Linux won't boot

[maslett]

Hi, I have a dual boot Linux/XP laptop (the dual boot selection is done with LILO). When I now try to boot into Linux I get the following error:

resuming from /dev/hda9
Resuming from device hda9
Kernel panic: Resume Machine: Unable to find suspended-data signature ( - misspelled?

And then just hangs. I can boot into xp fine.

I'm stumped!

 

[BIS]

check /etc/fstab

and try to comment out any entries in lilo.conf that begin with "resume"

 

[stevexff]

BIS

Catch-22 - I guess you are assuming that maslett has an emergency Linux rescue boot disk to load the OS from, as XP won't recognise a Linux file system...

If not, maslett, you can download an image of one. You don't say which distro you use, but I know that Fedora has an emergency CD image that boots off the CDROM and then allows you to mount your file system.

 

[maslett]

Cheers guys, couldn't reply earlier as the net access at work has been down all day (thanks BT) and I've had to bring the laptop down the pub.

For the record, I'm using Mandrake 10. I don't have a rescue disk but do have a copy of TomsRootBoot - coud this possibly help me? If the net access is back up tomorrow I'll have a wander over to the Mandrake site and see if I can get hold of an emergency CD image (guess I shouldn't have rushed the installation and created one earlier!).

Still the whole point was to learn some Linux and I guess I will sorting this out

Can't really do much tonight as it's £6 an hour for the wifi!

 

[maslett]

Right - have been doing some research and realised I can use my distro disk 1 as a rescue disc. Here's the story so far...

Firstly - here is what Partition magic told me in XP

disc c:   NTFS   8gb
disc e:   NTFS   20gb
disc f:   NTFS   5gb
disc *.   EXT3   4.5gb (this is my /)
SWAPSPACE2 Linux swap 250mb
disc *.   EXT3   300mb (this is my /var)
disc z:   FAT32  50mb

Now, if I boot off my distro disc and go into rescue mode I can mount my filesystem onto /mnt and I have the following lilo.conf and fstab (I have to type all this in so I'll miss certain bits out.

lilo.conf

...some lines not mentioning discs...
image=/boot/vmlinuz
   label="linux"
   root=/dev/hda7
   initrd=/boot/inetrd.img
   append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda9 splash=silent"
   vga=788
   read-only
...some similar entries for booting linux in different modes
...an entry for xp (which works fine)

fstab

/dev/hda7 / ext3 noatime 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom ...other cd stuff...
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs ...other win stuff
/dev/hda5 /mnt/win_d ntfs ...ditto
/dev/hda8 /mnt/win_f vfat ...ditto
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda10 /var ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/hda9 swap swap defaults 0 0

And finally, if a do a lsparts from the rescue console I get this - which doesn't match fstab!

hda1: 8gb type NTFS           (my c:)
hda5: 20gb type NTFS          (my e:)
hda6: 5gb type Ext2           (my f:)
hda7: 4.5gb type Ext2         (my /)
hda8: 250mb type Linux Swap   (swap)
hda9: 300mb type Ext2         (my /var)
hda10: 50mb type Fat32        (my z:)

I can see there's a mismatch but am not sure how to fix it.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Chacalinc]

do you have "fdisk" in the rescue CD? I prefer to see the disk itself and see whether fstab or lsparts are correct.

Cheers.

 

[franklin97355]

Are you sure about hda6? If you didn't mistype it's showing up as NTFS and Ext2.

 

[stefanwagner]

I would comment out the win-partitions from fstab.
Create a fstab, according to lsparts:

hda6: 5gb type Ext2 (my f
hda7: 4.5gb type Ext2 (my /)
hda8: 250mb type Linux Swap (swap)
hda9: 300mb type Ext2 (my /var)

/dev/hda7 / ext3 noatime 1 1
/dev/hda8 swap swap defaults 0 0
# try both solutions:
/dev/hda10 /var ext3 noatime 1 2
#/dev/hda6 /var ext3 noatime 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0

And would try if hda10 or hda6 works and contains the /var - directory.

You may comment out both, and see how far you get with the missing /var/-subtree.

All in all, ext2 is pretty much deprecated, and I would rethink it's usage. Go for ext3 or reiserfs if possible.

seeking a job as java-programmer in Berlin:

http://home.arcor.de/hirnstrom/bewerbung

 

[maslett]

Re: Chacalinc

Here's the output from fdisk:

/dev/hda1   8GB  7 (id) HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2  30GB  f      W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5  20GB  7      HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6   5GB  7      HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda7 4.5GB 83      Linux
/dev/hda8 250MB 82      Linux swap
/dev/hda9 300MB 83      Linux
/dev/hda10 50MB  b      W95 FAT32

Re:Franklin97355

That's no typo - I just checked!

 

[maslett]

Yay! Success! I'm writing this from Konqueror

I re-wrote fstab from the fdisk output, hda6 was missing and a couple of others where numbered wrongly. Then editied lilo.conf so the resume line pointed to linux swap not /var.

Well chuffed.

Would like to thank everyone for their help. Mucho appreciated - and I learned a lot to boot (pun intended)

Cheers all,
Matt