'fsck failed. please repair manually' - on boot

[TimDavies]

I have Opensuse 11.1 (with KDE4) and Windows XP SP3 as a dual boot on my laptop.

In Opensuse 11.1 I had set the NTFS partition that Windows XP was on to mount for full write access on startup. Since then I have booted into both XP on Opensuse multiple times.

However, since yesterday whenever I boot up Opensuse the splash screen appears, then disappears after a couple of seconds to be replaced with just text

Then after text scrolls up the screen, it stops scrolling and shows this message:

Loading required kernel modules
Activating swap-devices in etc/fstab...
Adding 803240k swap on /dev/sda3. Priority:-1 extents:1 across 803240k
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to off
blogd: no message logging because /var filesystem is not accessible
ehci-hcd ohci-hcd uhci-hcd usb-ohci usb-uhci: Loading console font lat9w-16.psfu -m trivial GO: Loadable
Loading keymap i386/querty/uk.map.gz
rm: cannot remove '/var/run/numlock-on': read-only filesystem
Start Unicode mode

fsck failed. Please repair manually and reboot. The root
file system is currently mounted read-only. To remount it
read write do:

 bash# mount -n -o remount,rw /

Attention: Only CONTROL+D will reboot the system in this
maintenance mode. shutdown or reboot will not work.

Give root password for login:

After entering the root password it asks whether I want to repair the file system. When I enter 'yes' it then just continuously enters hundreds of lines of just 'y'

I've left it for 10 minutes, nothing happens and the 'hard drive active' light on my laptop does not flash either so my only option is to turn it off by holding down the power button.

Is there anyway to repair this other than by doing a full reinstall?

Thank you very much for any help as I can't wait to be using it again.

[BenderBendingRodriguez]

I recommend (always) having System Rescue CD With that You can fsck the system, back it up and other things along (even browsing the web while backing up). If You got a DVD You could fix it from there, try with automatic repair first.

[geoffro]

You could try logging on to XP then running a defrag.
Might also be worth doing a disk check in XP
After that power off and try to boot openSUSE

[e-jones]

Have you tried booting with the installation DVD and selecting the option repair instead of install? There are 3 options, automatic repair, customised repair, and the 3rd I'm not sure of. I have used the customised option a number of times after messing up the boot menu. If you're not sure where the problem is the automatic repair might be what you want, but it does take a bit of time.

[BenderBendingRodriguez]

geofro do You suspect ntfs partition not closed properly? What made me think is extents=1 in swap option, is it normal(i don't use swap since i got 8GB of it)? I said about using DVD to fix it already but looks like i have to speak more clear as not everyone is a die-hard user ??

[baskitcaise]

TimDavies wrote:

<<snip>>

> bash# mount -n -o remount,rw /
>
> Attention: Only CONTROL+D will reboot the system in this
> maintenance mode. shutdown or reboot will not work.
>
> Give root password for login:
> --------------------
>
>
> After entering the root password it asks whether I want to repair the
> file system. When I enter 'yes' it then just continuously enters
> hundreds of lines of just 'y'
>

Did you remount with the above mount command before trying the fsck?

if not then the repair will not happen as the disk will still be in a read-only state.

HTH

--
Mark....

Nil illegitimi carborundum

[TimDavies]

Thank you very much for all those that replied, however I'm afraid none of the suggestions worked.

However, while the text was scrolling through on startup, I noticed a line of text that said I needed to start fsck manually. I then logged in as root when prompted, typed fsck, and then after confirming a few queries and a reboot, everything works perfectly again.

My faith in Linux is partially restored.

Though it's definitely not as stable as my well looked after XP SP3 installation, which is a disappointment (but hey, it cost a fraction of the price).

[BenderBendingRodriguez]

As You said well looked XP SP3. If You knew how to take care of Linux it would work good as well. You can't blame "safety" precautions built in Linux for making it "faulty". If You knew as much about Linux as You know about Windows XP then you wouldn't have so many problems. Linux is hard because it forces You to learn things that Windows XP is more or less hiding to be more user friendly. So if people f**k something up on Linux that is because of their lack of knowledge and not because of some flaws. Of course there are some flaws but in software that comes with Linux, pure Linux (kernel and some low level libraries) haven't got many flaws at all. And the stability is a matter of the software installed, all in all Linux is VERY stable.

[TimDavies]

As You said well looked XP SP3. If You knew how to take care of Linux it would work good as well. You can't blame "safety" precautions built in Linux for making it "faulty".

I definitely don't blame the security for making it faulty. Though at times I do find it a little too much (I've disabled app armour for example).

If You knew as much about Linux as You know about Windows XP then you wouldn't have so many problems.

When I say isn't as stable, I mean in terms of problems like the ones I mentioned. I've never had any fatal errors or file system crashes with Windows, and I find Windows to be extremely stable.

And the stability is a matter of the software installed, all in all Linux is VERY stable.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, is that I've found Linux distributions to be less stable than Windows XP for running desktop applications. I don't doubt that the Linux kernel is better for servers/supercomputers, but for everyday desktop usage, Windows XP can't be beaten for compatibility and ease of setup.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestion about System Rescue CD, I'm currently downloading the iso.

[casperg]

Hi all,

I had the same problem as above typed fsck from the root prompt, reboot and back in action. I had suse 10.3 and it was sweet. I must admit I've had a few problems with 11 i.e. wireless card and a jumpy cursor. I don't know much about linux but I do like the control it gives. I especially like the help on this forum so a big thanks to everyone for help solving past and future problems

Cheers