Hi everyone, I've been running Redhat 7.2 (new install) for about 2 weeks now without any problems, but today I was not so lucky. My system hung while I was trying to configure the kernel-source RPM using 'xconfig'. After rebooting the system, it seems that my whole ext3 file system is corrupted. I get the message: Mounting root filesystem EXT3-fs: ide0(3,3):couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (200 0200). mount: error 22 mounting ext3 pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot, /sysroot/initrd_ failed: 2 Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel (system hangs.......) At this point I decided to boot from the CDROM and go into "linux rescue" mode. The rescue mode tried to mount the RedHat Linux installation to /mnt/sysimage but this failed, so it kicked me into a command shell. Being a newbie kernel hacker, I ran the following utilities that I was familiar with most. Please see below for their respective outputs: 1) fdisks -l => shows that my root partition(/) still resides in /dev/hda3 /dev/hda1 is my Linux boot /dev/hda2 is my Linux swap 2) mke2fs /dev/hda3 => mkefs 1.23, 15, Aug-2001 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09 Filesystem label OS type: Linux Block size = 4096 (log = 2) 4980736 inodes, 9958291 blocks 497914 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user First data block=0 304 block groups 32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group 16384 inodes per group Superblock backups stored on blocks: 32768, 98304, etc.................. 7962624 Writing inode tables: done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done This filesystem will be automatically checked every 31 mounts or 180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override. 3) fsck.ext3 -v /dev/hda3 e2fsck 1.23, 15-Aug-2001 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09 /dev/hda3: clean, 11/4980736 files, 156309/9958291 blocks I rebooted the system and got the same message: Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel This was the extent of my file system knowledge. Any help you can provide would be great cause it would save me hours/days of work. thank you, Andy
Andy Do wrote:> > Hi everyone, > I've been running Redhat 7.2 (new install) for about 2 weeks now > without any problems, but today I was not so lucky. > My system hung while I was trying to configure the kernel-source RPM using > 'xconfig'.Why did it hang, I wonder. What sort of machine is it?> After rebooting the system, it seems that my whole ext3 file system is > corrupted. > I get the message: > > Mounting root filesystem > EXT3-fs: ide0(3,3):couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features > (200 0200). > mount: error 22 mounting ext3 > pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot, /sysroot/initrd_ failed: 2 > Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed > Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernelThat's a wrecked filesystem. There are a few machines (laptops) which discard their writecache under some circumstances, rather than writing it. Hard to say, but something horrid happened...> ... > mke2fs /dev/hda3 =>This creates a new, empty filesystem in the place where your root filesystem used to live. Sorry, but it's time to reinstall from scratch.
On Wed, Jan 02, 2002 at 07:14:18PM -0800, Andy Do wrote:> > Mounting root filesystem > EXT3-fs: ide0(3,3):couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features > (200 0200). > mount: error 22 mounting ext3This means that the primary superblock of the root filesystem was trashed. Hence, it couldn't be mounted. You *might* have been able to save it if you ran e2fsck (or fsck.ext3) after you booted from the rescue CD. Unfortunately, we'll never know, since the first thing you did was a "mke2fs" command, which (as Andrew Morton mentioned) reinitialized the filesystem. If you had run e2fsck, it might have been able to use the backup superblock in order to recover the filesystem. - Ted
Hi, On Wed, Jan 02, 2002 at 07:14:18PM -0800, Andy Do wrote:> I've been running Redhat 7.2 (new install) for about 2 weeks now > without any problems, but today I was not so lucky. > My system hung while I was trying to configure the kernel-source RPM using > 'xconfig'. > > After rebooting the system, it seems that my whole ext3 file system is > corrupted. > I get the message: > > Mounting root filesystem > EXT3-fs: ide0(3,3):couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features > (200 0200).That's a superblock corruption. It could be anything --- dodgy disk hardware seems to be the most common cause of this particular type of failure.> 2) > mke2fs /dev/hda3 =>You probably wanted "e2fsck", not "mke2fs". mke2fs erases the entire filesystem and creates a new one.> I rebooted the system and got the same message: > Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernelThat's right --- there's no "/sbin/init" file for the kernel to boot any more, because you erased that file when you "mke2fs"ed the filesystem. It's too late to recover most of the state of your filesystem now, although you might be able to salvage a few individual files from it. For future use, e2fsck can use backups of the superblock to recover the filesystem in cases such as this. However, mke2fs will erase the backups as well as the primary superblock, so after the mke2fs, that particular recovery route is not available. Cheers, Stephen
i've had the same thing happen to my redhat 7.2 installation about three times now. each incident occurred immediately after gnome (ximian) hung for no apparent reason and i was forced to shut down. last time, i simply reinstalled, since i had nothing of value on the machine. i used disk druid, and found that my / partition appeared empty. this time, i'd like to recover, since i have some important files on my drive. i haven't attempted to run e2fsck, since i dont have the redhat disks with me. i will run it and let you know what, if anything, i come up with. but any other suggestions would be much appreciated. i'm not having any hardware issues, so i dont think this is a hardware glitch (im using a dell insprion 8100, by the way). if anyone has any idea what might be causing this (and i suppose it is related to gnome hanging), i'd appreciate the input. pjs