does the same, gives error messages that have nothing to do with the real problem, and for the same reason. At least Linux gives error messages a poor slob like me can make some sense of, unlike those friggin' BSOD error messages ya gotta be a M$ engineer to decipher.

[bvc]

many may remember at the old, old (Tom's) MUB this same exact thing happening when installing the nvidia drivers. They decided to edit the file as part of the install, and borked many peoples os install, til it was found what the prob was. Then we had to point everyone for weeks to the thread that explained it all. Yeah, don't mess with that file! :D

 

I bet Crash remembers, eh?

Edited September 29, 2004 by bvc