Opensuse 12.3 won't boot suddenly

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hi–I’m running Opensuse 12.3 on an HP Pavillion dv7 Laptop. This has happened before to me as well. Everything is running fine…I’ve done all of the current software updates and all of the sudden when I start the laptop I get:

Fast TSC callibration failed doing fast reboot.
Creating device nodes with udev
Welcome to emergency mode! Etc.

I am not sure but maybe it occurs after a power failure to the laptop…the battery is dead so I run it plugged in and if the power source is disturbed the laptop just shuts off suddenly.

When I view the error logs some red highlights include:

tsc: Fast TSC calibration failed

ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0

ata1.00: irq_stat 0x40000001
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA EXT
ata1.00: status: {DRDY ERR}
ata1.00: error: {UNC}

end request: I/O error, dec sda, sector 423298600
Buffer I/O error on device sda7, logical block 22079429

ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
ata1.00: irq_stat 0x40000001
ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA EXT
ata1.00: status: {DRDY ERR}
ata1.00: error: {UNC}

fsck failed with error code 4

Failed to start File System Check on /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_…
Dependency failed for /home
Dependency failed for Local File Systems
Dependency failed for Remote File Systems (Pre)

So what does this all mean? I’ve reinstalled Opensuse in the past to fix this and thus lose all my data.
Can this be repaired? Please help!!!

#2

It appears you may have a failing hard drive. Let’s find out:

As root run:

# smartctl -a /dev/sda

Post the entire output. (This command is in the smartmontools package.)

Also, you might consider running a long smarttest:

smartctl --test=long /dev/hda

Which will run a long offline test. It will take a while. The status, and result, will be viewable in the summary shown with the -a command above.

If the drive is in fact failing, you may be able to use dd or dd_resecue to copy the data onto a new drive which you connect via USB. Depending on the nature of the failure, how many bad sectors there are, etc. you may simply be able to dd the drive and be done. If the failure is more sever you may need to reinstall onto the new drive, attache the old drive via usb and recover your data.

#3

Thank you for helping!

How do I copy the pages and pages of output of that command from the dead laptop, and then paste it into this second hp win 7 laptop to post here?

#4

Also, when I run that command, how can I make it so that I can view one screen at a time, and then Page Down? When the whole output comes out I can’t scroll up…

#5

On 2013-08-10 13:36, crumpybumpy wrote:
>
> Thank you for helping!
>
> How do I copy the pages and pages of output of that command from the
> dead laptop, and then paste it into this second hp win 7 laptop to post
> here?

With pipes.


whatever_command > some_file

or to see the output as well

whatever_command | tee > some_file

or a page at a time

whatever_command | more

or

whatever_command | less

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

#6

[QUOTE=robin_listas;2578234]On 2013-08-10 13:36, crumpybumpy wrote:
>
> Thank you for helping!
>
> How do I copy the pages and pages of output of that command from the
> dead laptop, and then paste it into this second hp win 7 laptop to post
> here?

With pipes.

I’m so much of a linux noob I don’t know if this is a serious reply or a joke–please explain :slight_smile:

I made a file of the output of that command called disklog which appears to be in the root directory.

How do I copy that to an attached USB flash drive in that command line mode?

#7

On 2013-08-10 15:26, crumpybumpy wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2578234 Wrote:
>> On 2013-08-10 13:36, crumpybumpy wrote:

>> With pipes.
>
> I’m so much of a linux noob I don’t know if this is a serious reply or
> a joke–please explain :slight_smile:

The use of ‘|’ or ‘>’ after a command is called “piping”. MsDOS also has
it. It means the output of a command is “piped” through to somewhere
else. The full documentation in “man bash”, IIRC.

Better here:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redirection_%28computing%29

I made a file of the output of that command called disklog which
appears to be in the root directory.

How do I copy that to an attached USB flash drive in that command line
mode?

Mmm. You have to mount manually that usb stick. Connect the stick, wait
a few seconds, then have a look at the log:


less /var/log/messages

Question mark gives help,the “end” key goes to the end of the file. You
will see something like this:


> <0.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:14 Telcontar kernel - - - [44234.408014] usb 1-6: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
> <0.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:15 Telcontar kernel - - - [44234.522872] usb 1-6: New USB device found, idVendor=0781, idProduct=5151
> <0.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:15 Telcontar kernel - - - [44234.522874] usb 1-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
> <0.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:15 Telcontar kernel - - - [44234.522877] usb 1-6: Product: Cruzer Micro
> <0.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:15 Telcontar kernel - - - [44234.522878] usb 1-6: Manufacturer: SanDisk
> <0.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:15 Telcontar kernel - - - [44234.522880] usb 1-6: SerialNumber: 4318200EEB516BCB
> <0.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:15 Telcontar kernel - - - [44234.523290] scsi13 : usb-storage 1-6:1.0
> <1.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:15 Telcontar mtp-probe - - -  checking bus 1, device 4: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-6"
> <1.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:15 Telcontar mtp-probe - - -  bus: 1, device: 4 was not an MTP device
> <0.5> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44235.524479] scsi 13:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SanDisk  Cruzer Micro     8.02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
> <0.5> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44235.524646] sd 13:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
> <0.5> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44235.528254] sd 13:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk
> <0.5> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44236.240829] sd 13:0:0:0: [sde] 15695871 512-byte logical blocks: (8.03 GB/7.48 GiB)
> <0.3> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44236.241825] sd 13:0:0:0: [sde] No Caching mode page present
> <0.3> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44236.241828] sd 13:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
> <0.3> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44236.243697] sd 13:0:0:0: [sde] No Caching mode page present
> <0.3> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44236.243700] sd 13:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
> <0.6> 2013-08-10 16:00:16 Telcontar kernel - - - [44236.245210]  sde: sde1

The last line above says that partition /dev/sde1 was found (yours will
be different). Thus you do (as root - you probably are already):


> Telcontar:~ # mount /dev/sde1 /mnt
> Telcontar:~ # ls /mnt
> .Trash-1000  AB_Spain_1  AD_WC_1  AF_WC_3     Babylon                      ConsejosanthiPhising.pdf  ZZ_Fotos_20110817

work

> Telcontar:~ # umount /mnt
> Telcontar:~ #

The work is the copy sequence, something like this:


cp filename /mnt/

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

#8

hmm I tried that…when I put in the flash drive at the command prompt I got all the messages
sdc assuming drive cache: write through
sdc no caching mode page present

there was no sde line after that

but then when I looked in the log as directed above I did not see anything like your last line

#9

On 2013-08-11 18:26, crumpybumpy wrote:
>
> hmm I tried that…when I put in the flash drive at the command prompt
> I got all the messages
> sdc assuming drive cache: write through
> sdc no caching mode page present
>
> there was no sde line after that

sde is on my machine, yours will probably be different.

> but then when I looked in the log as directed above I did not see
> anything like your last line

Well, the exact lines vary. You have to be able to interpret and find
out in that output the actual name of your device. If you don’t know,
post a photo…

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)