Mandriva blocks while booting [solved]

[Kieth]

Almost everytime while booting Mandriva 2007, it stops at: "Checking root filesystem". I then have to push the computer's reset button and reboot. Again, it almost always stops there, so I have to re-push the reset button, then it will boot up. When it does finally boot up, right after "Checking root filesystem", it says "QiLinux, clean, . . ." Any idea how I could resolve the problem?

 

Thanks.

Kieth

Edited December 12, 2006 by Kieth

[ianw1974]

I've seen this before, and you can edit /etc/sysconfig/init file if I'm correct and at the bottom there's a line that mentions about interactive bootup. It says change this to anything except no to enable it.

 

I suggest, changing this from "yes" to "no" and then it will disable interactive boot, but should fix the problem you're experiencing.

[Kieth]

Thanks, ianw1974.

 

Here is my /etc/sysconfig/init file. Is it the very last word I must change?

 

# color => new RH6.0 bootup

# verbose => old-style bootup

# anything else => new style bootup without ANSI colors or positioning

BOOTUP=color

# Turn on graphical boot

GRAPHICAL=yes

# column to start "[ OK ]" label in

RES_COL=65

# terminal sequence to move to that column. You could change this

# to something like "tput hpa ${RES_COL}" if your terminal supports it

MOVE_TO_COL="echo -en \\033[${RES_COL}G"

# terminal sequence to set color to a 'success' color (currently: green)

SETCOLOR_SUCCESS="echo -en \\033[1;32m"

# terminal sequence to set color to a 'failure' color (currently: red)

SETCOLOR_FAILURE="echo -en \\033[1;31m"

# terminal sequence to set color to a 'warning' color (currently: yellow)

SETCOLOR_WARNING="echo -en \\033[1;33m"

# terminal sequence to reset to the default color.

SETCOLOR_NORMAL="echo -en \\033[0;39m"

# default kernel loglevel on boot (syslog will reset this)

LOGLEVEL=3

# Set to anything other than 'no' to allow hotkey interactive startup...

PROMPT=yes

# Set to 'yes' to allow probing for devices with swap signatures

AUTOSWAP=no

[ianw1974]

Ah, yours was different to mine, change this line:

 

# Set to anything other than 'no' to allow hotkey interactive startup...

PROMPT=yes

 

to:

 

prompt=no

 

this is the one for the interactive startup.

[Kieth]

I waited a few days before writing a reply, to see if my computer booted up OK. It seems to be a bit better, but it still stops frequently at "Checking root filesystem". Would there be anything else to do to remedy the problem?

[scarecrow]

Is your root filesystem reiserfs?

[Kieth]

Sorry to show my ignorance, especially after using Mandrake for so many years, but . . . I have no idea if my root filesystem is reiserfs. How can I know?

[scarecrow]

Simply open diskdrake via mcc, and check which filesystem is the partition which is mounted as root.

Or, even more simply -read your /etc/fstab and find the line which refers to your root ( / ) partition. The filesystem should be mentioned there.

[Kieth]

It's ext3 (If you would have asked me if it was ext3, that I would have understood!!! :P ). Here's my /etc/stab file.

 

/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults 1 1

/dev/hdb8 /home ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0

none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=utf8,sync 0 0

none /proc proc defaults 0 0

/dev/hdb6 /usr ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/hdb7 /var ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/hda1 /windows/C ntfs umask=0,nls=utf8,ro 0 0

/dev/hda5 /windows/D ntfs umask=0,nls=utf8,ro 0 0

/dev/hda6 /windows/E vfat umask=0,iocharset=utf8 0 0

/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0

[scarecrow]

It's not a real solution, but try changing the first line to

 

/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults 0 0

 

and see if it boots properly.

 

If you suspect that there's a filesystem error, when booting (are you using LILO?) press escape and then type in

 

linux 1

 

And the try a filesystem check at /dev/hdb1

(the filesystem shoudln't be mounted to perform a filesystem check, so the suggestion).

Alternatively you may perform a FS check via a Linux liveCD.

[Kieth]

I do use lilo, and no, I don't suspect anything.

[ianw1974]

Try the filesystem check as scarecrow mentions, either by pressing ESC at lilo and typing the command scarecrow gave. Then:

 

fsck /dev/hdb1

 

as this is your root filesystem. Do you only have Mandriva installed or other distros too? I ask this, since your first post mentions "QiLinux clean". Which I found is another Linux distro.

[Kieth]

I was wondering what that Qilinux was!! Earlier this summer, I was "messing around" with my computer, and . . . messed it up!!! I then had a disastrous trip to the computer store (he wiped out everything, both in Mandriva 2006 and WXP). Amongst all the expences and frustrations he caused me, he also installed a new graphics card, which has been my "headache" ever since. Anyway, he re-installed WXP and I tried to re-install Mandriva 2006. It installed fine, but there was always a blank screen at boot up. Therefore, I tried to install other distros and use live CDs. Only one live CD worked (I forget now which on, but it wasn' Knoppix), and only one distro would load up - Suse. I think I tried all the majot distros, and I know I tried all the live CDs. I just decided to use Suse until Mandriva 2007 came out. As I feared, I loaded Mandriva 2007 and had a blank screen on boot up, which is when I came once again to this forum, read the posts and asked for help - which I was given (and as I have always been given - thanks!). Anyway, I only have Mandriva and WXP on my computer.

 

I don't know if it is related, but in terminal, when I use the command update-menus -v, it always "complains".

 

$ update-menus -v

run-parts: executing /etc/menu.d/icewm

/etc/menu.d/icewm: line 9: /home/kieth/.icewm/menu: No such file or directory

writing to /home/kieth/.icewm/menu

/etc/menu.d/icewm: line 14: /home/kieth/.icewm/menu: No such file or directory

run-parts: /etc/menu.d/icewm exited with return code 1

 

 

# update-menus -v

run-parts: executing /etc/menu.d/icewm

writing to /usr/share/X11/icewm//menu

Edited November 16, 2006 by Kieth

[ianw1974]

I think you've had partitions re-used, and it's still got old stuff behind. I think it really needs a clean install. Windows will be fine, it's just you need to completely erase those Linux partitions and start again.

 

I'd suggest booting the Mandriva CD, and choosing rescue mode by typing:

 

linux rescue

 

with 2007 you can do this from a menu. Then choose restore Windows MBR or something like that, and now you'll only be able to boot Windows.

 

Then when in Windows, delete all your Linux partitions - you'll easily know what these are as they are unrecognised by Windows. You can do this in the Disk Manager by right clicking My Computer and Manage.

 

Then, go for installing Mandriva 2007 cleanly, without it overwriting old stuff from the past. Of course, make sure you back up any data first!

[scoonma]

Hi Keith,

 

how long does it take for checking the root partition? On my system, sometimes there's about 20secs, when the machine seems to do nothing during boot time at exactly the same point. But after that it continues normally.