Very Computer

To the Guru's,

I tested how Linux would recover from a power failure by simply turning
off the PC without doing a proper shutdown. It failed miserably. It will
not reboot.

It seems to do fine until it gets to the point where it tries to mount
/ (my /dev/hda3). So, I took out my boot/root disk and
booted with it. Didn't work either, because it also tries to mount
/dev/hda3. So, next I tried booting with the abare/color disk combination
and managed to boot. I then mounted /dev/hda3 unto the /root directory,
just to see if I can still access it. I could, but cannot execute
executable programs.

I then read the Sys Admin guide from LDP, and guessed from the info
that maybe the file system was trashed (for some background, the disk
did have some bad sectors when I first formatted it). It advised me
for such a situation to try and fix it with a utility called e2fsck
which I should find on my boot/root disk. It wasn't and neither was it
on abare/color. So, I proceeded to copy it from /root/sbin (remember
I mounted /dev/hda3 unto /root) to /bin, thinking maybe I can execute it
from there. I couldn't. I can see it with an "ls -l", which seem to
indicate it was executable (rwxr-xr-x), but I can not execute it.

So, please tell me, O Linux Guru:
1. Why did it fail to reboot? Please guess or tell me what details you
   need and how I can get them.
2. How come I can't execute programs I described above? How can I
   execute e2fsck or any other programs from the mounted disk (vi
   especially).
3. Or, here's a thought, how can I reboot without checking the file
   system? I'm guessing that is where it is failing, and I could execute
   e2fsck after it boots (oh, but will e2fsck work on a mounted disk?).

Otherwise, I'll just read it here.

Thanks to all. This group has helped me a lot, and I've also contributed
some. This really is a fast way to learn.

Again, thanks in advance.

Regards,

Quote:>I then read the Sys Admin guide from LDP, and guessed from the info
>that maybe the file system was trashed

Quote:>...fix it with a utility called e2fsck

Quote:>I can see it with an "ls -l", which seem to
>indicate it was executable (rwxr-xr-x), but I can not execute it.

1) It's not statically linked, and your diskette doesn't have the
required dynamic libraries.  You will have to find a statically linked
version.  Try looking on other "root" or "emergency" diskettes.

2) It ran, but refused to fix the partition.  You'll have to unmount
the partition first (e.g. "umount /dev/fda2").

Incidently, if you login as a user other than root and mount a
filesystem, you won't be able to execute programs off the filesystem.

                   - Jim Van Zandt