init error on a relatively new 10.04 installation

[openick]

mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such file or directory
mount: mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such file or directory
Target file system doesn't have /sbin/init
No init found. Try passing init=bootarg

Busybox v1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1:13.3-lubuntu11) built-in shell (ash)

(initramfs)

In initramfs prompt what should I do to make the system boot?

Thanks.

[Rubi1200]

Are you able to select and boot using previous kernels or Recovery Mode?

[openick]

No, the system is not going that far. Even before it reaches the stage of version options it gets stuck at initramfs. In the boot sequence, this appears to be a very early stage.

[Rubi1200]

Hi,
please boot the computer with a LiveCD and run the boot info script (link at the bottom of my post with instructions).

Post the results back here please.

Thanks.

[openick]

Thank You.

I have attached the results file.

[Rubi1200]

Did you recently update/upgrade anything or delete any partitions?

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 #1 for /boot/grub.

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 2,048 159,240,191 159,238,144 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 159,242,238 163,239,935 3,997,698 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 159,242,240 163,239,935 3,997,696 82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296 ext4
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda5 7943d817-a031-4f16-9fbf-58317ab72bef swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)


=========================== sda1/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
saved_entry=${chosen}
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-26-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic root=UUID=fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-26-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-26-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic root=UUID=fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-21-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ ${timeout} != -1 ]; then
if keystatus; then
if keystatus --shift; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=0
fi
else
if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
set timeout=0
fi
fi
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=fe91d03a-015f-4968-955e-22bea0d89296 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=7943d817-a031-4f16-9fbf-58317ab72bef none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


8.7GB: boot/grub/core.img
23.7GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
8.7GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
8.8GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic
8.7GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic
8.7GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic
8.8GB: initrd.img
8.7GB: initrd.img.old
8.7GB: vmlinuz
8.7GB: vmlinuz.old

[openick]

After installing ubuntu from the CD, I ran the update manager to update the version. I have installed xampp, tomatocart, joomla - everything was working fine.

Apart from this I did not try to install any new 0/S nor tried to reinstall the O/s.

This is a 500 GB hard disk, ubuntu is the first installation in a 90GB (if I remember correctly) partition. The rest of the disk is unpartitioned.

The init files could have become corrupt due to an electricity interruption or the other possibility is that this computer was attacked.

Thank you.

[Rubi1200]

Thanks for the information. Let's try some "housecleaning" and see if that helps resolve the problem.

From the LiveCD, run the following command:

sudo e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sda1

If errors are reported, run this:


sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sda1

[openick]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1:
Deleted inode 1057200 has zero dtime. FIXED.
/dev/sda1:
Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found.

/dev/sda1: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e., without -a or -p options)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found.

/dev/sda1: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e., without -a or -p options)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found. Fix? yes

Inode 4456465 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 4456466 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 4456467 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 4456468 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Block bitmap differences: -6905868
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong for group #209 (3368, counted=3367).
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong for group #210 (7400, counted=7401).
Fix? yes

Inode bitmap differences: -1057200 -(4456465--4456468)
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong for group #129 (3032, counted=3033).
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong for group #544 (63, counted=67).
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong (4656244, counted=4656249).
Fix? yes


/dev/sda1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

324487 inodes used (6.51%)
606 non-contiguous files (0.2%)
239 non-contiguous directories (0.1%)
# of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 0/0/0
Extent depth histogram: 294253/86
2373924 blocks used (11.93%)
0 bad blocks
1 large file

251967 regular files
34579 directories
60 character device files
26 block device files
0 fifos
509 links
37833 symbolic links (30039 fast symbolic links)
13 sockets
--------
324987 files


Thank You.

( Now I will remove the Live CD and try to boot. Will post the results again.)

Thank you.

[openick]

Dear Rubi

Thank you so much.

It worked. The system started without any problem after your fix. This message is posted from the machine that had the trouble.

:D

[Rubi1200]

You are more than welcome :)

I am really glad you got this sorted out.

Please mark this thread Solved using the Thread Tools near the top of the page.

[openick]

Dear Ruby

I didn't see your note because it was on page 2, have marked the thread as solved now.

Thanks. :)

[Rubi1200]

As before, you are welcome :-)

Thanks for marking this Solved as it may help other users who face a similar situation.

[sasun]

Hallo, I am also new here. I have a very similar problem on a Ubuntu 10.10 installation. I was running a BackInTime backup as the update manager started and hung up. As I didn't want to interrupt the backup process, I waited some time and found the screen black - but no login screen appeared as I moved the mouse. After a reboot I got the same error message:

No init found. Try passing init= bootarg.

Though I can chose previous kernels or recovery modes, none of them boot. The error is always the one mentioned above, directing me to:

BusyBox v1.15.3 with initramfs.

I tried to run the boot info script after booting with a LiveCD but it is stuck on 'Searching sda6 for information'. Unfortunately this is the /root partition (ext4).
I did not upgrade the system or removed any partitions.

Thanks for your help!

[Rubi1200]

Hi and welcome to the forums sasun :)

Please post the output of this command:


sudo fdisk -lu

[sasun]

Hi and welcome to the forums sasun :)

Please post the output of this command:


sudo fdisk -lu

Hi and thanks for the help! The output is as follows:



Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe5800961

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 39183656 19591797 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39184382 625141759 292978689 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 39184384 43089919 1952768 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 43091968 62621695 9764864 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 62623744 343891967 140634112 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 343894016 625141759 140623872 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 7864 MB, 7864320000 bytes
256 heads, 33 sectors/track, 1818 cylinders, total 15360000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 32 15359999 7679984 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdc: 129 MB, 129892352 bytes
8 heads, 32 sectors/track, 991 cylinders, total 253696 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1717a5f5

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 97 253695 126799+ 6 FAT16

THANK YOU!

[Rubi1200]

If the file-system was damaged, mounting it could be a problem.

On the LiveCD, run this command:


sudo lsof | grep sda6

If there are processes holding the file-system, this is will tell us what.

The other option is to download, burn to CD. and boot the computer with Slax:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slax

Unlike the Ubuntu CD, it does not try and auto-mount partitions (which is why you may be experiencing difficulties).

If this works, run the command for the boot script as above but without sudo (Slax uses a root terminal by default).

[sasun]

[QUOTE=Rubi1200;10566949]If the file-system was damaged, mounting it could be a problem.

On the LiveCD, run this command:


sudo lsof | grep sda6

If there are processes holding the file-system, this is will tell us what.

Doing the first option I get the following output:



lsof: WARNING: can't stat() tmpfs file system /cow
Output information may be incomplete.
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon file system /home/ubuntu/.gvfs
Output information may be incomplete.

Any hints by that?

[Rubi1200]

Not really. Go with the second option I suggested and get hold of a Slax CD to boot the computer and then run the boot script.

I suspect you need to run a file-system check, but I would rather play it safe and see the boot script results first.

[sasun]

Not really. Go with the second option I suggested and get hold of a Slax CD to boot the computer and then run the boot script.

I suspect you need to run a file-system check, but I would rather play it safe and see the boot script results first.

Ok, took a little longer this time. But here is the output file attached.

Thanks again for your help.

P.S. I don't have a clue WHAT messed the root partition and WHY. Was it unfit to run a backup process and start the update manager?

[Rubi1200]

The results confirm that there is a problem with sda6, but also with sda7.

If you have backups of your important data, this is what I suggest:

From the LiveCD (Slax is also good) run these commands to try and repair the file-system:


e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sda6If this reports errors (most likely) then run this:


e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sda6When it is finished, reboot without the CD and keep your fingers crossed.

The other alternative is to use Testdisk to recover data and then run the fsck.

Unfortunately, you will need to try that from the Ubuntu CD as it is not available on Slax.

Let me know if you need more help or if anything is unclear.

EDIT: why do you have an entry for Linux Mint in your boot.ini file?

c:\grubfile="Linux Mint"




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 (,msdos6)/boot/grub.
=> Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb
=> Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda8: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda8 starts
at sector 2048.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sdc1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe5800961

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 39,183,656 39,183,594 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39,184,382 625,141,759 585,957,378 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 39,184,384 43,089,919 3,905,536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 43,091,968 62,621,695 19,529,728 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 62,623,744 343,891,967 281,268,224 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 343,894,016 625,141,759 281,247,744 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 7864 MB, 7864320000 bytes
256 heads, 33 sectors/track, 1818 cylinders, total 15360000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 32 15,359,999 15,359,968 b W95 FAT32


Drive: sdc ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdc: 129 MB, 129892352 bytes
8 heads, 32 sectors/track, 991 cylinders, total 253696 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1717a5f5

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdc1 * 97 253,695 253,599 b W95 FAT32


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 BC141C0C141BC7F2 ntfs system
/dev/sda5 987fc802-4a81-4109-85e2-96e7a326bbce swap
/dev/sda6 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ext4
/dev/sda7 bbda2cde-6c74-4a7e-8f34-b8befa980e10 ext4
/dev/sda8 082CE4CB2CE4B4BA ntfs home
/dev/sdb1 10D7-7149 vfat PENDRIVE
/dev/sdc1 900F-2DAA vfat PENDRIVE

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw,si=682f49c1,xino=/mnt/live/memory/xino/.aufs.xino,nowarn_perm)
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 fuseblk (rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sda8 /mnt/sda8 fuseblk (rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 vfat (rw,noatime,quiet,umask=0,check=s,shortname=mixed)
/dev/sdc1 /mnt/sdc1 vfat (rw)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[Boot Loader]
timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\grubfile="Linux Mint"

=================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.0GB: boot/initrd.gz
.0GB: boot/vmlinuz

=================== sdc1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.0GB: boot/initrd.gz
.0GB: boot/vmlinuz
=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

mdadm: No arrays found in config file

[sasun]

The results confirm that there is a problem with sda6, but also with sda7.

Unfortunately, you will need to try that from the Ubuntu CD as it is not available on Slax.

I am working on it. As I do not know if the backup worked out, I will try testdisk first. I am creating an USBboot Ubuntu Rescue 10.10 with testdisk on it.


Let me know if you need more help or if anything is unclear.

Do you have a clue, what could have led to such data struggles? Did I do something wrong?


EDIT: why do you have an entry for Linux Mint in your boot.ini file?

Oh, I first opted for Linux Mint, but then changed my mind and went with Ubuntu. Also I wanted to have grub2 NOT installed to the MBR but to the beginning of the /root partition. I did this already with grub1 but couldn't work out a way to do it also with grub2.

Thanks for your help. Hope I can recover my data...

[sasun]

I am running testdisk right now. Any suggestion what I should do exactly?

[sasun]

HELP!! I used testdisk and all my data is still there, so I can chose the "list files" option and everything is still there.

BUT I then did "write partition structure to disk" and now it doesn't even show me the grub2 screen. Instead I get the following:


error: unknown filesystem.
grub rescue>

[sasun]

HELP!! I used testdisk and all my data is still there, so I can chose the "list files" option and everything is still there.

BUT I then did "write partition structure to disk" and now it doesn't even show me the grub2 screen. Instead I get the following:

Perhaps some additional info. I attached the backup.log file that I did with testdisk.

Thank you for your help!

[Rubi1200]

Hi,

please run the boot info script again. I suspect Testdisk is now installed in the MBR, but we need to confirm this.

Thanks.

[sasun]

Hi,

please run the boot info script again. I suspect Testdisk is now installed in the MBR, but we need to confirm this.

Thanks.

Hmm. It could be that I changed the partition table information by "writing" with testdisk, don't you think?

Anhow, here's the new output of the sh-file.

PLEASE LET ME GET MY SYSTEM BACK!!

[Rubi1200]

You need to be patient. If you rush into things, it could make it worse.

I am going to ask a couple of other users to also take a look and offer some ideas.


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 (,msdos6)/boot/grub.
=> Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda4: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda6 starts
at sector 2048.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe5800961

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 39,183,647 39,183,585 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39,184,384 43,089,903 3,905,520 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 43,091,968 62,621,695 19,529,728 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 62,621,748 625,153,409 562,531,662 f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 62,623,744 343,891,967 281,268,224 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 343,894,016 625,141,759 281,247,744 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sda4 ends after the last sector of /dev/sda

Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 7864 MB, 7864320000 bytes
256 heads, 33 sectors/track, 1818 cylinders, total 15360000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 32 15,359,999 15,359,968 b W95 FAT32


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 BC141C0C141BC7F2 ntfs system
/dev/sda2 987fc802-4a81-4109-85e2-96e7a326bbce swap
/dev/sda3 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ext4
/dev/sda5 bbda2cde-6c74-4a7e-8f34-b8befa980e10 ext4
/dev/sda6 082CE4CB2CE4B4BA ntfs home
/dev/sdb1 183D-634F vfat PENDRIVE

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw,si=2c811f97,xino=/mnt/live/memory/xino/.aufs.xino,nowarn_perm)
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 fuseblk (rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6 fuseblk (rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 vfat (rw,noatime,quiet,umask=0,check=s,shortname=mixed)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[Boot Loader]
timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\grubfile="Linux Mint"

=================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.0GB: boot/initrd.gz
.0GB: boot/vmlinuz
=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

mdadm: No arrays found in config file

[sasun]

I'll be patient, promise.

Thank you big time!!

P.S. Would it not be possible to use the information from the first RESULTS.TXT to regain the "old" partition information, as this seemed to be the better place to start?

[coffeecat]

Hi, I'm one of the others that Rubi1200 called on. Let me say first that it's the end of a long day for me and I'm not fresh enough to do this properly, but I do have a couple of comments.

I think testdisk has introduced a further problem because your damaged filesystems confused it. It seems to have removed a couple of partitions if I am reading all this correctly, so...


P.S. Would it not be possible to use the information from the first RESULTS.TXT to regain the "old" partition information, as this seemed to be the better place to start?

I think that's possible. Ideally one would like the original output from sfdisk and then one would simply write that back to the partition table and get your missing partitions back. You don't have that but you do have the output of fdisk in your original RESULTS.txt. I believe I can reconstruct what sfdisk would have told us from that, but not until the (my) morning that is, I'm afraid. My brain is too much of a mush at the moment to do this reliably.

In the meantime, please run this terminal command. I don't know whether it will work in Slax - I don't know whether sfdisk comes in Slax - so you might have to use a live Ubuntu session.


sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda > Desktop/parts_2.txtPost the contents of parts_2.txt which you will find on the live Desktop. It will show the partition table as of now - that's why I suggested you call it parts_2 to correspond with your RESULTS2.txt. You may not need it, but let's get it recorded anyway.

My thinking is that if we can return your partition table to what it was at the time of the first RESULTS.txt, then we could concentrate on trying to fix the filesystem with fsck. I guess you are thinking along similar lines.

[sasun]

Hey coffeecat, thanks for joining in the rescue. Your help is strongly appreciated.


Hi, I'm one of the others that Rubi1200 called on. Let me say first that it's the end of a long day for me and I'm not fresh enough to do this properly, but I do have a couple of comments.

I think testdisk has introduced a further problem because your damaged filesystems confused it. It seems to have removed a couple of partitions if I am reading all this correctly, so...

I think that's possible. Ideally one would like the original output from sfdisk and then one would simply write that back to the partition table and get your missing partitions back. You don't have that but you do have the output of fdisk in your original RESULTS.txt. I believe I can reconstruct what sfdisk would have told us from that, but not until the (my) morning that is, I'm afraid. My brain is too much of a mush at the moment to do this reliably.

In the meantime, please run this terminal command. I don't know whether it will work in Slax - I don't know whether sfdisk comes in Slax - so you might have to use a live Ubuntu session.


sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda > Desktop/parts_2.txtPost the contents of parts_2.txt which you will find on the live Desktop. It will show the partition table as of now - that's why I suggested you call it parts_2 to correspond with your RESULTS2.txt. You may not need it, but let's get it recorded anyway.

My thinking is that if we can return your partition table to what it was at the time of the first RESULTS.txt, then we could concentrate on trying to fix the filesystem with fsck. I guess you are thinking along similar lines.

Ok, here's the output file. Hope you gained new strength by the morning - wherever you are :)

[coffeecat]

Ok, here's the output file. Hope you gained new strength by the morning - wherever you are :)

See under 'location' in my details left of my post. :wink:

I'll repost your parts2.txt file in code tags, thusly:


# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 63, size= 39183585, Id= 7, bootable
/dev/sda2 : start= 39184384, size= 3905520, Id=82
/dev/sda3 : start= 43091968, size= 19529728, Id=83
/dev/sda4 : start= 62621748, size=562531662, Id= f
/dev/sda5 : start= 62623744, size=281268224, Id=83
/dev/sda6 : start=343894016, size=281247744, Id= 7It's much easier for thread contributors to review things if you do that for terminal and boot script outputs and suchlike, rather than attaching a text file.

I'll work on producing a starting point partition table for you over the next couple of hours and then post back. :)

[coffeecat]

I'll repost some of what's been posted before for clarity, and so that you and Rubi1200 can check my figures. I'm 95% sure I've got it right, but it's a good idea for others to eyeball it.

First, the fdisk part of your RESULTS2.txt, which is the situation you have now after you ran testdisk:


Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe5800961

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 39,183,647 39,183,585 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39,184,384 43,089,903 3,905,520 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 43,091,968 62,621,695 19,529,728 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 62,621,748 625,153,409 562,531,662 f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 62,623,744 343,891,967 281,268,224 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 343,894,016 625,141,759 281,247,744 7 HPFS/NTFSAnd the corresponding sfdisk output - parts2.txt:


# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 63, size= 39183585, Id= 7, bootable
/dev/sda2 : start= 39184384, size= 3905520, Id=82
/dev/sda3 : start= 43091968, size= 19529728, Id=83
/dev/sda4 : start= 62621748, size=562531662, Id= f
/dev/sda5 : start= 62623744, size=281268224, Id=83
/dev/sda6 : start=343894016, size=281247744, Id= 7Now the fdisk from your original RESULTS.txt. This would be before testdisk was run:


Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe5800961

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 39,183,656 39,183,594 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39,184,382 625,141,759 585,957,378 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 39,184,384 43,089,919 3,905,536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 43,091,968 62,621,695 19,529,728 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 62,623,744 343,891,967 281,268,224 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 343,894,016 625,141,759 281,247,744 7 HPFS/NTFSNote how testdisk has moved your extended partition, moved a few boundaries slightly, changed a couple of logical partitions to primary because of the resized extended and changed the extended ID code from 5 to f. I don't know whether the last matters, but I've changed it back again. Here is my reconstructed parts1.txt:


# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 63, size= 39183594, Id= 7, bootable
/dev/sda2 : start= 39184382, size=585957378, Id= 5
/dev/sda3 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sda4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sda5 : start= 39184384, size= 3905536, Id=82
/dev/sda6 : start= 43091968, size= 19529728, Id=83
/dev/sda7 : start= 62623744, size=281268224, Id=83
/dev/sda8 : start=343894016, size=281247744, Id= 7The entries for sda3 and sda4 are necessary: unused primary partition slots.

Copy and paste that last into gedit or any Linux text editor and save it as parts1.txt. Boot up the Ubuntu live CD or USB and transfer parts1.txt to the live desktop. Now open a terminal and run this command:


sudo sfdisk --force /dev/sda < Desktop/parts1.txtThat will rewrite the partition table to the way it was before you ran testdisk. That won't help with the corrupted filesystems but at least we can start from there.

If by chance you are having to use Windows to download parts1.txt, don't use a Windows text editor. It will likely format it wrong. I've attached the parts1.txt for you as well - or you could download this in the live session.

Double-check the figures before you proceed, and double-check I've got the sequence of events vis-a-vis testdisk correct. But don't worry too much if things don't work. If the very worst comes to the worst, you have your parts2.txt file and can use that sfdisk command above (substituting parts2.txt) to get back to where you are now.

[sasun]

Hi coffeecat,

IT WORKED. At least I get the same error that I also started with posting here for help. Never thought that could make me smile - so it can always get worse! :)

Just for documentation purposes I attach the output of sfdisk in a hopefully proper way.

Do you know, what I could do from here to get my ubuntu back - I miss it so much :)


Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ...
BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy

This disk is currently in use - repartitioning is probably a bad idea.
Umount all file systems, and swapoff all swap partitions on this disk.
Use the --no-reread flag to suppress this check.

Disk /dev/sda: 38913 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Old situation:
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 0+ 2439- 2440- 19591792+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2439+ 2682- 244- 1952760 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda3 2682+ 3898- 1216- 9764864 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 3898+ 38913 35016- 281265831 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 3898+ 21406- 17509- 140634112 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 21406+ 38913- 17507- 140623872 7 HPFS/NTFS
Warning: given size (585957378) exceeds max allowable size (585952963)
New situation:
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 39183656 39183594 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39184382 625141759 585957378 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 0 - 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda4 0 - 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda5 39184384 43089919 3905536 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda6 43091968 62621695 19529728 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 62623744 343891967 281268224 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 343894016 625141759 281247744 7 HPFS/NTFS
Warning: partition 2 extends past end of disk
Successfully wrote the new partition table

Re-reading the partition table ...
BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy
The command to re-read the partition table failed
Reboot your system now, before using mkfs

If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1)
to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1
(See fdisk(8).)

[coffeecat]

Do you know, what I could do from here to get my ubuntu back - I miss it so much :)

Rubi1200 and I have been discussing that. Probably only fsck, and if that doesn't work then you'll have to use photorec to try to recover files before you re-install - which is not a pleasant task. See what Rubi1200 has to say before you try anything.

Do you have any important and/or unarchived data on the damaged partitions?

It might be a good idea to run the bootscript again, just to make sure it's giving the same output as for the original RESULTS.txt. Post that in code tags as well.

[Rubi1200]

I agree that it would be a good idea to see the results of the boot script one more time.

Then, do a file-system check and see if we can get things up and running again.

If not, save what you can and reinstall would be the only option I think.

[sasun]

Hi Rubi1200, Hi coffeecat

- I forgot to say THANKS for your help. Though this is really unpleasant as I suppose to have unsaved data on my ubuntu-system, I learn a lot of new things at least.

So back to your advice. The output of the boot scrpit is as follows

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 (,msdos6)/boot/grub.
=> Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda8: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda8 starts
at sector 2048.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe5800961

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 39,183,656 39,183,594 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39,184,382 625,141,759 585,957,378 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 39,184,384 43,089,919 3,905,536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 43,091,968 62,621,695 19,529,728 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 62,623,744 343,891,967 281,268,224 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 343,894,016 625,141,759 281,247,744 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 7864 MB, 7864320000 bytes
256 heads, 33 sectors/track, 1818 cylinders, total 15360000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 32 15,359,999 15,359,968 b W95 FAT32


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 BC141C0C141BC7F2 ntfs system
/dev/sda5 987fc802-4a81-4109-85e2-96e7a326bbce swap
/dev/sda6 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ext4
/dev/sda7 bbda2cde-6c74-4a7e-8f34-b8befa980e10 ext4
/dev/sda8 082CE4CB2CE4B4BA ntfs home
/dev/sdb1 183D-634F vfat PENDRIVE

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw,si=a26e6ee0,xino=/mnt/live/memory/xino/.aufs.xino,nowarn_perm)
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 fuseblk (rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sda8 /mnt/sda8 fuseblk (rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 vfat (rw,noatime,quiet,umask=0,check=s,shortname=mixed)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[Boot Loader]
timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\grubfile="Linux Mint"

=================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.0GB: boot/initrd.gz
.0GB: boot/vmlinuz
=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

mdadm: No arrays found in config file


Just to make sure, I don't mess up things when using fsck - which options should I use it with (interactive mode?)

[coffeecat]

I've checked the latest boot script against your first one and, apart from the non-appearance of the 128MB pendrive, things are back to where they were. Which is good.

Rubi1200 gave you the e2fsck options to use in post #21. Don't forget that both sda6 and sda7 are affected, so you'll have to run fsck on both.

If that fails to repair the filesystems, then the only other thing for sda6 and sda7 is photorec. Photorec comes as part of testdisk, but where testdisk is for recovering lost partitions, photorec is for lost files of certain types.


PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover
lost pictures from digital camera memory or even Hard Disks.
It has been extended to search also for non audio/video headers.
It searchs for following files and is able to undelete them :
* Sun/NeXT audio data (.au)
* RIFF audio/video (.avi/.wav)
* BMP bitmap (.bmp)
* bzip2 compressed data (.bz2)
* Source code written in C (.c)
* Canon Raw picture (.crw)
* Canon catalog (.ctg)
* FAT subdirectory
* Microsoft Office Document (.doc)
* Nikon dsc (.dsc)
* HTML page (.html)
* JPEG picture (.jpg)
* MOV video (.mov)
* MP3 audio (MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1) (.mp3)
* Moving Picture Experts Group video (.mpg)
* Minolta Raw picture (.mrw)
* Olympus Raw Format picture (.orf)
* Portable Document Format (.pdf)
* Perl script (.pl)
* Portable Network Graphics (.png)
* Raw Fujifilm picture (.raf)
* Contax picture (.raw)
* Rollei picture (.rdc)
* Rich Text Format (.rtf)
* Shell script (.sh)
* Tar archive (.tar )
* Tag Image File Format (.tiff)
* Microsoft ASF (.wma)
* Sigma/Foveon X3 raw picture (.x3f)
* zip archive (.zip)Unfortunately, it doesn't recover the original file names and you'll get hundreds, if not thousands, of files with arbitrary names, which you'll have to sort through.

Photorec wiki:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

By the way, the reason you can't boot at all is that much of your grub code and the grub menu is on your Ubuntu root partition, which is either sda6 or sda7. Your Windows partitions seem to be undamaged and I see no reason why you won't be able to boot into Windows. If your Ubuntu partitions fail to repair themselves with e2fsck and you would like to restore Windows booting before re-installing Ubuntu, that simply involves reinstalling the Windows MBR. Post back if you want to do this and either Rubi1200 or I can take you through that.

[sasun]

Hi coffeecat,

I did the fsck operations. Here are the outputs after each command and the boot script results after both fsck runs.

It seems, that there still is a problem!! Would you still suggest photorec as only solution?

BTW, the WinXP is working perfectly after regaining the partition. But my files are on the /sda7 partition.


root@slax:~# e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sda6
/dev/sda6: recovering journal
/dev/sda6: Deleted inode 257 has zero dtime. FIXED.
/dev/sda6: Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found.

/dev/sda6: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e., without -a or -p options)



root@slax:~# e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sda6
e2fsck 1.41.3 (12-Oct-2008)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found. Fix? yes

Inode 261 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 178065 is in use, but has dtime set. Fix? yes

Inode 178065 has a extra size (36454) which is invalid
Fix? yes

Inode 178066 is in use, but has dtime set. Fix? yes

Inode 178066 has imagic flag set. Clear? yes

Inode 178066 has compression flag set on filesystem without compression support. Clear? yes

Inode 178066 has INDEX_FL flag set but is not a directory.
Clear HTree index? yes

Inode 178066, i_blocks is 4280616843, should be 0. Fix? yes

Inode 178077 is in use, but has dtime set. Fix? yes

Inode 178077, i_blocks is 585728, should be 0. Fix? yes

Inode 178065 has illegal block(s). Clear? yes

Illegal block #0 (1963015299) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #1 (4127764504) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2 (203996899) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #3 (3345412099) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #5 (1820943872) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #6 (3958700548) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #7 (203210492) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #8 (4195126118) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #9 (1712066750) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #10 (335613742) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Illegal block #11 (1712068286) in inode 178065. CLEARED.
Too many illegal blocks in inode 178065.
Clear inode? yes

Restarting e2fsck from the beginning...
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Entry 'l1layout.h' in /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-25/arch/blackfin/include/asm (177869) has deleted/unused inode 178065. Clear? yes

Inode 178066 (/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-25/arch/blackfin/include/asm/linkage.h) has invalid mode (00).
Clear? yes

Inode 178077 (/var/lib/dpkg/info/vbetool.md5sums) has invalid mode (00).
Clear? yes

Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Block bitmap differences: -(627742--627743) -(695327--695330) -777823
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong for group #19 (209, counted=211).
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong for group #21 (10076, counted=10080).
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong for group #23 (14625, counted=14626).
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong (1387758, counted=1387765).
Fix? yes

Inode bitmap differences: -257 -261 -178065
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong for group #0 (13, counted=15).
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong for group #21 (90, counted=91).
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong (409280, counted=409283).
Fix? yes


/dev/sda6: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

201517 inodes used (32.99%)
852 non-contiguous inodes (0.4%)
# of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 0/0/0
Extent depth histogram: 169271/56
1053451 blocks used (43.15%)
0 bad blocks
1 large file

139176 regular files
24117 directories
59 character device files
26 block device files
0 fifos
390 links
38098 symbolic links (32063 fast symbolic links)
32 sockets
--------
201898 files


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 (,msdos6)/boot/grub.
=> Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda8: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda8 starts
at sector 2048.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe5800961

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 39,183,656 39,183,594 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39,184,382 625,141,759 585,957,378 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 39,184,384 43,089,919 3,905,536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 43,091,968 62,621,695 19,529,728 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 62,623,744 343,891,967 281,268,224 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 343,894,016 625,141,759 281,247,744 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 7864 MB, 7864320000 bytes
256 heads, 33 sectors/track, 1818 cylinders, total 15360000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 32 15,359,999 15,359,968 b W95 FAT32


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 BC141C0C141BC7F2 ntfs system
/dev/sda5 987fc802-4a81-4109-85e2-96e7a326bbce swap
/dev/sda6 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ext4
/dev/sda7 bbda2cde-6c74-4a7e-8f34-b8befa980e10 ext4
/dev/sda8 082CE4CB2CE4B4BA ntfs home
/dev/sdb1 183D-634F vfat PENDRIVE

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw,si=2096abef,xino=/mnt/live/memory/xino/.aufs.xino,nowarn_perm)
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 fuseblk (rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sda8 /mnt/sda8 fuseblk (rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 vfat (rw,noatime,quiet,umask=0,check=s,shortname=mixed)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[Boot Loader]
timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\grubfile="Linux Mint"

=================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.0GB: boot/initrd.gz
.0GB: boot/vmlinuz
=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

mdadm: No arrays found in config file


EDIT: Everything is working again!!! After the fsck operations I didn't even try to boot my ubuntu, as the boot script still prompted the same errors. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

But wait: Now my question - if you have the patience to answer - WHAT COULD I POSSIBLY HAVE DONE WRONG? And how can I prevent this (I used BackInTime, which didn't help much here)?

[Rubi1200]

Did you also try running the fsck commands on sda7?

Might still be worth trying.

Other than that Photorec is probably your best chance to get at least some of your files back.

[sasun]

Ok, maybe it was too small at the end of the old post. So I'll copy paste my last edit again:

EDIT: Everything is working again!!! After the fsck operations I didn't even try to boot my ubuntu, as the boot script still prompted the same errors. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

But wait: Now my question - if you have the patience to answer - WHAT COULD I POSSIBLY HAVE DONE WRONG? And how can I prevent this (I used BackInTime, which didn't help much here)?

THANK YOU SO MUCH RUBI1200 AND COFFEECAT!!

[Rubi1200]

You can boot Ubuntu again and both sda6 and sda7 are up and running again?

That's great news!!!

You are more than welcome too for the help.

I am sure coffeecat will drop by and add something as well.

[coffeecat]

EDIT: Everything is working again!!! After the fsck operations I didn't even try to boot my ubuntu, as the boot script still prompted the same errors. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I'm not sure I follow that. Do you mean everything is working but the boot script still shows errors in sda6 and sda7? Whatever, if Ubuntu is booting that is good news. I'm glad.


But wait: Now my question - if you have the patience to answer - WHAT COULD I POSSIBLY HAVE DONE WRONG? And how can I prevent this (I used BackInTime, which didn't help much here)?

Looking at your first post I don't think you did anything wrong. If I understand you correctly, you were running backintime and the update manager started up and then hung. Unless you were backing up files that update manager uses - and they are system files so that's unlikely - I can't see why update manager would hang. Ubuntu should be able to cope with two running applications, backintime and update manager, at once. Backintime is not exactly an invasive application - it's basically running rsync and diff for you.

You suffered severe filesystem corruption to two partitions. I would imagine something else was responsible for this and that's what caused update manager to hang.

A couple of suggestion. Open System > Administration > Disk Utility and check the SMART status for your main sda drive. Run some SMART self-tests just in case the drive is failing.

The other thing is if you're concerned that you've found an obscure bug that manifests when update manager starts while running BackinTime, then you could disable update manager while running backups. Start update manager and click on the Settings button > Updates tab and then untick the check for updates tickbox. That should stop it from suddenly deciding to start up when you're doing a backup. Just remember to tick the box again when you're finished with the backup.

Do you have a setting in BackinTime that causes it to start a backup at pre-determined times? I don't have any experience of BIT, but if you have set it up that way it would use a cron job to know when to start up. Ditto for Update Manager, but I doubt that the simultaneous running of two cron jobs was the problem.

Verbose flag off = I haven’t a clue what caused this problem. :wink:

[sasun]

Hey Rubi1200, coffeecat!

Just to finish this one properly: I gave the boot script another spin and this is the result. It seems to me, that everything could be fixed and is working fine now.

I am still a little hesitant to run update manager, though :)

Have a nice day and THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP.


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 (,msdos6)/boot/grub.

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.10
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda8: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda8 starts
at sector 2048.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 39,183,656 39,183,594 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 39,184,382 625,141,759 585,957,378 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 39,184,384 43,089,919 3,905,536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 43,091,968 62,621,695 19,529,728 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 62,623,744 343,891,967 281,268,224 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 343,894,016 625,141,759 281,247,744 7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 BC141C0C141BC7F2 ntfs system
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda5 987fc802-4a81-4109-85e2-96e7a326bbce swap
/dev/sda6 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ext4
/dev/sda7 bbda2cde-6c74-4a7e-8f34-b8befa980e10 ext4
/dev/sda8 082CE4CB2CE4B4BA ntfs home
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sda6 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=600)
/dev/sda7 /home ext4 (rw,commit=600)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[Boot Loader]
timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINXP="Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\grubfile="Linux Mint"

=========================== sda6/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
set have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
insmod vbe
insmod vga
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
load_video
insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-25-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-25-generic root=UUID=9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ro splash quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-25-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-25-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-25-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-25-generic root=UUID=9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ro single splash
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-25-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ro splash quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-23-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=UUID=9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ro single splash
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ro splash quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 ro single splash
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows NT/2000/XP (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set bc141c0c141bc7f2
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

=============================== sda6/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=9a7eb263-ed62-4e93-9664-99e34f9fa5b7 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=bbda2cde-6c74-4a7e-8f34-b8befa980e10 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=987fc802-4a81-4109-85e2-96e7a326bbce none swap sw 0 0

=================== sda6: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


26.7GB: boot/grub/core.img
24.8GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
25.7GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
26.4GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic
24.8GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-25-generic
26.9GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
26.9GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic
26.9GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-25-generic
24.8GB: initrd.img
26.4GB: initrd.img.old
26.9GB: vmlinuz
26.9GB: vmlinuz.old

[coffeecat]

You're welcome, and thanks for posting the boot script output. Apart from not saying unknown filesystem on sda6 and sda7, it's also now showing your grub.cfg and /etc/fstab since it can now see them. Which is good to see.

Good luck!

[Rubi1200]

Yes, thanks for the output.

As coffeecat mentioned, we can see all the relevant files and the results look more normal, so to speak.

This must have been quite a learning experience and something that will stand you in good stead as you continue to use Ubuntu/Linux.

Good luck :)