ryan linex laptop meltdown

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ravanwin
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ryan linex laptop meltdown

Post by ravanwin » Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:27 pm

hey - big problem here if anyone can help - i really need my computer over the next few days. it is not yet 2010

so - tried to make a folder on my desktop and my computer told me it was "read only." that was odd.

so, i restarted it:

Not sure what is going on here. i recently put some new photos on the computer and may have over streatched the hard drive space but i thought i had 4 - 5 gigs and added no more than two.

Anyone have thoughts or ideas? please help.

below are the transcribed details.
happy holidays!

amongst other things here is what it says:

UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.

fsck died with exit status 4

An automatic file system check of the root filesystem failed. A manual fsck check must be peformed and then the system restarted. The dsck should be performed in maintenence mode with the root filesystem mounted in read only mode.

* the root filesystem is currently mounted in read only mode.
A maintence shell will now be started.

bash: no job control in this shell
bash: groups: command not found
bash: the: command not found.

The program 'apt-get' is currently not installed. you can install it by typing: apt-get install apt

bash: apt-get: command not found
bash: dircolors: command not found
bash: the: command not found.

The program 'apt-get' is currently not installed. you can install it by typing: apt-get install apt

bash: apt-get: command not found

<and>

Not sure what is going on here. i recently put some new photos on the computer and may have over streatched the hard drive space but i thought i had 4 - 5 gigs and added no more than two.

Anyone have thoughts or ideas? please help.

below are the transcribed details.
happy holidays!

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martinmckenna
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Post by martinmckenna » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:09 pm

sounds not to good

a short term solution may be to use a live cd access your files on computer , you can use a ubuntu cd for this , does your cd rom work ?

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ravanwin
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Post by ravanwin » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:33 pm

my cd rom is pretty broke!

r

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Post by ravanwin » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:42 pm

found a cd. how do i get it to boot live?

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Post by martinmckenna » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:47 pm

when you start the computer it may come up with some info on booting from the cd first or the boot order .

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ravanwin
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Post by ravanwin » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:53 pm

nope

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Post by martinmckenna » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:59 pm

am not sure now to do it , maybe its best to leave it until you get someone who knows how to fix the original problem . i dont want to make things worst .

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Post by chombee » Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:32 pm

So Ryan, I assume the computer is leaving you with a maintenance-mode shell, i.e. a text-only login, and you can't get to your desktop?

If at all possible you should get some linux geek to see to your laptop in person to fix this. But failing that:

What you need to do to fix it is just what it says at the top of the error message, run fsck manually. Most of the rest of the long error message, the stuff about bash and apt-get etc., is just knock-on effects due to the first error. Don't worry about them, just fix the first error and they will go away. So run fsck. Fsck is the name of a program, it's short for filesystem check. It will check your filesystem, the thing that contains all your files and folders, for errors and try to correct any errors it finds. Type fsck to run it. It will likely find errors in your filesystem and offer to correct them, just say yes to everything and click through it (using the keyboard, not the mouse).

That should fix your problem in the short-term. In the long-term, however, this little glitch may be a symptom of hard-drive failure. The message "An automatic file system check of the root filesystem failed" means that a problem was found with your filesystem, which is what contains all your files. These problems usually occur because of some "glitch" in the hard drive. i.e., a hardware fault, with the hard drive. When a hard drive starts producing glitches like this, it's likely the hard drive is dying, it will deteriorate and then break completely, and you will lose all your data. Not to be over-dramatic, but you should be thinking of getting everything backed up, and be prepared to have to get your hard drive replace at some point. It could also be a fault with some other part of your hardware, but the hard drive is the primary culprit.

If it makes you feel any better though, sometimes these glitches just happen, and then go away. The forest's server had exactly his problem a few months ago, we ran fsck and fixed it, it hasn't had any further problems since, is still running.

I'll be checking the board so let me know what happens.
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Post by ravanwin » Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:44 pm

wow - thanks chombee - i am going to try this now. got some other tips from ubuntu board but they were way more serious sounding. i do thing my hd is dying.

sniff.

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Post by martinmckenna » Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:48 pm

yes i tend to think so too , couple that with the odd behavior the other day in which ubuntu was going very slow i now think that was because of the hard drive .

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Post by ravanwin » Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:04 pm

ok - nice one chombee! got it back - we'll talk more about what next soon and i'll back up all my shit quick quick.

thanks for the assist.
r

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Post by ravanwin » Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:03 pm

uh - oh

it ia broke again. i seem to be able to load it up in recovery mode. however - in terminal is asked it to fsck but it said that was a bad idea to do to a mounted drive. anyone have any advice. i have no idea.

it is a mess. i have backed up most things.


should i fsck it? i will need a new harddrive soon.

poop.#
r

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Post by ravanwin » Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:09 pm

and what do we know about getting laptop hard drives?


ry

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Post by chombee » Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:07 pm

Is this the hard drive inside your laptop that is having problems or your external one?

Don't fsck the hard drive while it is mounted. I believe the warning it gives you is that it may cause severe damage or something similar. It may!

You need to unmount the drive first. Hmm. But I don't think you can do that if it's the drive inside your laptop, cause that's the one linux is actually running off. In that case I think you need to boot a live cd and use that to fsck, but you need to discover the name of the drive first before you can know the exact fsck command. It's difficult to give instructions on the bb, can you get someone to help you in person?

Also, I don't know the best place to buy a laptop hard drive. Hopefully someone else can advise. I'd hate for you to buy a new drive and then that to turn out not to be the problem, but I am right that this is almost certainly a hard drive fault, am I not? Swithun? Martin?
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Martin
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Post by Martin » Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:49 am

Nothing we've heard so far confirms a hardware problem. Unless the drive's started making funny noises too then it's just as likely the filesystem's just got screwed up somehow, in which case fsck may sort it out or it may be sufficiently fucked to need a reinstall.

If you need to buy a new drive I usually get stuff off dabs.com, generally alright, people also use ebuyer but friends have had trouble with them.

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Post by chombee » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:00 pm

I can't think of a way to test whether it's hardware or just the filesystem. If there is an easier way to find out that would be good. Otherwise if Ryan's already backed up everything he wants safely, maybe a fresh install is the best thing to do, then see if it continues to have problems or not.

Ryan, how much have you added to your system, in terms of new applications and configurations? I seem to remember you have Google Picasa, something for uploading files to flickr or somewhere, something for your mp3 player... was there much else? You'll want to note them down so we can reinstall them.

I'm back in Edinburgh on Sunday so if a reinstall is the way to go I can walk you through it then. Backing up is the worst and most important bit and it sounds like you've done that.
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Post by ravanwin » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:40 pm

ok -

well, i suspect the hard drive has been dying for ages. there have been loads of funny noises coming from my computer as of late. fortunatly, helen has the exact same laptop as i do and has said i can transplant her harddrive (only used it a few times) and so there are a few things I need to back up and maybe some questions but yes - a reinstall / switch would be possible if anyone can help - that would be great. i don't have the other computer to hand but maybe we try a reinstall first and then see what happens?

ry
ps: i have returned

chombee
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Post by chombee » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:24 pm

This laptop seems fucked, maybe beyond just the hard drive. Ryan backed up his stuff onto an external drive with a normal copy, but with some errors. I backed up his whole homedir again with rsync, but again with some errors.

When he boots the laptop or when an install CD tries to read the hard drive or something it gives lots of errors of the type: Buffer I/O Error on /dev/sda5. I think this confirms a hardware problem with the hard drive.

But the Ubuntu alternate install CD ran extremely slow, too slow to reasonably install it, and not just during the parts of the install that you'd think would be using the hard drive, although especially on those parts. I gave up.

I think he should get this replacement hard drive and see if that makes it any better. If not, I don't know what else to do.

Martin, let me know if you agree with me. Cheers.
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Martin
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Post by Martin » Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:00 pm

Could be the hard drive, could be the controller. New drive is probably best to try first.

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