When there is an ext3 filesystem error, many times Ubuntu will reboot, do an automatic fsck, and then report something like the following: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- <div style="direction: ltr;">dev/hda2 contains a file system with errors-check forced unexpected inconsistency RUN fsck manually without -a or -p options an automatic file system check of the root file system failed a manual fsck must be performed then system rebooted ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- </div> Ubuntu will then not boot and it renders the system completely unusable to most average users.  My friend got one such message the other day and called me to ask me what was wrong.  He had booted into windows instead of Ubuntu because he couldn't get it to start.  I knew it was a clear case of simply running fsck /dev/hda2, but we don't live even remotely near each other.  So I had to get my friend to boot in recovery mode and then manually start the ssh daemon so that i could ssh into his PC.  Mind you this person is your average run-of-the-mill computer user, no command line knowledge at all.  After that point it was just a simple case of running fsck /dev/hda2 and agreeing to all of the fixes.  Then I rebooted his PC and all was good.  This is something that happens quite often with ext3 file systems, especially in places where the electricity is unreliable and systems are not always shut down properly.  It is important and not too difficult to have fsck run automatically in such cases so that outside intervention such as my own is not required. -SS-