Signal 9 error after install and both fsck in konsole and Yast won't work

Hi, I’m a new user, well still trying to be. I’m trying to install OpenSuse 12.1 onto an ASUS eee pc that used to have windows 7 on it. Followed forums and instructions fine to create a live USB and install the OS onto the netbook but when the OS boots it terminates in a signal 9 error and then goes to rescue mode.

I tried logging in as root on rescue mode and running fsck but it just gave me back “fsck from util-linus 2.20.1” and went back to command prompt.

I then tried creating a Live KDE USB and am now running that and its working. Since then I’ve tried running YaST to repartition the hard drive as per advice on one of the forums, but it says that it can’t repartition it with this tool, but that I can use and format the partitions - not sure how to do this or if it will help. I got a similar message during install but the installer seemed to be happy to go ahead and install on the existing partitions. I’ve got sda1 approx 2GB, sda2 approx 10GB and sda3 approx 220GB.

I then tried konsole and logged in as root using su. Tried to run fsck on sda from there but got this message:

"fsck from util-linus 2.20.1
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks…
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck in an alternate superblock es2fsck -b 8193 <device>"

I also tried to run fsck on partition sda1 but got the same “fsck from util-linus 2.20.1” message and back to command prompt.

I’m now well out of my depth. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

I guess I would try a Parted Magic Boot disk to remove any EXT2 partitions since we suggest you use EXT4 ones. Leaving just free space for the openSUSE installation (don’t create anything for openSUSE first) and let openSUSE create the partitions that it wants to to be installed.

news – Parted Magic

Thank You,

On 2012-05-08 02:56, tttimm wrote:

> the OS onto the netbook but when the OS boots it terminates in a signal
> 9 error and then goes to rescue mode.

Are you sure you saw “signal 9” there? That’s an intentional forced kill by
some one, manually.

> I tried logging in as root on rescue mode and running fsck but it just
> gave me back “fsck from util-linus 2.20.1” and went back to command
> prompt.

What did you type, exactly, just “fsck”? It will not work, you have to it
what to run on.

> I then tried konsole and logged in as root using su. Tried to run fsck
> on sda from there but got this message:

You can not run fsck on sda. You have to specify sda1, sda2, etc.

> I also tried to run fsck on partition sda1 but got the same “fsck from
> util-linus 2.20.1” message and back to command prompt.

what type is sda1, swap?


Cheers / Saludos,

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

On 2012-05-08 03:26, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:

>> "fsck from util-linus 2.20.1
>> e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
>> fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks…

> I guess I would try a Parted Magic Boot disk to remove any EXT2
> partitions since we suggest you use EXT4 ones.

That’s a false message above, he is running fsck on sda instead of on the
partitions, so fsck is confused and gives the wrong message when trying to
guess ext2.


Cheers / Saludos,

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

I agree with Carlos, as long as one tries to run fsck on something that does not contain a file system, all sorts of error messages can be the result.

But I would even go further back to the original problem because I do not see why the OP tries to run fsck as an answer to the original error.
I am afraid that we simply have not enough information here. “Followed forums and instructions fine to create a live US” is not something that narrows down to one unevitable to follow path IMHO. Please explain more precise what you did.

Also try to catch and post more information about what happens on the screen before you get that “signal 9 error”.

Thanks. I’m away from laptop for work unexpectedly until tomorrow.

The fsck error makes sense if i can’t run it on sda or on a swap partition, so I’ll try that on sda2 and sda3 as I think sda1 may have been swap partition.

It was definitely a signal 9 error, in fact a whole series of them.

I have one line written down in my note book but didn’t finish -
udevd[1659]: ‘/sbin/bikid -o udev -p /dev/sda1’ [1662] terminated by Signal 9 (Killed)

I’ll get a screen grab and type it in here if it fails again.

Help much appreciated.

My question is still, why are you so eager to run fsck (doing it on a file system or not)? Or is this something like: when it does not help, it does not make it worse either?

On 2012-05-10 09:46, tttimm wrote:

> It was definitely a signal 9 error, in fact a whole series of them.
>
> I have one line written down in my note book but didn’t finish -
> udevd[1659]: ‘/sbin/bikid -o udev -p /dev/sda1’ [1662] terminated by
> Signal 9 (Killed)

Very weird, never seen that.

Are you sure the CD image you downloaded was correct?


Cheers / Saludos,

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

I’ve resolved it - this was all due to a dying hard drive. The error message comes up at start up - Pri Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace Press F1 to Resume - hadn’t been reading this screen properly. Thanks all. Getting hard drive replaced and will try again once the hardware is in working order.

That might not be the case at all. If the netbook has an Intel Cedar CPU, the openSUSE 12.1 stock kernel is not going to work. IIRC I saw the same error. Incl. a smart message. But not on three identical ones. On the mailing lists I found that there were issues with the Intel Cedar APUs and that this was fixed in the latest stable kernel, so I added the Kernel:Stable repo during install. Install ran perfect, netbooks are in production environment now, haven’t had any complaints.

EDIT: http://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/knurpht/installing-opensuse-12-1-asus-eeepc-x101ch-109/