[wellylug] Ubuntu boot issue

Daniel Pittman daniel at rimspace.net
Thu Feb 8 12:07:29 NZDT 2007


Steve Macdonald <dakmani1 at yahoo.co.nz> writes:

> I have Ubuntu dual booting on a laptop but all of a sudden on start up get
> this on start up

[...]

> dosfsck 2.11, 12 mar 2005 Fat32, LFN
> There are differences between boot sector and its backup
>
> (lists a pile of sectors)
>
> Not automatically fixing this
> /dev/hda1 27971 files, 662137, 1308014 clusters
>
> Now it boots into its windows installation fine, and if I reinstall
> Ubuntu it still comes up with this message. It was previously booting
> fine.

Well, Ubuntu has detected and registered to mount a Fat32 partition.

Unfortunately, whatever the cause, something has corrupted the FAT32
partition a bit -- the "differences between boot sector and its backup"
there is the file system checking tool reporting that.

You have two options to fix this:

A.  Edit the file '/etc/fstab' and comment out the line representing the
    FAT32 partition.  

    If you are not sure how post here and I, or someone else, can give
    reasonably simple instructions.


B.  Run the file system checker by hand and ask it to repair the
    partition.

    This will *fix* the problem but, to be safe, you should make sure
    you take a backup of the data on the drive first.

    Then, at the prompt you run (the ']' represents the prompt):

        ] /sbin/dosfsck /dev/hda1

    That should fix the problems, asking you if necessary, and allow the
    system to complete booting next time around.

    If you are brave you can, instead, run this command:
 
        ] /sbin/dosfsck -a /dev/hda1

    That will automatically repair the problem, choosing the least
    destructive option automatically, without prompting you.

    Anyway, once that command has completed run this:

        ] sync; mount -a -o ro; sync

    Then reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del and you should have a working Ubuntu
    system the next time around.


Oh, actually, you probably do have a third option:

C.  Boot into Windows and check the file system for errors with the
    Windows tools.  They, hopefully, will correct the problem for you
    and consequently permit Ubuntu to boot.


Regards,
        Daniel
-- 
Digital Infrastructure Solutions -- making IT simple, stable and secure
Phone: 0401 155 707        email: contact at digital-infrastructure.com.au
                 http://digital-infrastructure.com.au/




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