[Bug 528981] Re: Repetitive massive filesystem corruption

[Scott Testerman]

Everyone is welcome to the fruits of my pain with this problem.  I was
hoping to get the problem solved before Lucid so I could use a
completely standard Lucid install, but my hopes were dashed and I have
to target Maverick instead.

The current stock Lucid kernel is just stable enough on my system that I
am able to perform an installation as follows:

1) Download the mainline kernel files (you will need 3 for your system)
and put them on some kind of media that you can access without a
graphical system.

2) Use the Alternate Install CD to install a Command Line Only system.

3) Reboot after installation, login to your new system, and IMMEDIATELY
mount the media with your mainline kernel.  The easiest way to do this
is something like "sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt" (and replace sdc1 with the
location of your media).

4) Install the mainline kernel:  "cd /mnt" and then "sudo dpkg -i *.deb"

5) Reboot the system.

5a) If you know how to do it, edit your /etc/apt/sources.list to enable
the CD-ROM (or use apt-cdrom).  Otherwise, you need a decently fast
Internet connection from here on.

6) Now install the full system, using whatever method you prefer.
Tasksel has been bombing out on me, so I would recommend either "sudo
aptitude install kubuntu-desktop" or "sudo apt-get install kubuntu-
desktop".  Replace kubuntu-desktop with the variant of Ubuntu you
prefer.

7) The mainline kernel will automatically be the first kernel that GRUB
sees, so you will always boot into mainline unless you hold down the
Shift key at boot time and manually select another kernel.

This method is not perfect, but it DOES give me a working Lucid system.
I had to skip Karmic completely because the mainline kernels at the time
didn't work for me.  The biggest drawback is that this method pretty
much requires a fast Internet connection, so if you don't have one then
this is not the method for you.

A piece of advice:  if you get the read-only filesystem indicating
corruption at any point before you boot into the mainline kernel, you
should probably go ahead and reinstall rather than wasting time by
trying to fix the broken installation.

You should be aware that the mainline kernel still has issues with Intel
852/855 video, so if you have this chipset you can still expect frequent
hard lockups, but fortunately your entire filesystem will not be
corrupted any more when that happens.  Don't blame Ubuntu for these
problems though, because Ubuntu appears to have about the only
reasonably functioning solution of any major distro at the moment.  The
Intel video problem is an upstream headache, and they are beating their
heads against brick walls trying to solve it.  More information is in
Bug 541511.

You should also be aware that the Lucid version of ndiswrapper does not
work with 2.6.33 and later kernels, but this has been solved for
Maverick.  If you need ndiswrapper for any reason, then the mainline
kernel may cause heartache for you.  More information is in Bug 582555.

-- 
Repetitive massive filesystem corruption
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/528981
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel
Bugs, which is subscribed to linux in ubuntu.