problem with ubuntu 8.04

[Derek Broughton]

Mark Haney wrote:

> Bernd Findeisen-Stockmann wrote:
>> To anybody who can help.
>> 
>> since yesterday, when starting my computer and logging in, I end up with
>> an empty screen - only curser visible. No access to menues etc.
>> 
>> When starting ubuntu from CD (few years old), I get access to internet,
>> but not to anything on my hard disk.
>> 
>> Is there any solution via ubuntu possible or is a hardware Problem
>> likely?
> 
> You know, I used to get this problem when / was full.  It couldn't
> create the tmp files so it left me with a blank screen.  Can you boot
> that machine into single user mode and do a df from the prompt?

Possible indeed - or any other issue that makes it impossible to use the 
drive.  I get it occasionally when I have a bad shutdown, and the JFS 
partition is marked in need of an fsck.  Damned JFS drivers won't do the 
fsck automatically, and I have to manually fsck them (again, from the single 
user console) before I can boot properly.
-- 
derek