Grub error 17 & reinstalling GRUB

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi. You can read my previous post here:

Problem with partition table - openSUSE Forums

It contains my partition table. I made only a slight change today - I took 10GB from my biggest NTFS partition and assigned it to opensuse’s root partition (because it was too small). I used Paragon Partition Manager 9 to do it (in Windows XP)

But when I rebooted, I got “GRUB Error 17” message.

I ran opensuse’s repair dvd and it told me there’s file system’s incosistency (or something like that) in both root and home partitions. I clicked to repair it, but it repsponded with:


resize inode not valid run fsck manually

For both partitions.

You can read from my previous topic that I’ve got one 20 GB primary partition. I wanted to overwrite MBR with Windows’ code, and then set this partition as the active one (I know, I’m a noob, but I hoped I could manage that)

I ran Windows XP Repair Console and wrote “fixmbr” but after rebooting and checking for CD, PC did nothing. Then I logged once again, logged into my 20 GB drive, and wrote “fixboot”, but it said it can’t recognize partition or something like that.

So I am stuck with nothing, literally - what I need to do is to reinstall GRUB, make the 20 GB partition active, and then repair the filesystems on linux partitions.

I know I have really bad luck with partitions (second serious problem in a quite short time) - just tell me, how in the future I’m supposed to change the linux partitions’ sizes.

All help is greatly appreciated!

2

You should be able to fix the system using the suse install disk. Choose the repair option on the menu.
To run fsck manually:
Again use the install disk.
Choose the rescue option to get a console.
Type fdisk -l to get your partition info.
Run fsck -p /dev/drive_info where drive info is the partition you want to check.

Alternatively, you can use a live distro cd to do the same.

3

Ok, I boot into livecd, and I need to check sda8 and sda9


fsck -p /dev/sda8

/dev/sda8: Resize inode not valid

/dev/sda8: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e. without -a or -p options)

The same with sda9.


fsck /dev/sda8

e2fsck 1.41.1
fsck.ext3: Group descriptors look bad... trying backup blocks...

Resize inode not valid. Recreate<y>? yes

/dev/sda8 was not cleanly unmounted, check forced.
Pass1: Checking inodes, blocks and sizes
Group 0's inode table at 4 conflicts with some other fs block. 
Relocate<y>?

Group 0's inode table at 5 conflicts with some other fs block. 
Relocate<y>?

Group 0's inode table at 6 conflicts with some other fs block. 
Relocate<y>?

And I clicked “y” until 14. Then I Ctrl+C the process. Or should I have continued it?

Of course, the same happens to sda9.

PS.: Ok, I’m trying to fix sda8 manually. I’m already holding “y” like for 10 minutes. Wish me luck !

4

Have a look at the man pages. Execute this command in a console: man fsck. Look particularly at the options: -a and -y. Maybe one will allow you not to hold the “y” key for 10 minutes. lol!

5

I thought about it, but each time I use any option, it says:


/dev/sda8: Resize inode not valid

/dev/sda8: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e. without -a or -p options)

I’ve put some weight on the “y” button, and I let it go like this for about 4 hours.

I now know why the fsck command is pronounced “f-suck” by some people. It takes awfully long time to repair the partition. It went through ~600k inodes, and I had no idea how much more there could be. “df -i” should say, but it says something is corrupted and it can’t tell. And it’s only 15 GB partition! Windows checked total of 250GB volumes during 2 minutes (after I ran it after resizing)!

Because I have no idea how long the process could take, and because I’m afraid to let the computer click “yyyyyyyy” for the whole night (it might agree to some disk-harming option) I think the best option would be to give in and just reinstall opensuse.

Just tell me, how am I supposed to resize linux partitions in the future if I still want it to work afterwards?