9.10 Boot problem

[Leonard Chatagnier]

mlafferty wrote:
>
> Leonard,
>
> Thank you for your assistance in trying to help me help my friend 
> Judy. Here is the post:
>

You should only reply to the list unless someone tell you to copy them 
directly
as per list etiquette. I answered you questions below:
>
> > A friend just called me to say that her computer running 9.10 hangs up
>
> > during the boot process. The screen reads:
>
> >
>
> > File system check failed 04E6218B-2809-43AE-BC31-E1893F5CF660
>
> >
>
> > A maintenance shell will now be started
>
> >
>
> > Control ? D will terminate this shell and retry
>
> >
>
> > Root at Judy ? Desktop;~#
>
> >
>
> > Control D does not correct the problem. This error has occurred once
>
> > before and was fixed by someone in her town that knows a lot more
>
> > about Ubuntu than I do. He is out of the country for a couple of weeks.
>
> >
>
> > Help!
>
> >
>
> > Russell M. Lafferty
>
> >
>
> You can try this:
>
> 1. Boot up in recovery mode: the second selection down on the grub 
> boot screen.
>
> 2. There should be a selection to run fsck on the recovery menu; if so 
> run it, let it complete fully and when the recovery screen comes back 
> select normal boot.
>
> 3. If the recovery screen doesn't have a fsck selection then go to a 
> root terminal(there is one in Karmic) and first run:
>
> umount -a to unmount everything then run:
>
> fsck -pv /dev/sdxx where the first x is the drive(sda, sdb or the 
> like) in question and the second x is the partition number. The 
> command will automaticall repair the drive that can safely be repaired 
> and will print out details for things it cannot safely repair for 
> administrative use. The v will give you verbose output so you can 
> better tell what is going on.
>
> Warning; using fsck can mess up a drive causing you to have to 
> repartition and reinstall. Has happened to me before and to others; 
> however; it wont physically hurt the drive and nothing else to do 
> anyway except to partition and install again.
>
> Warning2: if you see any message saying the drive is still mounted do 
> not proceed until you unmount the drive or the file system will surely 
> be messed up.
>
> HTH,
>
> --
>
> Leonard
>
> lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net
>
> When she booted into recovery mode, fsck was not a selection. She 
> typed in umount –a and then fsck –pv /dev/sda1 and got the response “ 
> /dev/sda1; unexpected inconsistency; run fsck manually”. I’m not sure 
> how to tell her how to do this. I do not know how to get to the root 
> terminal or what the parameters of sdxx should be. Her machine only 
> has one hard drive and 9.10 is the only operating system installed on 
> it. I assume it is device “a”, but I’m not sure of the partition.
>
If she has Karmic the last entry on the recovery mode menu is to go to a 
root shell which is what she wants to select. After doing that and 
typing in the commands individually followed by hitting the enter key 
that should have done it for her. Not quite sure what the error message 
means but have seen it before. If she typed in each command, one at a 
time followed by enter and got that message, I suspect that the drive is 
not fully unmounted so she will have to boot from a live or alternate CD 
or some other boot disk and run the commands again from a root terminal 
or from a user terminal preceding each command by sudo and entering her 
user passwd after she presses the enter key. NoOp commented on this in 
the same thread and listed some links which you should read. Try 
/dev/sda to see if that will work as she has only one partition. If she 
can get her hands on an install cd, go to a root terminal, and issue the 
same commands again to see if that will work using /dev/sda this time 
and if any error output just follow what it says to do. If that still 
doesn't work post back to the list with the results but be sure to read 
NoOp's links as there will be info there that I may have overlooked. 
Remember, if she gets to a terminal with a $ sign for a prompt she is at 
a user terminal and will have to precede each command with sudo. Another 
thing I noted from the original post, did she type in the fsck command 
at the root, #, prompt, she must do so for it to run. Also, the dev 
should be sda unless she is using an external usb drive, then it would 
be sdb instead.
>
> This is more difficult with my very limited knowledge and I am trying 
> to relate it to her over a long distance call. I do appreciate you 
> assistance and patience.
>
No problem but send your replies to the list not me so everyone can 
benefit from the outcome and also so others can participate who probably 
have more knowledge than me.
>
> Mac
>
> Russell M. Lafferty
>
> 135 West Park Dr.
>
> Charlottesville, VA 22901
>
> 434-296-6585
>
> "Since death alone is certain and time of death is uncertain, what 
> should I do?"
>
> "Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt,
>
> dance like you do when nobody's watching, sing as if nobody is 
> listening, and live as if this was paradise on earth"
>