RH9 suddenly won't boot?? Root filesystem damaged?? execvp not found??
Greg Courville
and I left a lot of important information on my linux partition...
First off, I do run a telnet server. Yes I know how insecure that is.
However, I am pretty confident my password is quite resistant to
brute-forcing (a friend of mine tried for an hour and couldn't get
in!). Anyway, yesterday I came to my computer and as soon as I tried
to use it I noticed that the mouse was being extremely sluggish. I
closed every running program, but no improvement! Since I have ports
open for Telnet, SSH, VNC, and FTP, I though it was possible that I
was under a DOS or brute-force attack.
I logged out and back in, and this seemed to clear it up for about a
minute, then it started again. I finally resorted to rebooting...
halfway through the Linux boot sequence, the column of OK's is
interrupted by a FAILED. Here's the full message as best as I can
reproduce it (I can't exactly copy and paste it!):
checking root filesystem
execvp - no such file or directory
[ FAILED ]
Then it tells me the filesystem is damaged and drops me to a root
shell and the prompt says "Repair filesystem 1" and with every
command, the number increases ("Repair filesystem 2", "Repair
filesystem 3", etc). Something like that.
I had been running my system for days without rebooting, so I don't
know exactly at what point this "damage" occurred... Is it possible
that some joker managed to telnet in and screw my system? I think
telnet is the only possibility, since my FTP server only gives write
access to my /home folder. It is also possible that this was caused by
something I installed, but besides VMware I have not done any major
installations lately.
I know many of you have better uses for your time than trying to help
some guy fix his computer, but there are people emailing me and I need
to refer to information that's stuck in Kmail on a system that won't
boot! I need help, fast!
What do you people think happened here, and how should I got about
fixing it?
Thanks
--
Greg Courville
www.gee-enginuity.com
Rich Fearn
> some guy fix his computer, but there are people emailing me and I need
> to refer to information that's stuck in Kmail on a system that won't
> boot! I need help, fast!
This won't help fix your Linux machine, but just to reassure you, there are
plenty of ways that you could mount the Linux partitions in Windows and
access your files. Just search on Google.
RF
Lenard
> This message is rather urgent, as I can't stand being stuck in Windows
> and I left a lot of important information on my linux partition...
>
> First off, I do run a telnet server. Yes I know how insecure that is.
> However, I am pretty confident my password is quite resistant to
> brute-forcing (a friend of mine tried for an hour and couldn't get in!).
> Anyway, yesterday I came to my computer and as soon as I tried to use it
> I noticed that the mouse was being extremely sluggish. I closed every
> running program, but no improvement! Since I have ports open for Telnet,
> SSH, VNC, and FTP, I though it was possible that I was under a DOS or
> brute-force attack. I logged out and back in, and this seemed to clear
> it up for about a minute, then it started again. I finally resorted to
> rebooting... halfway through the Linux boot sequence, the column of OK's
> is interrupted by a FAILED. Here's the full message as best as I can
> reproduce it (I can't exactly copy and paste it!):
>
> checking root filesystem
> execvp - no such file or directory
> [ FAILED ]
>
> Then it tells me the filesystem is damaged and drops me to a root shell
> and the prompt says "Repair filesystem 1" and with every command, the
> number increases ("Repair filesystem 2", "Repair filesystem 3", etc).
> Something like that.
So do what it is asking, after your dropped to the root shell type
something like;
fsck /dev/hdxy ;where hdxy is your root partition(assuming IDE drive).
If I may suggest also check/repair the other Linux partitions at the same
time. Hint fdisk -l (that's the letter L and not the number one)
--
SCO + RICO Act = Justice
Hi! I'm a .sig virus! Copy me to your .sig!
Ohmster
news:8bbf71e5.03102...@posting.google.com:
> checking root filesystem
> execvp - no such file or directory
> [ FAILED ]
>
> Then it tells me the filesystem is damaged and drops me to a root
> shell and the prompt says "Repair filesystem 1" and with every
> command, the number increases ("Repair filesystem 2", "Repair
> filesystem 3", etc). Something like that.
Dude, I dunno what happened to your file system. I had one of those horrible
errors one time after a power fail crash and it really sucked.
What you have to do is drop to the repair shell and issue the command:
fsck \ -y
To check and repair your entire file system. The fsck part calls up, what
else, fsck. The "/" part tells fsck where to check, in this case, "/" means
the whole god dammed file system, starting at root. The "-y" part tells fsck
to answer "yes" every time you are prompted if you want to repair this or
not. If you don't use the "-y", you will be stuck there for a long time,
answering yes to all of the questions.
Do this and then see what you have left to work with, this just might fix
everything.
> execvp - no such file or directory
So far as the execvp part goes, that is a cvs command and is not necessary to
boot the machine. Don't know where that came from. Were you using cvs to get
some new files or programs for your machine?
Good luck.
--
~Ohmster
Ohmster
news:pan.2003.10.28....@127.0.0.1:
> If I may suggest also check/repair the other Linux partitions at the same
> time. Hint fdisk -l (that's the letter L and not the number one)
What does "fsck -l" do? I see no reference to the "l" in the man page for
fsck.
--
~Ohmster
Lenard
Please re-read, I clearly typed fdisk and not fsck. The hint was meant to
provide the other Linux partition(s) that may need repair also.
Maybe be time for a nap to rest those tired eyes :->
Greg Courville
to
> boot the machine. Don't know where that came from. Were you using cvs to
get
> some new files or programs for your machine?
Never used CVS in my life... I always just get binaries from RPMfind.
Thanks for the commands. For someone like me who is relatively new to how
linux works, being told "The file system is broken, now fix it please!" then
kicked into a shell is a little confusing... I come from a Windoze
background, where "The file system is broken" usually involves a yes-or-no
question (fix or not?), as opposed to the OS telling the user to fix it
themselves...
I'll boot back to RH and try that. It'll feel good not to get "bad command
or file name" when I instinctively type ls...
Thanks!
-Greg Courville
Greg Courville
the command, so I rebooted with a bootable CD into a rescue shell, told it
not to mount my current installation, and ran fsck /dev/hda5 (the partition
RH is installed on). It came up clean without even bothering to check
anything, so I ran e2fsck -f /dev/hda5. It ran a thorough check, and also
came up fine without a single problem message. I rebooted and it still has
the same problem.
I guess it's good news that my filesystem isn't corrupt... but I'm still not
any closer to a running system.
Please explain to me what dictates the actions that occur during the boot
process. Is there some kind of a startup script? I think what's killing it
is that for some reason unknown to me, it's trying to start that command
(the CVS command) and can't find it. I don't think it even gets to the part
where it actually checks the file system before quitting because of the
error. Maybe I installed something that overwrote something... Whatever it
is, is there some way to prevent the system from trying to run it (and
failing) during the file system check? More importantly, does anybody know
WHY the system is trying to run it during the file system check?
Also, is there software that will let me mount an ext3 parition under Win98?
-Greg Courville