Samsung Portable HD, init not found, (resolved) Hurah!

[GarryRicketson]

Hello all,
Here is the data on my computer:

System: Kernel 2.6.35-22-generic i686 (32 bit) Distro Linux Mint 10 Julia

and this is with the Samsung,

HDD Total Size: 370.1GB (1.8% used) 1: /dev/sda WDC_WD1200JB 120.0GB
****This is the Samsung: 2: USB /dev/sdc S2_Portable 250.1GB
Partition: ID:/ size: 106G used: 6.1G (7%) fs: ext4 ID:swap-1 size: 1.57GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap

In a nut shell , I am getting ""init not found", if I run the recovery boot, (it will no longer boot,normal) it dose mount, but I can not "open" it to view or acces the files, and when I try to disconnect it, it says, it is "busy", like wise I can not unmount it.
There also is a "panic" warning,..I don't have exacly what it says handy though.
It also causes a problem when I shutdown the computer, if it is connected, the computer will not completely shut down, normal.
When I start it in recovery mode, at the end it says "init not found try init= bootarg", then I get the (inittramfs) "prompt", also it says, ""target file system dosen't have requested /bin/init""
On this (inittrasmfs) prompt, I tried "help", fo the commands, but do not know what command to use, or how to use this,..
I guess I should add, this occured, when I tried running update-grub,
I had copied all of the files, from a laptop I have, to the USB HD, so I would have copys, because I was going to install Mint, to the entiere HD on the laptop, wipeing the HD. Ok that went fine, Mint istalled fine, Everything was fine, and after the install, it was able to read and access the files, on the portable (samsung).
Because I wanted to be able to include, the samsung , in the boot menu, I ran update-grub, from the terminal, on the laptop, it seemed to update ok, but when I actually tried, useing to selection, to boot with the samsung, I wouldn't, only able to get the recovery mode, to boot.
As long as I don't connect the Samsung, the laptop boots fine, normal.
I don't care to much if I can get the samsung to boot again,
mostly what I am looking for , is to find out a way, to access the data, and get the files I want out of it, before I try to "fix" the samsung,
This happened before once, and I formatted it, and re-installed linux mint, and up until now it had been working good. But there are some files, I want to get copys of before I do that, and as it is now I can not access anything.
Any help on this will be greatly appreciated, if more details are needed, let me know what is needed. Thank you from Garry

[slider]

Hi GarryRicketson

After reading your post over serveral times I still find things a little unclear, so I will try to just concentrate on your main stated wish.

mostly what I am looking for , is to find out a way, to access the data, and get the files I want out of it, before I try to "fix" the samsung

Normally all that you should need to do is boot up your system normally and then attach the outboard HDD to your USB bus.

Mount the drive manually if needed. You may need to make a mount point. First check

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sudo fdisk -l

noting the designation for the drive.

Next make a mount point

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sudo mkdir /mnt/tmp

then

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sudo mount /dev/sdxy /mnt/tmp

(where xy is your device name).

You should then be able to access and move the files that you need to your main HDD. The working directory will be located in "/mnt/tmp". You can name this anything you want to actually while you are making the mount point in the terminal.


If for some reason this fails try using

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sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdxy

(again, where xy is your device name). Please note that the HDD being checked must be unmounted before trying to run this command. This will check the drive and if possible fix the errors. Also note that this can cause data loss in rare cases, but I've never seen that occur myself. Is usually pretty safe.

The same thing can be done with gparted as follows:

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gksu gparted

right click on the outboard HDD and select check.

Depending on the size of the drive this may take awhile so please be patient.

Let us know how things go....

S

[GarryRicketson]

Thank you very much, sorry, on not being very clear, it is hard for me to explain, but first later today I will try this, and depending on how it goes, I will let you know, for now, just so you know I read the reply, and appreciate it, I had been checking every day for a answer,,
from Garry

[slider]

Hi Garry

I thought of a few more suggestions that might be of help that I will post below:

On each command as you run it in terminal copy and paste the entire output into a new text file, leaving some space between each output to keep things somewhat legible. You could name this file "history-log.txt". This output can act as a log of things that you have tried and can then be posted here at the forum for us to check and hopefully provide actions that will get you fixed up and running. Being able to see the verbose output will be of great help to us in order to try and help you better.

Additional commands that we may need output for: (boot-up then plug in outboard HDD, then run)

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cat /etc/fstab

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cat /etc/mtab

On some newer systems you may need to prefix "sudo" to the above syntax, but is usually not needed.


Please work on this at your own pace and as you see fit. Either I or one of the other helpers here will be glad to try and provide more help as needed.

I will try and monitor this thread as best that I can.

Thanks,

S

[GarryRicketson]

Ok, I can't believe what just happened, I had put the info in, but I guess it took to long, and I timed out, it said I was no longer logged in, when I logged in again, I lost the post!, try again, here is the info log:

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00025e96

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 30211 242662400 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 30211 30402 1533953 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 30211 30402 1533952 82 Linux swap / Solaris
---------------------------------------------------------
garry@garry-AOA150 ~ $ sudo mkdir /mnt/tmp
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/tmp': File exists
garry@garry-AOA150 ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt/tmp
mount: /dev/sdb already mounted or /mnt/tmp busy
garry@garry-AOA150 ~ $ sudo umount /dev/sdb
umount: /dev/sdb: not mounted
garry@garry-AOA150 ~ $ sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdb
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdb
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?
---------------------------------------
arry@garry-AOA150 ~ $ sudo mkdir /mnt/tmp
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/tmp': File exists
garry@garry-AOA150 ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt/tmp
mount: /dev/sdb already mounted or /mnt/tmp busy
garry@garry-AOA150 ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/tmp

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/tmp ///When I tried this it locked up the terminal.
The same occuring, if I try sdb2,sdb5
---------------------------
After re-opening terminal
I tried the cat /etc/fstab
--------------
$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
/dev/sda1 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
-------------------------
cat /etc/mtab
/dev/sda1 / ext4 rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw 0 0
none /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
none /dev devtmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /var/run tmpfs rw,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0
none /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/garry/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=garry 0 0
---------------------------------------

Nothing seems to work, for now I am going to just go with this, I will add some more details later.

[slider]

Hi Garry

Please remember not to try an run the e2fsck command when the drive is mounted. If you are not sure whether the drive is mounted simply shut down your PC, un-plug the drive, then restart the PC. You can plug it back in once booted.

Try the following:

Re-start your PC > when booted up plug in the drive > run

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sudo mkdir /mnt/tmp

If it says that the directory already exists from last time run

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sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/tmp

. This (sdb1) looks to be the partition that you need to mount based on what you posted.

Then try and see if you can then access your files with a file manager by going to the URI "/mnt/tmp/".

To do a quick look in terminal

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ls /mnt/tmp/

you should be able to see them if mount was successful.

Report back with any error messages. Just copy and paste them from your log file or directly from your terminal so that you won't "timeout".

Thanks,

S

[GarryRicketson]

OK

Just copy and paste them from your log file or directly from your terminal so that you won't "timeout".

Yes, that better, also that way, I don't lose everything I wrote, if the connection "breaks", for any reason.
I was just trying again, and it looks to me like instead of using sudo, maybe it would be better to be doing this as root ?,
I would explain more, on my reason, but have to "run" time to go to work,..I am aware of many reasons, not to, but it appears even with sudo, it is not allowing me to do these things, I just tried a little as root and started getting better results, will show more this evening. Thanks from Garry

[GarryRicketson]

Ok here is a new log, I did not include evrything, because it is all the same as before, but there are additional details, toward the bottom, I also tried every thing as root, with the same results.

""" Please remember not to try an run the e2fsck command when the drive is mounted"""
sudo umount /dev/sdb
umount: /dev/sdb: not mounted
--
sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdb
-----
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdb
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?
-----
Then try and see if you can then access your files with a file manager by going to the URI "/mnt/tmp/".

///my comment,On this it just goes back to the terminal prompt, nothing, all though using cd I do find the dir, but no files are there.////

To do a quick look in terminal
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ls /mnt/tmp/
---------
Result:
garry@garry ~ $ sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdb1
[sudo] password for garry:
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdb1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?
garry@garry ~ $ sudo mkdir /mnt/tmp
garry@garry ~ $ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/tmp
--------------
/// It "hangs", here and never goes any further, I waited about 15 minuets.
----------------------
The rest of the "commands" get the same results, as before,
For example umount /dev/sdb1 (and I tried all the ones listed,sdb2, sdb5,sdb
It will say it is not mounted, but as you will see below, and I noticed gparted uses the same command, e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc1,
it "thinks" it is mounted,..
----------------------------------------
This is a copy of the details I got when I tried using gpart:
Check and repair file system (ext4) on /dev/sdc1 00:00:01 ( ERROR )

calibrate /dev/sdc1 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )

path: /dev/sdc1
start: 2048
end: 485326847
size: 485324800 (231.42 GiB)
check file system on /dev/sdc1 for errors and (if possible) fix them 00:00:01 ( ERROR )

e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc1

Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdc1
---------------------------------------------
The same, any attempts to un-mount, or remove the device fail,..in fact, all though when I used the "safely remove drive", it appears to do that, and the LCD light on the device turns off,..but on the computer, it still shows that it is mounted , and active,
In fact even when I completely, un plug the device, I still get the "device is busy",...Also I guess I should note, it is mounting automaticly, when I plug it in.
-----------------------------------
I still have the boot options, in grub, to boot with the device , IF I select to boot normal,(with the device,not the computer) it only boots as far as a black screen with the little blinking white line up in the left corner.
However, IF I use the recovery mode option, it starts out good, but instead of the normal menu that comes up, (for example if I use recovery mode on the computer, it shows a menu) with the device, This is what I get:
"""
No init found. Try passing init= bootarg.
///my comment,ok How would I do that ?
The rest is as follows /////
BusyBox v1.15.3 (ubuntu 1:1.15.3-1ubuntu5)
built in shell (ash)
(initransfs) ///my comment (initanfs) is the prompt ////
--------------------------------------------
The 'help, dose give me the list of commands, but I have no idea how to use them, or if even anything can be done from this shell ?
A interesting thing is, if I use ctrl-alt-f7 I get this error message:
""" target system dose not have requested /sbin/init ****
------
///my comment, apparently it is "frozen" in some kind of way, so it automaticly mounts, but dose not go any further, hence it can not find /sbin/init , I can not even format it using gparted or kde partition manager,..I still have not tried """

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 mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdxy 

(and replace sdxy with the device name) since I hope to retrieve some files before I do that, but if I can't get the files, then oh well, "it is not the end of the world",..actually as time goes by I am finding I probabley do not need them, I had most of the files that are important saved on other drives.
Thanks from Garry

[GarryRicketson]

Just thought I would include this screen shot:

Screenshot.png (571.29 KiB) Viewed 854 times

Thats what I get when I select "safely remove drive"

[slider]

I hope to retrieve some files before I do that, but if I can't get the files, then oh well, "it is not the end of the world",..actually as time goes by I am finding I probabley do not need them, I had most of the files that are important saved on other drives.

Garry please don't give up yet, unless you feel that you must!

This is a good opportunity to learn and help with trouble-shooting at it's best.

Your system seems to be thinking that the drive is constantly mounted even when it is not.

Can you boot from a live disc and see if things are different in that environment? Just keep notes on how things go and post results.

This will tell me a little more that might be wrong with your installed system. I'll try to make some type of recommendation based on what you find out.

Thanks for your patience.

S

Edit:

Also before you do the above run

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sudo blkid

and please post. We are looking for device sharing the same UUID!

[GarryRicketson]

Garry please don't give up yet, unless you feel that you must!

This is a good opportunity to learn and help with trouble-shooting at it's best.

Ok, there is no hurry, as it is, I can not access the files, if I format it, all chance of that is lost. In this case the files are not really very important. However this is a good point, and if we do figure out a way to either repair it, or at least get the files, It is very worth while for in the event that someone has this happen, and the files are of great importance, ...I am sure most of this would apply to any USB storage device,HD or boot stick, not just the Samsung,..
I do have the same CD, I used for intalling Linux Mint, and it dose have a live CD option, I was thinking the same, to see what comes up,
When I try this, I am assumeing I should have the device connected ?

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 sudo blkid

Your system seems to be thinking that the drive is constantly mounted even when it is not.

You "hit the nail on the head" , here.
So that is the "key" if we can get the system to know that it is not really mounted.
and when it is mounted, some way to "open it" or reset, but with out actually formating, my thoughts, are, if I can acess the boot sector, and just remove the boot files, some how ?Then it might be readable/writeable like any non bootable device.
anyway I will try these , and get back later.
Thanks
Edit: Here are the results of:

03/27/2012 07:09:54 PM
New approach to this problem
Results of , with no device attached.

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sudo blkid
 /dev/sda1: UUID="01e7abe1-1649-4c2f-8fcf-1d3ae9144b56" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda3: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="FREEDOS" UUID="C53A-EC28" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda5: UUID="b659871d-714d-41d9-9908-51347d00b3b0" TYPE="swap"   

Results with the device attached

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  sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="01e7abe1-1649-4c2f-8fcf-1d3ae9144b56" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda3: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="FREEDOS" UUID="C53A-EC28" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda5: UUID="b659871d-714d-41d9-9908-51347d00b3b0" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="120172c3-b91e-42f2-9cd2-74c1856820b2" TYPE="ext4"

--------------------------------------------------------

[GarryRicketson]

Another screen shot, I am using the live CD at this time, but it looks like basicly the same thing is occuring. I am able to open my main HD, but not the usb device.

Screenshot.png (302 KiB) Viewed 847 times

And rather then send another screen shot, if I try safely remove drive, it says it can-t, one of the partitions on /dev/sdc is busy, Pretty much the same.

[slider]

Unmount the drive first. (Ubuntu versions sometimes auto-mount)

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sudo umount /dev/sdxy

(xy= your designation) choose the partition that is saying that it is mounted.

S


Edit:

Try the test/repair on the partition for the OB HDD.

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sudo fsck -y /dev/sdc1

is your partition for the OB HDD.


2nd Edit:

You were here now your gone!



Bottom line is that you have to establish the proper partition number to work on.

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sudo fdisk -l

Run the test/repair as above.

Maybe run on both partitions, one at a time. For already mounted errors try the "umount" command as before again making sure that you add only the correct partition number to the syntax.

The difference this time? Do all of this from the Live disc.

Thanks,

S

[GarryRicketson]

Here is the log using Live CD

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00002af9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 353 14402 112856625 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14403 14594 1533953 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 1 352 2827408+ 6 FAT16
/dev/sda5 14403 14594 1533952 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00025e96

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 30211 242662400 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 30211 30402 1533953 5 Extended
''''""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/tmp '""" The terminal hangs when I did this (live cd)
===================

sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc1
sudo umount /dev/sdc1
umount: /dev/sdc1: not mounted
mint@mint ~ $ sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc1
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdc1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?


sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc2
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
e2fsck: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/sdc2
Could this be a zero-length partition?



/////////////////////////////
cat /etc/fstab
aufs / aufs rw 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

///////////////////////////////
cat /etc/mtab
aufs / aufs rw 0 0
none /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
none /dev devtmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620 0 0
/dev/sr2 /cdrom iso9660 ro,noatime 0 0
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs ro,noatime 0 0
none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw 0 0
none /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /var/run tmpfs rw,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0
none /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/mint/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mint 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/01e7abe1-1649-4c2f-8fcf-1d3ae9144b56 ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks 0 0
////////////////////////////////////////////////////

[quote] You were here now your gone! /quote]
sorry about that I guess it was when I was loading the Cd,.. I am going to try it again, but probabley tomorrow, I see a couple of things, in your post, one is :
sudo fsck -y /dev/sdc1 Not : sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc1 But I am trying to make sure, I get the right partition, I will admit, that part gets almost confusing,..but I do understand it,
sudo fdisk -l , makes it pretty clear.
Ok anyway, we can keep trying, I find it interesting.
One thing, this problem started after I ran update-grub, With the OBHD attaced ( I guess OB, is the same as USB HD, or device ?) But I don't see how that could have affected it like this. Is there anyway, to look at logs, related to the update-grub, ?
It will be tommorow now , when I get back.

[slider]

This seems to be a tough one. It is normally very easy to get this done quickly. But this HDD is being stubborn!

Let me point you to a description of the programs that we are trying to use so perhaps it will give you a better understanding of things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fsck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E2fsprogs
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now lets stop what we were doing and start over OK.

Move carefully and slowly keeping full track of what you are doing.

Try to do everything in the exact order that it is posted in.

Please copy and paste the commands. (making any manual changes needed to partition numbers as listed below. eg: sdxy)

1.When you are ready boot up your computer using the live disc.

Do not make any directories or mount points.

Do not mount any partitions.

2.Run

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sudo fdisk -l

Find your OB HDD (outboard hard disk drive) partition. It was sdc1 before, but make sure anyway.

3.Run

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sudo fsck -y /dev/sdc1

(change the sdc1 if it does not match as before)

If it runs, good let it. If it complains about being mounted try
4.

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sudo umount -l /dev/sdc1

(again making sure the partition number matches what it should)

5. If it unmounts rerun the fsck command again.

6.If it complains again try

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sudo umount -f /dev/sdc1

7. If it unmounts rerun the fsck command again

Report the results.


*Another thing you may want to try is updating grub without the OB HDD attached. (simply do a fresh boot without it)

Thanks,

S

[GarryRicketson]

Here is the log using Live CD

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00002af9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 353 14402 112856625 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14403 14594 1533953 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 1 352 2827408+ 6 FAT16
/dev/sda5 14403 14594 1533952 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00025e96

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 30211 242662400 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 30211 30402 1533953 5 Extended
''''""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/tmp '""" The terminal hangs when I did this (live cd)
===================

sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc1
sudo umount /dev/sdc1
umount: /dev/sdc1: not mounted
mint@mint ~ $ sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc1
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
e2fsck: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdc1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?


sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc2
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
e2fsck: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while trying to open /dev/sdc2
Could this be a zero-length partition?



/////////////////////////////
cat /etc/fstab
aufs / aufs rw 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

///////////////////////////////
cat /etc/mtab
aufs / aufs rw 0 0
none /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
none /dev devtmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620 0 0
/dev/sr2 /cdrom iso9660 ro,noatime 0 0
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs ro,noatime 0 0
none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw 0 0
none /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
none /var/run tmpfs rw,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0
none /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/mint/.gvfs fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon rw,nosuid,nodev,user=mint 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/01e7abe1-1649-4c2f-8fcf-1d3ae9144b56 ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks 0 0
////////////////////////////////////////////////////

You were here now your gone! [ /quote]
sorry about that I guess it was when I was loading the Cd,.. I am going to try it again, but probabley tomorrow, I see a couple of things, in your post, one is :
sudo fsck -y /dev/sdc1 Not : sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdc1 But I am trying to make sure, I get the right partition, I will admit, that part gets almost confusing,..but I do understand it,
sudo fdisk -l , makes it pretty clear.
Ok anyway, we can keep trying, I find it interesting.
One thing, this problem started after I ran update-grub, With the OBHD attaced ( I guess OB, is the same as USB HD, or device ?) But I don't see how that could have affected it like this. Is there anyway, to look at logs, related to the update-grub, ?
It will be tommorow now , when I get back.

[GarryRicketson]

Goodmorning!
Ok , this evening after work, ( I hope) . I like the mornings best because, I am re freshed, and ready, so to speak, (more clear headed).Howevr because I have to get ready to go to work, I end up trying to "rush", so anyway,..

Another thing you may want to try is updating grub without the OB HDD attached. (simply do a fresh boot without it)

On this, I have already done that, on this computer. The OB HDD is no longer in the boot menu. That's where now, if I do try to update grub again, with the OB HDD attached, it hangs, dose not update. I guess it can't because something is not right with the OB HDD,..
The laptop, still has the OB HDD, in the boot menu, which is what gives me a way to try booting it in recovery mode ,still,.. I hope , this is makeing more sense.
I think it may be relevent to some extent, and useful to write a more complete history, the events that lead up to this. I am going to work in that first, but off line, it won't take to long. If I don't have time now, this evening,...
for now, thats it.(instead of a new reply, I will edit this, with the "history" added)
from Garry

[GarryRicketson]

Actually I have not finished writing the history, I mention above, I had a ton of e-mail, and just now got to this, here is the new log though:
Booted with Live CD,..
Pluged in OB HDD, but did not mount anything, as instructed,.. from the terminal , this is how I started.

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00002af9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 353 14402 112856625 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14403 14594 1533953 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 1 352 2827408+ 6 FAT16
/dev/sda5 14403 14594 1533952 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00025e96

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 30211 242662400 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 30211 30402 1533953 5 Extended
mint@mint ~ $ sudo fsck -y /dev/sdc1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
fsck.ext4: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdc1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?


mint@mint ~ $ sudo umount -l /dev/sdc1
umount: /dev/sdc1: not mounted

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fsck -y /dev/sdc1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
fsck.ext4: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdc1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?

mint@mint ~ $ sudo umount -l /dev/sdc1
umount: /dev/sdc1: not mounted

mint@mint ~ $ sudo umount -f /dev/sdc1
umount2: Invalid argument
umount: /dev/sdc1: not mounted

mint@mint ~ $ sudo umount -f /dev/sdc1
umount2: Invalid argument
umount: /dev/sdc1: not mounted

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fsck -y /dev/sdc1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
fsck.ext4: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdc1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?
mint@mint ~ $

As you can see the same. I really did take my time, and was careful,..

[slider]

As you can see the same. I really did take my time, and was careful,..

Yes... Well done! I thank you for doing that.

Lets try this:

1.Boot from the live disc.

2.Plug in the OB HDD.

3.Run (Trying a "creative syntax" here!)

Code: Select all

sudo mount -o remount /

4.Immediately reboot the computer.

5.Try to run the fsck command as before. (making sure like you did before to use the correct partition and no mounting)

S

[GarryRicketson]

OK,but it is going to be in the morning, though, when I try, I just finished this "history", my hand has a cramp, from all the typeing! It is pretty long, and may still be a little hard to follow, I did not check the spelling, etc to well (sorry),..but at the end, at least I realize what I did to cause this, and won't ever do that again,!!! Don't know if we can fix it or not, maybe,..but am pretty sure I do know, how to be sure it dose not happen again. here is the history:

History , OB HDD (Samsung portable USB HD 300 gb)
When I made my decision to no longer use windows, and install Linux Mint 10, on the computer, as the main OS, at that time, I had Linux installed along side windows xp, had been this way several months, as being a new user of Linux, that was how I installed it the first time, sort of a "trial" period.
Since I liked it so much, I decided, I no longer had any reason to keep windows, and "wipe the HD and to re-install, Linux,as my main OS.
So any way, before I did that, I installed Linux Mint 10, to the Samsung,(OB HDD), for a short period of time, used it, everything seemed to work pretty well. I had insatlled some other pachages, software, done some testing and it worked well.
So I copied, all the files that I had on the 1st Linux installation, IE: my home dir,desk top, photos, music,etc,.put them all a folder,in the Samsung. The windows junk I was not to concerned with, but I did make a Zipped package,with every thing that I had on My documents, mostly cause I had a lot of text files, some html, and .bas files, going back as far as 2 or 3 years, occasionally, I need to look through them, for something, anyway,... So I had everything pretty well saved or backed up, but as files I could copy, after the new Linux install, not a "backup" in the sense of a entire system back up that can be re-intalled, just copied files.
OK, so I successfully wipe the HD, install Linux Mint, everything went fine. I got all the files I wanted copied back to my new home,desk top,etc. Intalled the packages I use , etc.
I am doing some work with Freedos, and still had not used the newest freedos 1.1 that came out recently, other then a little usng virtual box, and was eager to set up a dos partition, install freedos1.1, and start doing some things with that.
So, knowing that I can not resize the partition, while it is mounted, I installed, KDE partition Manager, and also Gpart,to the samsung OB HDD, (USB device), at this time it was working fine, and booted well, etc. So booting with the Samsung, I successfully resized the HD (LINUX partition, ) on this computer, created another primary partition for dos, aprox 2.7 gb, more the enough space. Sucessfully installed Freedos, and updated grub,.. everything seems to be fine so far.
At this point, when I updated grub, I did that with the samsung also attached, and mounted, ..so my "boot menu " was, like this when I first turn on the computer,
------------
1 Linux Mint..
2 Linux Mint recovery mode
3 The memory test option,
4 another memory test option,
5 fredos partition..
6. Linux Mint, on the OB HDD (the Samsung)
7 Recovery mode for Linux Mint on the Samsung,..
----------------
It dose not read exactly like I wrote it, but basicly that is it. Every item booted, and ran as it should, with no problems.
OK, In order to get the freedos, and the Samsung into the boot menu, I ran update-grub, after booting the main computer, and they were added to the menu like they should be.
So, later, I decided to do the same thing with my lap top, a ACER Aspire 1 series,..I can give more details on that, but don't think it matters to much.
The same every thing went fine, in the Linux install, the laptop is running fine, with Linux Mint,..
I have not yet tried installing freedos to it, because this "problem" with the samsung came up, and it "side tracked me",..
I had copied some files , from the samsung, to the laptop HD, but because of the permissions thing I was haveing some trouble, or it was kind of "cumbersome", haveing to open every thing as admin,don't remember very well, exactly why, but it occured to me, that it would be better, to run update-grub, and get the Samsung/linux, system into the boot menu,
part of my thoughts were to be able to do the same, resize the partition, and set up the freedos partition,..and I wanted to do that before, I got to many files,etc, installed,..just in case if anything went wrong, I would not have very much on it yet, and it would be easy to start over.
When I ran update-grub, with the samsung attached. So anyway, I did update grub, and it seemed to have updated ok, I had the Samsung in the boot menu, and it would boot ok,..
It seems to me, but now I am have some trouble remembering,
I had selected, to boot with the Samsung,
it booted fine, and then from the terminal, of the now active, mounted Samsung, (Linux Mint 10 also),

XXXXX I ran update-grub, and thinking on it, I can not imagen why, or what made me think I needed to do that, so I think that is my "fatal" error. XXXXX
It was at that point, everything sort of "locked up", the terminal "hung", never executing the update grub,.. I was unable to get the prompt, back, in the terminal, so I closed the window (fatal error #2 !!??),..I did get the warning, that there was a unfnished process, going,..but chose to ignore it, after waiting sometime, maybe half a hour, for it to finish, and it didn't,..there was no sign of activity anywhere, on the laptop, or the Samsung,... So after I closed the window,

I found I could not "safely remove" the drive,( Samsung).. and when I unicorns down from the menu, the laptop did not comletely shut down, like it should normal,..it "hung" on the closeing screen, with the Linux logo in the middle,..so I shut it off manually. I disconnected the Samsung, and re-booted, the laptop , the laptop booted fine, and was un affected,.. however from this point on, the Samsung with Linux, has been stuck in this, "frozen" state,..unreadable,acessable, saying it is not mounted, but it is, etc,... I suspect it is still "stuck" trying to update grub, that that is the meaning of this :

fsck.ext4: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdc1
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?

So any way I am glad I took the time, to write this, if nothing else, I now know I should not have tried doing that, running upadte-grub, from the device, when it alread had been updated, in the main systems, boot menu,..and this is what comes up, when the machine is first turned on, I know what I was thinking, now, but that isn't really important, it was because, the Samsung,with linux, would not boot by itself, I had to boot with the system first, then add the samsung to the boot menu, once added to the menu, it would boot fine, and run with Mint. If I disconnected, the 0 HD ( in my bios), and placed the 1 HD (being the Samsung) at the top, as the first one to boot, it won't boot by its self, ( this is on the big computer ,IBM), on the laptop, similar, but it offers a selection, if you hit f12, the menu says, 1 boot with hd, 2 boot with usb,(samsung blablabla), 3. Network boot,(never did work),...
But the same if I tried booting with USB, it would not, it had to be added to the grub boot menu. I was trying to change that, and I "broke" it, don't know if it can be fixed, any other way then a complete format,..But now I know it was not just a "accident",.. I should not have tried to update-grub, from it, it never occired to me this would happen, maybe it shouldn't have, if it is a "bug" of sorts,..in a way it is, because I thought, the worse the would happen is I would get some kind "error, can not update grub", and be able to cancel, ...???..
Hope you can follow this, I am going to post it, sorry about the spelling and it is late, Probaly tommorow, I can edit for the spellinh, but I am to tired now. It is a long drawn out ,"history",...But this is something I also try to teach my son, "don't do so many things, so fast, and then when the computer "locks up", and nothing works, you can not remember, what all it is that you did",.. if it breaks, the only way to repair it is if you can go back step by step, and review what you did, then you might figure out what you did to "break" it, but at least know not to to that again.

After all the above, this;
quote] 1.Boot from the live disc.

2.Plug in the OB HDD.

3.Run (Trying a "creative syntax" here!)
CODE: SELECT ALL
sudo mount -o remount /

4.Immediately reboot the computer.

5.Try to run the fsck command as before. (making sure like you did before to use the correct partition and no mounting)
[/quote] Is what worked.
Thanks for all your time on this,..