Re: System Recovery
> Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 13:49:02 -0400 > From: "Labitt, Bruce" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > I LVM'd the bigger disk (300GB) onto the base system disk (80GB) > > >>Uh-ohh. As I said, my LVM-fu is poor but if the result of > doing that was to create a block device whose aggregated size > was ~380Gb and you then built an ext3 filesystem in that device > from which all but the first 80Gb are now MIA, I suspect you'll > not be able to recover very much... :-/ I'm going to have to second that gloomy prediction... with a few quid pro qui: (1) Are you sure that you actually LVM'd the two disks into the same logical volume? When installing to the 80GB drive, you probably created a LV from the entire drive. Did the / fs initially appear to be 80GB right after you installed? When you added the 300GB drive, you could have either added the 800GB drive to the same volume group as / or (maybe, hopefully) created a second volume group, a second logical volume, and mounted the 300GB drive on its own mount point. Did the 300GB drive appear 300GB big when you ran df? Or did you see a / 380GB in size? (2) How much of the 300GB disk, if any, was ACTUALLY USED to hold data when you took it offline to reinstall? Do you remember running df just prior to doing this? Was usage below or above 80GB? By how much? This is important to know because whatever "overflowed" onto the 800GB disk may now be lost. Hopefully, it was nothing big, important, or both. (3) How did you take the 300GB disk offline? If you used lvreduce et al., you might not have lost any data at all. Assuming you haven't yet fdisked the 80GB drive, and both drives were part of the same volume group, the 80GB drive will have a copy of the VGDA (volume group descriptor area?). That's a start. It contains info about how your LVM array used to be configured. You might try bringing the LV online and seeing what LVM complains is missing. Note: Trying to mount the PV as a filesystem of type ext3 will NOT work. It's "formatted" for LVM. You have to mount the LV that contains the ext3 filesystem. Since you haven't overwritten the 80GB drive yet, at least the first 80GB of the ext3fs should still be intact. Remember, too, that ext3fs puts copies of the superblock at (ir)regular intervals within the fs. So if a straight "mount" of the LV fails, you can try using the "-o sb=..." option to mount. Perhaps removing disks like this and expecting them to retain their data is a common LVM mistake. When you install to a hard drive, most installers issue loud warnings before letting you repartition/reformat anything. But there's no such warning issued when you try to dismember a VG incorrectly. Perhaps our installers should be updated to provide advance warning of potential problems to those installing to volume groups! ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Well, let's wait for some better informed speculation but I do think it's possible you have (the remnants of) the metadata for an ~380Gb filesystem on what is actually just an 80Gb disk - not a good situation, to put it mildly. Here's hoping I'm wrong... [Labitt, Bruce] What! You are speculating? :) Anyone use the program testdisk successfully? I found it at http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download It is analyzing my disk now. I'm not sure what to do with whatever the results are. -Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
>> create a block device whose aggregated size was ~380Gb and you >> then built an ext3 filesystem in that device from which all but >> the first 80Gb are now MIA, I suspect you'll not be able to recover >> very much... :-/ > > I think your understanding may not be correct. The 300 GB drive > is fine. I have a running system on it now. I installed Scientific > Linux from DVD onto it. I had it scratch / wipe what little data > was on it. > > The 80 GB disk is the original OS disk. Well, let's wait for some better informed speculation but I do think it's possible you have (the remnants of) the metadata for an ~380Gb filesystem on what is actually just an 80Gb disk - not a good situation, to put it mildly. Here's hoping I'm wrong... ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
> I LVM'd the bigger disk (300GB) onto the base system disk (80GB) >>Uh-ohh. As I said, my LVM-fu is poor but if the result of doing that was to create a block device whose aggregated size was ~380Gb and you then built an ext3 filesystem in that device from which all but the first 80Gb are now MIA, I suspect you'll not be able to recover very much... :-/ I think your understanding may not be correct. The 300 GB drive is fine. I have a running system on it now. I installed Scientific Linux from DVD onto it. I had it scratch / wipe what little data was on it. The 80 GB disk is the original OS disk. The directory /var got hosed on it due to ??? So is there anything I can do in lvm or otherwise to be able to read off the data? -Bruce Thanks for your help so far Michael ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
> I LVM'd the bigger disk (300GB) onto the base system disk (80GB) Uh-ohh. As I said, my LVM-fu is poor but if the result of doing that was to create a block device whose aggregated size was ~380Gb and you then built an ext3 filesystem in that device from which all but the first 80Gb are now MIA, I suspect you'll not be able to recover very much... :-/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
> VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sdb2 Do we know that there was ever an ext3 filesystem there? [Labitt, Bruce] It was originally ext3. Was it maybe something like Reiser or xfs? The fact that LVM was in play may indeed be a factor here (or it might simply be the case that the superblock is scrogged) but my LVM-fu is poor. If you provide more details about how that disk was config'd at the time it was taken out of service we might be able to make some better guesses... (Start of thread has some of the details...) I LVM'd the bigger disk (300GB) onto the base system disk (80GB), so I'd have more room. That seemed to work. Then I attached a rogue DVD burner onto my system so I could burn some dvds. This proceeded to trash my OS. (Kernel panics, etc.) So I removed the dvd burner and decided to install the OS on the new larger disk. I left the 80GB disk unattached. I have now attached the 80GB disk and am attempting to copy the data from it to my larger disk. So any lvm specialists out there? -Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
> VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sdb2 Do we know that there was ever an ext3 filesystem there? Was it maybe something like Reiser or xfs? The fact that LVM was in play may indeed be a factor here (or it might simply be the case that the superblock is scrogged) but my LVM-fu is poor. If you provide more details about how that disk was config'd at the time it was taken out of service we might be able to make some better guesses... ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
It looks like the partition of interest might be /dev/sdb2 so to mount it read only, try this: mkdir/tmp/recovery mount -oro /dev/sdb2 /tmp/recovery cd /tmp/recovery ls -la ...etc, etc. ___ [Labitt, Bruce] Hmm, close, but not quite. I get the message mount: you must specify the file system type So I tried mount -oro -t ext3 /dev/sdb2 /tmp/recovery and got mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb2, missing code page or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so So I did. The last 3 lines were: mtrr: type mismatch for c,1000 old: write-back new: write-combining hfs: unable to find HFS+ superblock VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sdb2 Are there any reasonable options left? -Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
It looks like the partition of interest might be /dev/sdb2 so to mount it read only, try this: mkdir/tmp/recovery mount -oro /dev/sdb2 /tmp/recovery cd /tmp/recovery ls -la ...etc, etc. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
I'm finally getting brave enough to try to recover data from my bombed 80GB disk. What is the procedure for mounting this? It was LVM'd when it croaked, if it matters. What I would like to do is to mount the disk and remove some of the data. Right now there is no entry in fstab for it. A simple mount command does not seem to work. mount /dev/sdb2 just gives me the help screen. fdisk -l /dev/sdb reveals Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 800 bytes 225 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device BootStart End Blocks ID System /dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 14 9726 78019672+ 8e Linux LVM Thanks! -Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Thu, 2008-07-17 at 14:41 -0400, Ben Scott wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Michael ODonnell
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > ... silent promotion to /dev/sda and
> > all references to /dev/sdb* are (if you're lucky) now useless
> > while all references to /dev/sda* now refer to the device that
> > was formerly /dev/sdb*.
>
> Yah, that's why Red Hat and others have switched to using filesystem
> labels instead of physical devices to specify mounts. Even if the
> disks moves, the label stays the same. Of course, this ended up
> trading one set of problems for another. In particular, by default,
> root disks from all Red Hat systems will have the same label ("/").
> If you need to put a disk from one Red Hat system in another, you now
> have two filesystems with the same label. :-(
...which is why Red Hat (well, Fedora) and others have gone to
UUID-based mounting now. :)
(Fedora 9 does so by default, as does Ubuntu 8.04, iirc, and so will
RHEL6, more likely than not)
--
Jarod Wilson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Re: System Recovery
On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Michael ODonnell
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> ... silent promotion to /dev/sda and
> all references to /dev/sdb* are (if you're lucky) now useless
> while all references to /dev/sda* now refer to the device that
> was formerly /dev/sdb*.
Yah, that's why Red Hat and others have switched to using filesystem
labels instead of physical devices to specify mounts. Even if the
disks moves, the label stays the same. Of course, this ended up
trading one set of problems for another. In particular, by default,
root disks from all Red Hat systems will have the same label ("/").
If you need to put a disk from one Red Hat system in another, you now
have two filesystems with the same label. :-(
Supposedly, with the right combination of kernel options (and maybe
patches), you can switch to device paths based on physical layout.
You end up with something like /dev/scsi/bus0/id0 and
/dev/scsi/bus1/id2 and so on. But I've never looked into it and I
don't even know if it actually works.
-- Ben
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Re: System Recovery
> names of my two sata hard drives had been interchanged. > [...] I had apparently bumped one of the sata data cables > enough to get a bad contact Ah. Yes, that can be a real joybuzzer since the SATA drives are presented via the SCSI midlayer and thus use the /dev/sd* naming scheme. If your first drive fails enough that it no longer responds then the next SATA (or SCSI, or USB, etc) drive that's found gets a silent promotion to /dev/sda and all references to /dev/sdb* are (if you're lucky) now useless while all references to /dev/sda* now refer to the device that was formerly /dev/sdb*. >-/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
About two years ago I had an equally frustrating hardware problem that seemed to come out of nowhere that finally resolved after about the 10th reinstall of both XP and FC6. About 6 mo later I had a recurrence and was able to figure out that the device names of my two sata hard drives had been interchanged. In retrospect just prior to both situations I had opened the case and done something trivial inside before the problems arose. What had happened is that I had apparently bumped one of the sata data cables enough to get a bad contact during initial boot that fan or other vibration reseated later. In the second incident I was then able to recover by swapping the id of the drives after carefully reseating the sata cables. Since then any time the case is open the sata cables get checked. No recurrence since. There have got to be better options than those connectors. Mike Miller On Thu, 2008-07-17 at 09:56 -0400, Jarod Wilson wrote: > On Thu, 2008-07-17 at 09:33 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > > Found something interesting in my feeble attempts to bring up the system > > again. It looks like the DVD writer is responsible or non-compliant > > with my version of linux (Scientific Linux 5.2 - "RHEL5.2"). Installing > > linux with the DVD writer caused a kernel panic. If anyone wants more > > details I can provide a few. > > > > I took out the errant hardware and swapped in the old DVD-ROM. No > > kernel panic and the system is installing now. FWIW I am installing a > > new system on the 300GB SATA drive. > > > > This leads me to believe that wanting to write DVDs caused the whole > > system to crash to begin with. Arrgh. > > > > After this is all done, I will disconnect the new disk and try a rescue > > on the old disk - without the damn DVD writer. Hmm - are there any SATA > > DVD writers that work? > > Yep, I've got a sata Plextor PX-755A or something like that which works > great. > > > I would not have figured that this drive would > > have caused the havoc to begin with. > > Hrm, me neither. > ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
OK, back to where I started, sort of... Video. This time I left the ATI DVI video board in. Everything went ok until I rebooted. Now I can't see a thing - garbled video. Even the other terminals. What is the magic trick again to get going? It there a way, or do I use the mobo video again... -Bruce man this is a pain... ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
FWIW the DVD writer was a Lite-On Model SH-16A7S01C Mfg Date 9/2006! As for the error, I got thru anaconda and it said it would be loading x (I think). The screen went black then text started on the screen. Code: Bad RIP value RIP [000.00a9d4] RSP [ ] CR2 [000.00a9d4] <0> Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal Exception -Bruce -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ben Scott Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 9:51 AM To: Greater NH Linux User Group Subject: Re: System Recovery On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 9:33 AM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It looks like the DVD writer is responsible or non-compliant > with my version of linux ... If anyone wants more details > I can provide a few. When it comes to knowledge-sharing on failure modes, the details more, the better, I always say. But if nothing else, it would be nice to know the brand and model. :) > Hmm - are there any SATA DVD writers that work? I've never had a problem with Plextor in general, and I've got a Plextor SATA CD/DVD +/- ROM/R/RW DL (TMA!) at home that's never given me an issue. They're relatively pricey for an optical drive, but they work, and optical drives are cheap enough in general that relatively pricey is still pretty cheap. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
On Thu, 2008-07-17 at 09:33 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > Found something interesting in my feeble attempts to bring up the system > again. It looks like the DVD writer is responsible or non-compliant > with my version of linux (Scientific Linux 5.2 - "RHEL5.2"). Installing > linux with the DVD writer caused a kernel panic. If anyone wants more > details I can provide a few. > > I took out the errant hardware and swapped in the old DVD-ROM. No > kernel panic and the system is installing now. FWIW I am installing a > new system on the 300GB SATA drive. > > This leads me to believe that wanting to write DVDs caused the whole > system to crash to begin with. Arrgh. > > After this is all done, I will disconnect the new disk and try a rescue > on the old disk - without the damn DVD writer. Hmm - are there any SATA > DVD writers that work? Yep, I've got a sata Plextor PX-755A or something like that which works great. > I would not have figured that this drive would > have caused the havoc to begin with. Hrm, me neither. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 9:33 AM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It looks like the DVD writer is responsible or non-compliant > with my version of linux ... If anyone wants more details > I can provide a few. When it comes to knowledge-sharing on failure modes, the details more, the better, I always say. But if nothing else, it would be nice to know the brand and model. :) > Hmm - are there any SATA DVD writers that work? I've never had a problem with Plextor in general, and I've got a Plextor SATA CD/DVD +/- ROM/R/RW DL (TMA!) at home that's never given me an issue. They're relatively pricey for an optical drive, but they work, and optical drives are cheap enough in general that relatively pricey is still pretty cheap. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Found something interesting in my feeble attempts to bring up the system again. It looks like the DVD writer is responsible or non-compliant with my version of linux (Scientific Linux 5.2 - "RHEL5.2"). Installing linux with the DVD writer caused a kernel panic. If anyone wants more details I can provide a few. I took out the errant hardware and swapped in the old DVD-ROM. No kernel panic and the system is installing now. FWIW I am installing a new system on the 300GB SATA drive. This leads me to believe that wanting to write DVDs caused the whole system to crash to begin with. Arrgh. After this is all done, I will disconnect the new disk and try a rescue on the old disk - without the damn DVD writer. Hmm - are there any SATA DVD writers that work? I would not have figured that this drive would have caused the havoc to begin with. -Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
Comments scattered below. Frank DiPrete wrote: > It appears that /dev/sda is an 80G IDE drive(?) and /dev/sdb is a 300G > SATA drive. /dev/sda is also a SATA drive as is the DVD drive. > Unfortunately having IDE drives go completely fubar even > when they still have that 'new drive smell' is completely normal these > days. I send love notes to seagate in the form of rma's frequently. > > cd rescue mode is loading drive controllers (the pix driver is for the > sata drive and possibly the ide drive depending on the chipset) but it's > probably not the root cause of the problem. > > there is a prompt during rescue boot to try and detect partitions and > mount them on /mnt/sysimage. Is this when the system reboots itself? > Never gets that far. It looks like rescue dies before it can do anything. > To narrow this down, disconnect the failed drive /dev/sda and boot the > rescue cd again. if it does not reboot itself, theres the problem. > I'll try it. I think I actually did this and it made no difference. I have burned a CD set and try the experiment again. It has been a tough day... > Second test is to reconnect the drive, boot in rescue mode, but *do not* > try and detect the partitions and mount them on /mnt/sysimage > > If this fails too, then the drive is really fubar. > > If this is the case then there is little point in trying to get your > root (/) partition info off this disk. > > However if you are able to boot the rescue environment without mounting > the partitions there may be some hope. lvm complicates matters somewhat. > > If you can boot it into rescue mode with the drive attached but *not > mounted* you can try: > > pvscan > vgscan > lvchange -ay > lvscan > > then try to fsck that root partition on lvm > fsck /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 > > btw - k3b may use temp space on var by default to stage and create its > iso image. (I'd have to check) so it may have done nothing wrong but try > to write to a crappy drive. > > On a side note, I know that fedora/rh uses lvm for everything as the > default install, but I stopped using lvm for the /(root) partition > because it make recovery more difficult. > > ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
It appears that /dev/sda is an 80G IDE drive(?) and /dev/sdb is a 300G SATA drive. Unfortunately having IDE drives go completely fubar even when they still have that 'new drive smell' is completely normal these days. I send love notes to seagate in the form of rma's frequently. cd rescue mode is loading drive controllers (the pix driver is for the sata drive and possibly the ide drive depending on the chipset) but it's probably not the root cause of the problem. there is a prompt during rescue boot to try and detect partitions and mount them on /mnt/sysimage. Is this when the system reboots itself? To narrow this down, disconnect the failed drive /dev/sda and boot the rescue cd again. if it does not reboot itself, theres the problem. Second test is to reconnect the drive, boot in rescue mode, but *do not* try and detect the partitions and mount them on /mnt/sysimage If this fails too, then the drive is really fubar. If this is the case then there is little point in trying to get your root (/) partition info off this disk. However if you are able to boot the rescue environment without mounting the partitions there may be some hope. lvm complicates matters somewhat. If you can boot it into rescue mode with the drive attached but *not mounted* you can try: pvscan vgscan lvchange -ay lvscan then try to fsck that root partition on lvm fsck /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 btw - k3b may use temp space on var by default to stage and create its iso image. (I'd have to check) so it may have done nothing wrong but try to write to a crappy drive. On a side note, I know that fedora/rh uses lvm for everything as the default install, but I stopped using lvm for the /(root) partition because it make recovery more difficult. Labitt, Bruce wrote: > How many physical hard disk drives are part of this system? > [Labitt, Bruce] Two. The first drive 80GB has the system on it. > Are there any hardware RAID controllers or such in use?[Labitt, Bruce] > no. > >> It appears I can access /data and its contents. > > Appearances can be deceiving. Have you run fsck against > /dev/lvol1/data yet? > > [Labitt, Bruce] no. actually there is no data worth anything there. > > (Even that is far from perfect; if something > scrambled just the contents of file data blocks but left the > filesystem metadata structures intact, fsck won't see anything wrong. > But best to start somewhere.) > >> How do I figure out what drive has what on it? >> sda, sdb, etc. > > "fdisk -l /dev/sda" will show the partition table on the "sda" disk. > Run that command as needed for all the disks in the system. > [Labitt, Bruce] I'll try that, once I get thru the 'boot' sequence > again... > > sda 80GB: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders > DevicebootStart End Blocks Id System > /dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux > /dev/sda2 14 972678019672+ 8e > Linux LVM > > sdb 300GB: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders > /dev/sdb1 1 36481 293033601 83 > Linux > > > > "sda" will be the first SCSI, SATA, or other non-IDE device. The > second would be "sdb", the third "sdc", and so on. IDE disks are > "hda", "hdb", etc., instead. > > "pvs" and "lvs" will show you the physical and logical volumes LVM > knows about. > > [Labitt, Bruce] response for both commands > /var/lock: mkdir failed: Not a directory > Locking type 1 initialization failed. > > -- Ben > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On 7/15/08, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Its all the same bring-up bits, but passing in the 'rescue' flag should > replace all "installer" strings with "rescue environment" ... Could be > ... that particular string doesn't get replaced... Google results lead me to believe that is the case. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On 7/15/08, Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Yah, me too. If you're going to be wiping things clean anyway, you > may want to run some basic confidence tests on the system. I suggest: Oh, and if your computer hardware OEM/VAR/etc provides any diagnostics, run those, too. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On 7/15/08, Jim Kuzdrall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Curious. Why not use the non-destructive badblocks write option -n? Background: The "non-destructive write test" goes through the disk, one block at a time, reading the existing contents into memory, then writing and reading test patterns on that block, then writing out the saved contents again. The "destructive write test" writes a test pattern to every block on the disk, then reads/compares, then repeats for each successive test pattern. So, my reasoning: First, the extra I/O to preserve the existing contents slows things down significantly. If you're wiping the disk anyway that's a waste of time. Second, because the destructive test writes the pattern to the entire disk before reading anything, if there's anything weird going on with caching or bleed-over or whatever horror story you can dream up, it's more likely to flush it out. Finally, the destructive test leaves every block on the disk zeroed, which clears out any residual traces of anything that might confuse the installer during the reinstall. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tuesday 15 July 2008 19:08, Ben Scott wrote:
> Run a destructive write test on the disk. (WARNING: This will
> *DESTROY ALL DATA* on the disk.) Boot a working rescue/install CD
> and get a shell prompt, and then run "badblocks -s -v -w /dev/foo",
> where "foo" is the name of the whole-disk device ("hda", "sda",
> whatever). (WARNING: This will *DESTROY ALL DATA* on the disk.)
Curious. Why not use the non-destructive badblocks write option -n?
Jim Kuzdrall
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Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 19:28 -0400, Tom Buskey wrote: > > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 3:26 PM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 15:02 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Labitt, Bruce > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I was running as a user. NOT root. > > > > Worrysome. > > > > Though, come to think of it, aren't some disc-recording > types of > > programs normally installed SUID root? > > > Yep. And k3b tends to complain loudly at startup if it isn't, > iirc. > > I think k3b will refuse to run if it's run SUID. I think I tried it > once & it compained. > My Fedora 9 and Ubuntu systems do not have it SUID. Correction: k3b complains if cdrecord isn't suid. Or at least it used to. That might be remedied now. Haven't actually used k3b in some time. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 18:43 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:25 PM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ew, that sounds... bad. Although it sounds like it didn't actually go > > into the rescue env. but rather tried to install, based on the "install > > exited abnormally" message. > > I think part of the "installer" is still in charge of setting up the > rescue environment (loading drivers, detecting disks, filesystems, > networks, etc.), so that might not be conclusive. Its all the same bring-up bits, but passing in the 'rescue' flag should replace all "installer" strings with "rescue environment", iirc. When start up, you generally see "welcome to anaconda, the red hat enterprise linux rescue environment" versus when doing an install, where you get "welcome to anaconda, the red hat enterprise linux installer". Could be I'm mis-remembering something and/or that particular string doesn't get replaced... -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 3:26 PM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 15:02 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Labitt, Bruce > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I was running as a user. NOT root. > > > > Worrysome. > > > > Though, come to think of it, aren't some disc-recording types of > > programs normally installed SUID root? > > Yep. And k3b tends to complain loudly at startup if it isn't, iirc. > I think k3b will refuse to run if it's run SUID. I think I tried it once & it compained. My Fedora 9 and Ubuntu systems do not have it SUID. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 6:41 PM, Labitt, Bruce
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I don't have a problem with a fresh start ... except that I have
> no idea what really hosed me to begin with.
Yah, me too. If you're going to be wiping things clean anyway, you
may want to run some basic confidence tests on the system. I suggest:
Test the RAM. Run MemTest86 overnight (with all tests enabled if
that's an option). You can get bootable ISO and floppy images for it.
It's also included as a boot option for some distro install CDs (I
know Ubuntu has it).
Run a destructive write test on the disk. (WARNING: This will
*DESTROY ALL DATA* on the disk.) Boot a working rescue/install CD and
get a shell prompt, and then run "badblocks -s -v -w /dev/foo", where
"foo" is the name of the whole-disk device ("hda", "sda", whatever).
(WARNING: This will *DESTROY ALL DATA* on the disk.) When done, check
the kernel log ("dmesg") for any I/O or disk errors.
-- Ben
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Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:25 PM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ew, that sounds... bad. Although it sounds like it didn't actually go > into the rescue env. but rather tried to install, based on the "install > exited abnormally" message. I think part of the "installer" is still in charge of setting up the rescue environment (loading drivers, detecting disks, filesystems, networks, etc.), so that might not be conclusive. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Labitt, Bruce
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> It installed some ata_piix ?? stuff
That's the driver module for your motherboard's SATA adapter.
Normal. (The name is vestigial; "PIIX" was some old Intel IDE
controller chipset, circa 1995.)
> then back to black screen a long list of hex addresses?
Sounds like a kernel crash ("oops"). Abnormal. It's not a good
sign that it happened during initialization of the rescue environment.
That suggests you may have a low-level hardware fault, like some bad
RAM.
-- Ben
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RE: System Recovery
Right now, I don't have another working running system (linux) at work. I don't have a problem with a fresh start, (time to recreate everything is a pain) except that I have no idea what really hosed me to begin with. That is the part that is scary... Bruce -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ben Scott Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 6:26 PM To: Greater NH Linux User Group Subject: Re: System Recovery On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm thinking at this point perhaps I should detach the problem 80GB disk > and fresh install 5.2 on the 300GB disk. That is likely to be the easiest way. At the very least, it will make trouble-shooting the problem disk a lot easier, since you'll have a working, running system to trouble-shoot it with. You can get on the web, copy-and-paste output, etc., rather than running from a rescue environment. Alternatively, you could take the problem disk and attach it to a different, working, running system and trouble-shoot it, if you want to reserve the 300 GB disk for organizational purposes (e.g., 80 GB "system disk", 300 GB "data disk"). -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm thinking at this point perhaps I should detach the problem 80GB disk > and fresh install 5.2 on the 300GB disk. That is likely to be the easiest way. At the very least, it will make trouble-shooting the problem disk a lot easier, since you'll have a working, running system to trouble-shoot it with. You can get on the web, copy-and-paste output, etc., rather than running from a rescue environment. Alternatively, you could take the problem disk and attach it to a different, working, running system and trouble-shoot it, if you want to reserve the 300 GB disk for organizational purposes (e.g., 80 GB "system disk", 300 GB "data disk"). -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
I'm thinking at this point perhaps I should detach the problem 80GB disk and fresh install 5.2 on the 300GB disk. Afterwards I could attach the old 80GB disk and see if I can extract anything. Does this sound like it would be the safest course of action at this point? -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jarod Wilson Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 5:26 PM To: Greater NH Linux User Group Subject: RE: System Recovery On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 16:25 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > I just ran the SL5.2 CD1 and typed linux rescue. It ran a bunch of > stuff and got to a colored (bright blue with red writing) display. It > installed some ata_piix ?? It loaded the ata_piix module, as it detected you had a controller driven by it. > stuff then back to black screen a long list > of hex addresses? then > > install exited abnormally [1/1] > sending termination signals...done > sending kill signals...done > disabling swap... > /mnt/runtime done > disabling /dev/loop0 > /proc/bus/usb done > /proc done > /dev/pts done > /sys done > /tmp/ramfs done > /mnt/source done > you may safely reboot your system Ew, that sounds... bad. Although it sounds like it didn't actually go into the rescue env. but rather tried to install, based on the "install exited abnormally" message. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
How many physical hard disk drives are part of this system? [Labitt, Bruce] Two. The first drive 80GB has the system on it. Are there any hardware RAID controllers or such in use?[Labitt, Bruce] no. > It appears I can access /data and its contents. Appearances can be deceiving. Have you run fsck against /dev/lvol1/data yet? [Labitt, Bruce] no. actually there is no data worth anything there. (Even that is far from perfect; if something scrambled just the contents of file data blocks but left the filesystem metadata structures intact, fsck won't see anything wrong. But best to start somewhere.) > How do I figure out what drive has what on it? > sda, sdb, etc. "fdisk -l /dev/sda" will show the partition table on the "sda" disk. Run that command as needed for all the disks in the system. [Labitt, Bruce] I'll try that, once I get thru the 'boot' sequence again... sda 80GB: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders Device bootStart End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux /dev/sda2 14 972678019672+ 8e Linux LVM sdb 300GB: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders /dev/sdb1 1 36481 293033601 83 Linux "sda" will be the first SCSI, SATA, or other non-IDE device. The second would be "sdb", the third "sdc", and so on. IDE disks are "hda", "hdb", etc., instead. "pvs" and "lvs" will show you the physical and logical volumes LVM knows about. [Labitt, Bruce] response for both commands /var/lock: mkdir failed: Not a directory Locking type 1 initialization failed. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 16:25 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > I just ran the SL5.2 CD1 and typed linux rescue. It ran a bunch of > stuff and got to a colored (bright blue with red writing) display. It > installed some ata_piix ?? It loaded the ata_piix module, as it detected you had a controller driven by it. > stuff then back to black screen a long list > of hex addresses? then > > install exited abnormally [1/1] > sending termination signals...done > sending kill signals...done > disabling swap... > /mnt/runtime done > disabling /dev/loop0 > /proc/bus/usb done > /proc done > /dev/pts done > /sys done > /tmp/ramfs done > /mnt/source done > you may safely reboot your system Ew, that sounds... bad. Although it sounds like it didn't actually go into the rescue env. but rather tried to install, based on the "install exited abnormally" message. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
I just ran the SL5.2 CD1 and typed linux rescue. It ran a bunch of stuff and got to a colored (bright blue with red writing) display. It installed some ata_piix ?? stuff then back to black screen a long list of hex addresses? then install exited abnormally [1/1] sending termination signals...done sending kill signals...done disabling swap... /mnt/runtime done disabling /dev/loop0 /proc/bus/usb done /proc done /dev/pts done /sys done /tmp/ramfs done /mnt/source done you may safely reboot your system blinking cursor cntl-alt-del rebooted SOS. I did do a media check - it passes. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jarod Wilson Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 2:17 PM To: Ben Scott Cc: Greater NH Linux User Group Subject: Re: System Recovery On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 13:42 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > >> Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while > >> trying to open /var. > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You need to give it a block device, not a file system path. i.e., you > > need to pass /dev/foo to fsck, not /var. > > I was wondering about that. While specifying the block device is > certainly a good idea, if it was getting confused about what "/var" > meant, fsck would generally emit a "/var: Is a directory" or "/var: > Not a block device" sort of error. The "short read" message implies > that fsck considered "/var" a mount point and resolved it to a block > device. No? If you're running from the rescue env, I don't think e2fsck knows to look in /mnt/sysimage/etc/fstab to resolve mount points, and if the rescue env auto-mounted /var, it would actually be at /mnt/sysimage/var, so I don't *think* it would work in that situation, but I certainly could be wrong. Now, if you're running from the actual system, fsck /mntpoint actually does definitely do the right thing and resolve to the correct block device, which admittedly, I didn't realize it did until I just checked on one of my own RHEL5 boxes here. :) # df -h /rhel4 FilesystemSize Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 31G 3.6G 26G 13% /rhel4 # fsck /rhel4 fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) e2fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) /dev/sda2 is mounted. WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause SEVERE filesystem damage. Do you really want to continue (y/n)? no check aborted. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 15:02 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Labitt, Bruce > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I was running as a user. NOT root. > > Worrysome. > > Though, come to think of it, aren't some disc-recording types of > programs normally installed SUID root? Yep. And k3b tends to complain loudly at startup if it isn't, iirc. > > There maybe a typo in there, I had to copy it from one screen to > > another. > > For future reference, the only really important columns for this > sort of thing are the first two, which specify the device and > mount-point, respectively. Also, you can omitting virtual filesystems > (proc, tmpfs, sysfs, etc.). So the short version is: > > LABEL=/boot /boot > /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / > /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap > /dev/lvol1/data /data > > That tells us you're using LVM, and that your /boot filesystem > partition was being mounted via label. Unfortunately, that doesn't > tell us anything about what's stored where. Well, it does say "there's no /var partition"... So I dunno wtf fsck was resolving to when he asked to fsck /var... -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:33 PM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was running as a user. NOT root. Worrysome. Though, come to think of it, aren't some disc-recording types of programs normally installed SUID root? > There maybe a typo in there, I had to copy it from one screen to > another. For future reference, the only really important columns for this sort of thing are the first two, which specify the device and mount-point, respectively. Also, you can omitting virtual filesystems (proc, tmpfs, sysfs, etc.). So the short version is: LABEL=/boot /boot /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap /dev/lvol1/data /data That tells us you're using LVM, and that your /boot filesystem partition was being mounted via label. Unfortunately, that doesn't tell us anything about what's stored where. How many physical hard disk drives are part of this system? Are there any hardware RAID controllers or such in use? > It appears I can access /data and its contents. Appearances can be deceiving. Have you run fsck against /dev/lvol1/data yet? (Even that is far from perfect; if something scrambled just the contents of file data blocks but left the filesystem metadata structures intact, fsck won't see anything wrong. But best to start somewhere.) > How do I figure out what drive has what on it? > sda, sdb, etc. "fdisk -l /dev/sda" will show the partition table on the "sda" disk. Run that command as needed for all the disks in the system. "sda" will be the first SCSI, SATA, or other non-IDE device. The second would be "sdb", the third "sdc", and so on. IDE disks are "hda", "hdb", etc., instead. "pvs" and "lvs" will show you the physical and logical volumes LVM knows about. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Bill, I was running as a user. NOT root. #cat /etc/fstab /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00/ ext3defaults 1 1 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults1 2 tempfs /dev/shmtmpfs defaults 0 0 devpts /dev/ptsdevpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 sysfs /syssysfs defaults0 0 proc/proc proc defaults0 0 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01swapswapdefaults 0 0 /dev/lvol1/data /data ext3defaults 1 2 There maybe a typo in there, I had to copy it from one screen to another. I have a new disk that is used to create the /data directory. I will have my bladeserver os image and other stuff there. It appears I can access /data and its contents. I cannot access /var. How do I figure out what drive has what on it? sda, sdb, etc. Regards, Bruce -Original Message- From: Bill McGonigle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:48 PM To: Labitt, Bruce Cc: GNHLUG Group Subject: Re: System Recovery On Jul 15, 2008, at 11:01, John Abreau wrote: > It sounds like the filesystem is thoroughly hosed. Based on the > symptoms > you describe, my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed > K3b at > your hard drive instead of the DVD drive. Bruce, were you running k3b as root? We can save the scolding for later, but it would help to know what k3b could have conceivably done. e.g. If you were running as a normal user k3b couldn't have written to your /var partition, under normal circumstances. Also, dump your /etc/fstab up here to verify. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 13:42 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > >> Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while > >> trying to open /var. > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You need to give it a block device, not a file system path. i.e., you > > need to pass /dev/foo to fsck, not /var. > > I was wondering about that. While specifying the block device is > certainly a good idea, if it was getting confused about what "/var" > meant, fsck would generally emit a "/var: Is a directory" or "/var: > Not a block device" sort of error. The "short read" message implies > that fsck considered "/var" a mount point and resolved it to a block > device. No? If you're running from the rescue env, I don't think e2fsck knows to look in /mnt/sysimage/etc/fstab to resolve mount points, and if the rescue env auto-mounted /var, it would actually be at /mnt/sysimage/var, so I don't *think* it would work in that situation, but I certainly could be wrong. Now, if you're running from the actual system, fsck /mntpoint actually does definitely do the right thing and resolve to the correct block device, which admittedly, I didn't realize it did until I just checked on one of my own RHEL5 boxes here. :) # df -h /rhel4 FilesystemSize Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 31G 3.6G 26G 13% /rhel4 # fsck /rhel4 fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) e2fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006) /dev/sda2 is mounted. WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause SEVERE filesystem damage. Do you really want to continue (y/n)? no check aborted. -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Jul 15, 2008, at 11:01, John Abreau wrote: > It sounds like the filesystem is thoroughly hosed. Based on the > symptoms > you describe, my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed > K3b at > your hard drive instead of the DVD drive. Bruce, were you running k3b as root? We can save the scolding for later, but it would help to know what k3b could have conceivably done. e.g. If you were running as a normal user k3b couldn't have written to your /var partition, under normal circumstances. Also, dump your /etc/fstab up here to verify. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:54 AM, Michael ODonnell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ... unless you want to do (or more likely, pay for) some > nasty by-hand salvage... :-/ That actually raises a good point: If this filesystem had valuable unique data on it, and you don't have backups, then you should stop what you're doing, shut off the power, pull the disk out of the system, and mail it off to a data recovery specialist. Misguided repair efforts can make salvage efforts harder or impossible. Such specialists charge hundreds or thousands of dollars, but that can be cheap in some situations. I've been assuming there's nothing that valuable on the disk in question, but we all know about assuming... -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 12:28 PM, John Abreau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Perhaps. Or maybe k3b only started scribbling on the /var partition, then > the machine rebooted when something critical in /var was stomped on. Or maybe k3b thought /dev/sda3 (or whatever) was the block device to write to -- the partition block device, not the whole disk block device. Any which way you slice it (no pun intended), I think it's premature to be speculating about causes. We lack data. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: >> Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while >> trying to open /var. On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Jarod Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You need to give it a block device, not a file system path. i.e., you > need to pass /dev/foo to fsck, not /var. I was wondering about that. While specifying the block device is certainly a good idea, if it was getting confused about what "/var" meant, fsck would generally emit a "/var: Is a directory" or "/var: Not a block device" sort of error. The "short read" message implies that fsck considered "/var" a mount point and resolved it to a block device. No? -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 15 Jul 2008, Michael ODonnell wrote: > > >> my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed K3b at your >> hard drive instead of the DVD drive. > > I'd think the damage would be much worse if that were the case, > so my guess is that some b0rken kernel code (or maybe a HW > problem) corrupted some memory that happened to correspond to > metadata for /var and those bad data got written back to disk. Perhaps. Or maybe k3b only started scribbling on the /var partition, then the machine rebooted when something critical in /var was stomped on. -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
> I would definitely recommned booting from external media (DVD) > and checking *all* the filesystems. There may be undetected > corruption elsewhere on your disk. And you can't check the root > filesystem of the running system. Good advice. Note that you can sometimes manage to fsck even the root filesystem of a running system if you first say this: mount -oremount,ro / ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:12 AM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks Jarod. Hmm, I only have a 5.1 DVD right now. Will that work? It should. The on-disk filesystem format is the same. I would definitely recommned booting from external media (DVD) and checking *all* the filesystems. There may be undetected corruption elsewhere on your disk. And you can't check the root filesystem of the running system. Initially, I would suggest "fsck -vfn" to see what the damage is like. Omit -c (badblocks) for now, that slows things considerably. Be sure to specific the actual device name, not the filesystem mount point. In other words, something like "fsck -vfn /dev/sda1" or whatever. On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while > trying to open /var. "short read" means fsck did a read()/fread() call for some number of bytes, but the kernel returned a smaller number of bytes. For example, maybe fsck attempt to read the the superblock (4096 bytes), but the kernel returned zero bytes. Causes of this that I've seen include: (1) Bad hardware. fsck requests a block, disk doesn't work, so kernel returns zero bytes to calling program. Check the kernel log (output of "dmesg") for clues. (2) Software bug in a disk controller driver. Basically the same as 1. (3) Severe filesystem corruption, such that the filesystem's data structures point to locations past the end of the actual disk. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
You need to give it a block device, not a file system path. i.e., you need to pass /dev/foo to fsck, not /var. On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > I have been able to log into root in cli mode. > > I tried fsck -cvfn /var and got > > Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while > trying to open /var. > > What does that mean? more importantly, what is the recommended course > of action? > > -Bruce > > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Labitt, > Bruce > Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:18 AM > To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > Subject: System Recovery > > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and > get a text display which states > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart > GDM." > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage > in linux... > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > Bruce > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
> my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed K3b at your > hard drive instead of the DVD drive. I'd think the damage would be much worse if that were the case, so my guess is that some b0rken kernel code (or maybe a HW problem) corrupted some memory that happened to correspond to metadata for /var and those bad data got written back to disk. In my experience fsck deals well with minor damage but throws in the towel pretty quickly when confronted with seriously b0rken metadata. Still, in most situations it's your only hope, unless you want to do (or more likely, pay for) some nasty by-hand salvage... :-/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
It sure looks like k3b was involved. However, k3b only gave me the addresses for the two optical drives I have. ?? -Original Message- From: John Abreau [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 11:01 AM To: Labitt, Bruce Cc: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org Subject: Re: System Recovery On Tue, July 15, 2008 10:18 am, Labitt, Bruce said: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. It sounds like the filesystem is thoroughly hosed. Based on the symptoms you describe, my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed K3b at your hard drive instead of the DVD drive. -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Yep, fsck would be the place to start. Look in /mnt/sysimage/etc/fstab to see what physical device /var is and fsck that bad boy. I'd start with just a simple 'fsck /dev/sdaX' and go from there. On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:12 -0400, Labitt, Bruce wrote: > Thanks Jarod. Hmm, I only have a 5.1 DVD right now. Will that work? > Or do I have to create a 5.2 dvd on another machine? > > As for repairs they would be fsck? > > Thanks, > Bruce > > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jarod > Wilson > Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:57 AM > To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > Subject: Re: System Recovery > > On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 10:34 -0400, Mark Greene wrote: > > I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see > > how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard > > drive and PCI errors. > > i.e., insert Scientific Linux 5.2, CD1 (or DVD), and boot it like so: > > boot: linux rescue > > Does certainly sound like you've got a dedicated /var, and its been > corrupted. > > Alternatively, you should also be able to boot into single-user mode and > perform repairs from there. > > > > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I > > have no idea > > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 > > (RHEL5.2). I > > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. > > I get a > > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes > > to complete > > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X > > mode and > > get a text display which states > > > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set > > to /var/gdm > > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and > > restart > > GDM." > > > > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk > > - if it > > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed > > ever since. > > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it > > that I can > > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind > > of carnage > > in linux... > > > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > > > Bruce > > > > ___ > > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > > > > > ___ > > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, July 15, 2008 10:18 am, Labitt, Bruce said: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. It sounds like the filesystem is thoroughly hosed. Based on the symptoms you describe, my first guess would be that you mistakenly pointed K3b at your hard drive instead of the DVD drive. -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix IM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Thanks Jarod. Hmm, I only have a 5.1 DVD right now. Will that work? Or do I have to create a 5.2 dvd on another machine? As for repairs they would be fsck? Thanks, Bruce -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jarod Wilson Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:57 AM To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org Subject: Re: System Recovery On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 10:34 -0400, Mark Greene wrote: > I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see > how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard > drive and PCI errors. i.e., insert Scientific Linux 5.2, CD1 (or DVD), and boot it like so: boot: linux rescue Does certainly sound like you've got a dedicated /var, and its been corrupted. Alternatively, you should also be able to boot into single-user mode and perform repairs from there. > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I > have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 > (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. > I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes > to complete > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X > mode and > get a text display which states > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set > to /var/gdm > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and > restart > GDM." > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk > - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed > ever since. > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it > that I can > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind > of carnage > in linux... > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > Bruce > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
I have been able to log into root in cli mode. I tried fsck -cvfn /var and got Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /var. What does that mean? more importantly, what is the recommended course of action? -Bruce -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Labitt, Bruce Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:18 AM To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org Subject: System Recovery What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and get a text display which states "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart GDM." This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage in linux... Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
RE: System Recovery
Thanks. It appears that I cannot descend into /var, but I can go into other root directories. What would be the recommended fsck options? #fsck -CV /var -n ? -Bruce From: Mark Greene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:34 AM To: gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org Cc: Labitt, Bruce Subject: Re: System Recovery I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard drive and PCI errors. Good luck with it. mark On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and get a text display which states "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart GDM." This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage in linux... Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 10:34 -0400, Mark Greene wrote: > I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see > how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard > drive and PCI errors. i.e., insert Scientific Linux 5.2, CD1 (or DVD), and boot it like so: boot: linux rescue Does certainly sound like you've got a dedicated /var, and its been corrupted. Alternatively, you should also be able to boot into single-user mode and perform repairs from there. > On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I > have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 > (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. > I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes > to complete > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X > mode and > get a text display which states > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set > to /var/gdm > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and > restart > GDM." > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk > - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed > ever since. > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it > that I can > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind > of carnage > in linux... > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > Bruce > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Jarod Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: System Recovery
I'd start by booting it off of the system CD, run fsck on /var and see how much of it is still intact. Then check the system logs for hard drive and PCI errors. Good luck with it. mark On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Labitt, Bruce < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea > what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I > make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a > lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: > > touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory > > can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory > > touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory > > > Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete > - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and > get a text display which states > > "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm > but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart > GDM." > > > This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it > matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. > I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can > first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage > in linux... > > Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? > > Bruce > > ___ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ > ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
System Recovery
What tools are available for recovery of a linux system? I have no idea what happened - but my system took a dump. SciLinux5.2 (RHEL5.2). I make it through the text mode then go into the x detail mode. I get a lot of daemons failing and the odd lines that say stuff like: touch cannot touch /var/lock/subsys : Not a directory can't create /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid: Not a directory touch cannot touch 'var/lock/subsys/netplugd': Not a directory Then the line "Starting system logger:" which takes minutes to complete - lots of failed module loads follow then I'm dumped out of X mode and get a text display which states "Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to /var/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration and restart GDM." This all happened when I started a K3b format of a DVD+RW disk - if it matters... The system rebooted on me and I have been hosed ever since. I guess the first thing to do is to get what ever data off it that I can first... I didn't think an application could cause this kind of carnage in linux... Is Knoppix live ok for this? Something better? Bruce ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
