Booting problem after updgrading

[Wissem R]

I have a ubuntu 9.10 karmic koala,I just did an upgrade but after the upgrade was done I restarted and the system wouldn't boot up !
I get this message when booting in recovery mode :
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.16
From googling the problem,I found a lot of users reporting this as a bug (tried a lot of solutions but nothing so far).

My ubuntu's partition: /dev/sda6

[Rubi1200]

Hi and welcome to the forums :)

Use a LiveCD to boot the computer and choose to try Ubuntu.

Click on the boot info script link at the bottom of my post (instructions included).

Copy/paste the results back here to the forums.

It will show us what is where and make troubleshooting and offering solutions easier.

Thanks.

[Wissem R]

Thanks for the quick reply :D

Here is the output of RESULTS.txt




Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #6 for /boot/grub.

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files/dirs:

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type 'ext4'

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda4: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1f7b1f7a

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 63 205,487,414 205,487,352 f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 174,578,418 205,487,414 30,908,997 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 189 167,381,234 167,381,046 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 167,381,298 174,578,354 7,197,057 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 205,503,480 418,766,354 213,262,875 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 418,766,355 441,289,484 22,523,130 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 441,289,485 488,392,064 47,102,580 7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda2 F20024A8002475AF ntfs Files
/dev/sda3 56309031309019D7 ntfs Films
/dev/sda4 E0DC5301DC52D200 ntfs Hck
/dev/sda5 D88C02738C024D06 ntfs
/dev/sda6 8ee745ba-7d3a-403c-9557-74a8e56270a0 ext4
/dev/sda7 a29ad160-bb08-4ecf-b2bc-a84db55bb161 swap

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

rootfs / rootfs (rw)
/dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)


================================ sda2/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professionnel" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[Rubi1200]

Was your system booting normally prior to the upgrade? In other words, were you able to boot into both Windows and Ubuntu?

The reason I ask is because you have an unusual partition setup.

If Ubuntu was on sda6, there is definitely a problem right now:

Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type 'ext4'

I suggest you try fixing the file-system from the LiveCD first. If that doesn't work, we will try and figure something else out.

Run the following commands:


sudo e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sda6

If there are errors, run this:


sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sda6

[Wissem R]

Was your system booting normally prior to the upgrade? In other words, were you able to boot into both Windows and Ubuntu?
Yes it was perfect .


The reason I ask is because you have an unusual partition setup.
I know lol it was clean at first but I re partioned everything to make ubuntu disk space a little bigger(I'm using it as my primary OS ;) )





I suggest you try fixing the file-system from the LiveCD first. If that doesn't work, we will try and figure something else out.

Still not working...When I try to mount the ubuntu partition I get this error:

The volume uses the ext4 file system which is not supported by your system.

allthough using Gparted it shows that the partitions uses ext3 !

[Rubi1200]

Wissem R,
do not try and mount the file-system! The commands need to be run on an unmounted system.

Use GParted to unmount all partitions, including swap and then try running the commands in the terminal.

As I said, this must be done from the LiveCD.

EDIT: if the commands work, you should be able to reboot, taking the CD out, and be back in business.

[Wissem R]

It didn't work when i restart it and did boot from my hard drive instead of the cd live and im pretty sure that all partition are unmouted :(

[dino99]

to boot on cd you need first to set the bios to boot on cd of course, otherwise it continue to boot on hdd (logical indeed)

question: are you still using karmic or more recent ? If grub2 is used, is grub1 (legacy) and menu.lst removed ? (because they are not good friends)

/dev/sda6 might be bootable (actually its sda2 which is ntfs)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10161428&postcount=2

[Rubi1200]

As dino99 said, you need to go into BIOS and change the boot order so that the CD is set in first place. On most computers, F2, F8, or F12 will get you into BIOS.

Once the boot order is set so that the CD is first, then try again.

Simply get to the desktop on the LiveCD, go to the terminal and run the commands I posted.

If this still does not work, we can try something else.

[Wissem R]

I was using Mandriva for about 6 months ,ubuntu for 4 until now ,so I know how to configure BIOS to boot the cd :tongue:



Simply get to the desktop on the LiveCD, go to the terminal and run the commands I posted.

If this still does not work, we can try something else.

I'm afraid it dosen't.Is there another thing we can check ? Please I 'm not returning to Windows again !!

[Rubi1200]

I am beginning to wonder if part of the problem has to do with the fact that Windows is in an extended partition?

Perhaps try recovering the Windows bootloader and then we can work from there.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014708

[Wissem R]

Still nothing so far :(

Can I upgrade the system again ? Maybe it will be fixed ?
I ll just run:

chroot /media/ubuntu /bin/bash
apt-get update;apt-get upgrade
But I couldn't mount the Linux's partition ...
mount: can't find /dev/sda6 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

$ cat /etc/fstab
aufs / aufs rw 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sda7 swap swap defaults 0 0

[Wissem R]

I ll just switch to debian ;)
Thanks a lot for your time and the help thought .

[Rubi1200]

Have you been using an Ubuntu CD to do the things we asked or another one?

Which version CD are you using to do this?

Perhaps a fresh install to sda6 would be the best option?

Either way, I hope you stick with Linux.

[Wissem R]

Yes of course I was using Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD.Sorry but I didn't understand what you want to say by a fresh install to sda6 ?

I should take a look to my Hard drive and re partition the hole thing.It 's in a big mess right now :(

[Rubi1200]

There seem to be so many issues going on that you may need to reinstall.

However, before doing that, let's try something else (but I don't know if it will work).


sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt && sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev && sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc && sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys && sudo mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts && sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf && sudo chroot /mnt

If you can chroot into the system, run some commands and do some "housecleaning"

apt-get autoclean
apt-get clean
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get -f install
dpkg --configure -a
When you are finished, exit and unmount:

exit
sudo umount /mnt/dev/pts
sudo umount /mnt/sys
sudo umount /mnt/proc
sudo umount /mnt/dev
sudo umount /mnt

[Wissem R]

I get this error as usual :'(

mount: unknown filesystem type 'ext4'

[Rubi1200]

The only other possibility I can think of which might help is to use Testdisk to try and either recover the partition or rescue your data. Other than that, you may have little choice but to reinstall Ubuntu.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

[Wissem R]

For rescuing my data I found a good tutorial on how to do it with virtual box :D
BTW I really apreciate your help,just one last thing what is the best partitioning you can think of for my Hard Drive(A partition For Linux and another little one for *******)

[Rubi1200]

No problem, you are more than welcome :)

As far as partitioning is concerned, I think it really depends on your needs.

If you only plan on using Windows now and again, a smaller partition (must be primary) of about 50GB would most likely be enough.

That would leave you with 200GB for Ubuntu.