Home folder switches to root on shutdown.

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I just rebuilt my PC with a Gigabyte 970A-UD3 motherboard, AMD Athlon II X3 455 3.3 Ghz CPU, and 4 MB of RAM.

Using the Seagate Model: ST31000340AS 1 TB hard drive that previously was just /Home as the only drive.

Using the openSUSE 12.1 KDE LiveCD, I formatted the Seagate drive with a swap, root and home partitions, using root for grub install. I removed the CD when prompted to restart, the PC restarted, and completed configuration, then I updated the software, rebooted because of the kernel update, and continued on my merry way, working on getting my system back to where I had it with programs, tweaks and such. Shutdown the PC, and when I started it up later, I got a no system files found, insert system disk and hit Enter message.

So, I put the CD back in, hit Enter, and when I got to the partition table, there was swap, home was /, and root was blank.

Reinstalled, this time creating a separate boot partition, swap. root and home. Went through the configuration and update procedure again. Shut down the PC, booted up later, now I get GRUB Geom error. Reinstalled again, and not shutting down ever.

Anyway, checked menu.lst, and grub.config files. Both are empty. Checked menu.lst.old and grub.config.old and both have data. Tried doing a sudo fdisk -l, and get fdisk not found.

This is my third PC build, and have always used Gigabyte boards, and AMD CPU’s without problems. Also tried reinstalling the openSUSE 11.4 Gnome I had previously with the same results.

Should I have installed grub to MBR? Any ideas on what is going on?

2

root was blank
Are you absolutely sure. It would have to have been formatted or similar for that.

I do recall some users having a problem with grub getting corrupted, there might have even been a bug report on it.

Typically I just use swap root and home
Then post install and auto config, I do a proper reboot. If it’s OK I make a copy of my menu.lst and fstab.
Then I run zypper patch twice and reboot.
Then run zypper up

3

On 2012-03-04 17:06, rafter22 wrote:

> the PC, and when I started it up later, I got a no system files found,
> insert system disk and hit Enter message.
>
> So, I put the CD back in, hit Enter, and when I got to the partition
> table, there was swap, home was /, and root was blank.

???

> a sudo fdisk -l, and get fdisk not found.

Di ut from the live.

> Should I have installed grub to MBR? Any ideas on what is going on?

No, this is not grub, this is something else, but I don’t know what.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

4

Yes what should have been the root partition was formatted. I’m using ext4.

Thanks for the tips. I’ll try them next time I need to reinstall.

Just checked my fstab and these seem out of order. No, or does not matter?


/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part2 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part3 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part1 /boot                ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part4 /home                ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
5

On 2012-03-04 17:36, rafter22 wrote:

> Just checked my fstab and these seem out of order. No, or does not
> matter?

Fstab is fine, but you have to check with fdisk to see if the partitions do
exist. And then if the “by-id” links are those.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

6

Ok, figured out how to get the fdisk results.


Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 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: 0x000e6f88

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     4192255     2095104   83  Linux
/dev/sda2         4192256    12578815     4193280   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3        12578816    75489279    31455232   83  Linux
/dev/sda4        75489280  1953503231   939006976   83  Linux

I’m guessing the “by-id” links are not the same.

7

fstab and fdisk output look OK to me

Only comment I’d make is, if it were me, I’d probably have carved up the HD so I could have side by side installations. Or at least made an extended and placed /home in it with a additional partition for backing up and the like.

8

On 2012-03-04 18:26, rafter22 wrote:
> I’m guessing the “by-id” links are not the same.

That you have to prove :slight_smile:

Look at /dev/disk/by-id/

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

9

Well looking at that shows.

file:///dev/disk/by-id/ata-HL-DT-ST_BDDVDRW_UH12LS28_K9KB8593119
file:///dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47
file:///dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part1
file:///dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part2
file:///dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part3
file:///dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part4
file:///dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47
file:///dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part1
file:///dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part2
file:///dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part3
file:///dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part4
file:///dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x5000c5000e18940d
file:///dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x5000c5000e18940d-part1
file:///dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x5000c5000e18940d-part2
file:///dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x5000c5000e18940d-part3
file:///dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0x5000c5000e18940d-part4
10

On 2012-03-05 00:46, rafter22 wrote:

> Well looking at that shows.
…

Well, if you search, the “ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part3” name that is in
your fstab file for root is also here, so that one is correct. You can
check yourself the other two.

So fstab is correct and points to the right places. So far, so good.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

11

So why does it get all messed up when I shutdown?

12

What’s the Complete output of

su -
fdisk -l

What order are they in BIOS
And during installation does SUSE installer see them in the said same order?

13

Complete output of fdisk -l is in post #6.

The Seagate 1TB ST31000340AS shows as the first drive in BIOS. It is the only hard drive.

No, during installation (after failing on reboot) shows the HOME partition as / formatted ext4, the / partition has no mount point formatted as ext4, the /boot partition is still /boot formatted as ext4, and the /swap is still /swap. All are primary partitions.

I can just pretend I’m running a server, never shutdown (except for kernel updates, if it reboots ok), and charge my roommate more rent, because the electric bill went up.

lol!

14

On 2012-03-05 15:56, rafter22 wrote:
>
> So why does it get all messed up when I shutdown?

I have no idea, I said initially that this was not a grub issue.
It would be like it installs in ram or something.

Try “testdisk” (photorec rpm) from a live, perhaps.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

15

It totally doesn’t make sense to me
I’d have to see it to believe it!

16

It totally didn’t make sense to me either, but it appears to be a problem with the Seagate 1TB drive. If it happens again I’ll take a pic of the screen with my cell phone, and post it when I have the system working again.

I just spent the last few hours installing a 200 GB Seagate drive I took out of the old system, installed openSUSE 12.1 on it, and made the 1TB drive /home.

Updated software, restored my backups, installed some programs, shut it down, started it up and it works. I thought that drive had gone bad, since it was disconnected.

This is the fstab.

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3200820AS_5QE0TVZG-part1 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3200820AS_5QE0TVZG-part2 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000340AS_6QJ00R47-part1 /home                ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0

and fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200048565760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390719855 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: 0x084554ad

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048     8386559     4192256   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2   *     8386560    71297023    31455232   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 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: 0x000e6f88

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048  1953523711   976760832   83  Linux
17

On 2012-03-05 22:56, rafter22 wrote:
>
> caf4926;2446034 Wrote:
>> It totally doesn’t make sense to me
>> I’d have to see it to believe it!
>
> It totally didn’t make sense to me either, but it appears to be a
> problem with the Seagate 1TB drive. If it happens again I’ll take a pic
> of the screen with my cell phone, and post it when I have the system
> working again.

Mmm.

Go to the seagate web site, download the seatools cd, burn it, and run the
tests, specially the long test. If it says failed, it will offer to save a
text file with the data to return the HD.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

18

Wow
That kind of explains things!

19

Shutdown before I went to bed last night, and it booted up just fine this morning. Has to be something weird with the 1TB drive, but it works fine as /home, so I’m marking this as solved.

20

On 2012-03-06 16:06, rafter22 wrote:

> Shutdown before I went to bed last night, and it booted up just fine
> this morning. Has to be something weird with the 1TB drive, but it works
> fine as /home, so I’m marking this as solved.

Don’t trust it, do the checking I told you.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)