Filesystem couldn't be fixed :(

[jforce93]

I just installed gentoo on my ibook G4 (it's a powerpc machine) and when I boot up it gives the error "Filesystem couldn't be fixed ". I went on irc, but the person who was helping me had to go.

I am using ext3 for my root partition

Here is the full error:

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ext2fs_check_if_mount: Can't check if filesystem is mounted due to missing mtab file while determining where /dev/hda4 is mounted.
fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hda3
/dev/hda4:
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), the the superblock 
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
         e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

* Filesystem couldn't be fixed :(

Here is my fstab:

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# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# noatime turns off atimes for increased performance (atimes normally aren't
# needed; notail increases performance of ReiserFS (at the expense of storage 
# efficiency). It's safe to drop the noatime options if you want and to 
# switch between notail / tail freely.
#
# The root filesystem should have a pass number of either 0 or 1.
# All other filesystems should have a pass number of 0 or greater than 1.
#
# See the manpage fstab(5) for more information.
#

#<fs>			<mountpoint>	<type>		<opts>		<dump/pass>

# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.
/dev/hda4 / ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,user 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmps nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0

# glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for
# POSIX share memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).
# (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will 
# use almost no memor if not populated with files

And here is my yaboot.conf:

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## yaboot.conf generated by yabootconfig 1.0.8
##
## run: "man yaboot.conf" for details. Do not make changes until you have!!
##
## For a dual-boot menu, ad one or more of:
## bsd=/dev/hdaX, macos=/dev/hdaY, macosx=/dev/hdaZ

boot=/dev/hda2
device=/pci@f400000/ata-6@d/disk@0:
partition=4
root=/dev/hda4
timeout=30
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
image=/boot/kernel-2.6.33-gentoo-r2
          label=Linux
          read=only

Can someone please help?

[msalerno]

fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hda3

Perhaps you have the wrong device specified in the fstab.

Can you read the disk from a livecd?

[Hu]

Using hda series names suggests you are using the old drivers. I suggest you migrate to the libata drivers using the Gentoo install environment, adjust your configuration for the new names, and try again.

[cwr]

From the error message, "File system can't be found" seems a better
description than "can't be fixed". I don't know anything about yaboot,
but can it handle an ext3 filesystem, and does the kernel have ext3
drivers built in? (The old hda drivers still work, although strongly
deprecated - I'm using them on this machine.)

Will

[groomsi]

I'm having the same problem. I just installed on a dual G5 power mac (64bit kernel, 32bit userland). Everything seemed to go well, but I get the same error at boot except it says '/dev/sda4' (which is what it should say). I can chroot into the system from a livecd, so the drive is OK.

I tried 'yabootconfig --chroot /mnt/gentoo'; it says 'Running mkofboot to make the disk bootable...' and then
'ioctl32(nvsetenv:8680): Unknown cmd fd(3) cmd(20007043){t:'p';sz:0} arg(00000009) on /dev/nvram'
'ioctl32(nvsetenv:9125): Unknown cmd fd(3) cmd(20007043){t:'p';sz:0} arg(44044482) on /dev/nvram'
'Done'

I read somewhere that yabootconfig can be flakey, so I also tried a manual configuration. I edited the config file myself, and when I ran mkofboot I get the same error. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.
P.S. Yaboot can handle etx3, and my kernel has ext3 support built in.

[bobroberts1953]

From your error message:

"Can't check if filesystem is mounted due to missing mtab file"

I am chasing a fs mount problem Myself. 5 days into my first install.

[Naib]

From your error message:

"Can't check if filesystem is mounted due to missing mtab file"

I am chasing a fs mount problem Myself. 5 days into my first install.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/h ... =1&chap=10

To install GRUB you will need to issue the grub-install command. However, grub-install won't work off-the-shelf since we are inside a chrooted environment. We need to create /etc/mtab which lists all mounted filesystems. Fortunately, there is an easy way to accomplish this - just copy over /proc/mounts to /etc/mtab, excluding the rootfs line if you haven't created a separate boot partition. The following command will work in both cases:

Code Listing 2.5: Creating /etc/mtab
# grep -v rootfs /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab
Now we can install GRUB using grub-install:

did you do this?

[lindegur]

I had the same error on an old machine with an old gentoo installation and I tried to fix the file system until the machine was dead
But now I have an old machine with a new gentoo installation

The problem was the new kernel 2.6.35-gentoo-r4 and probably a combination with a new udev (as other posts indicate).
The IDE hard disks are no longer controlled by

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< > ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support (DEPRECATED)  --->    

but are controlled by

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 <*> Serial ATA and Parallel ATA drivers  --->   

and stuff that you have on the motherboard

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 <*>       VIA PATA support 
 <*>     Generic ATA support

The disks are therefore now called something as /dev/sda1 and nomore /dev/hda1.
To have the system running also

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General setup  --->     
[ ] enable deprecated sysfs features to support old userspace tools      

needs to be removed

[groomsi]

I changed the kernel config as recommended and the machine booted first try. Thanks! I didn't do anything to the /etc/mtab file; I don't think that the previous post mentioning the x86 handbook applies to us because we are on ppc and are not using GRUB.

[drs]

This was quite helpful to me... thanks!