[svlug] Reiserfs boot failure.

[Rob Reilly]

I'm trying to figure out if my version of Reiserfs has a bug or my disk
has died.   Machine
was running overnight and was unresponsive this morning.  Rebooted and
received error:

  VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
  Loading module reiserfs  ...
  Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/fs/reiserfs/reiserfs.o
  FAT: bogus logical sector size 5376
  FAT: bogus logical sector size 5376
  read_super_block: can't find a reiserfs filesystem on (dev 03:01,
block 64, size 1024)
  read_super_block: can't find a reiserfs filesystem on (dev 03:01,
block 8, size 1024)
  Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:01

Descriptioin of Laptop PC:
    300 Mhz. P II Intel.  NoName Clone
    128 MB ram.
    Trident Video chip
    ESS Maestro 2 sound chip
    4 GB HD
          hda:  IBM-DKLA-24320, ATA Disk Drive
          hda:  8452080 sectors (4327 MB) w/460KiB Cache,
CHS=559/240/63, UDAM(33)
          This disk is about 4.5 years old.
           Partitions (as I recall)
                /      2.5 GB     reiserfs                at about 50%
full
                /home      1.3 GB      reiserfs    at about 40% full
               /swap   .2 GB

Software:
    SuSE 7.3 Pro  kernel ver. 2.4.20-4GB
    Normal minimal graphic workstation - using FVWM2 as window manager.
    Recently loaded KDE base and kdesysguard packages.  Recently added
MySQL and
          Postrgresql packages.
    Reiserfs on /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda3.


Started machine using rescue option on SuSE 7.3 Pro CD.

Ran "reiserfsck --check  /dev/hda3"  received:

    <-------------reiserfsch, 2001 --------------->
    reiserfsprogs 3.x.0k-pre9

    Will read-only......
    Will put log.......
    Do you want to run........
    3276k will be used
    reiserfs_open: neither new nor old reiserfs format found on
/dev/hda3
    main.c 698 main
    reiserfsck: could not open filesystem on "/dev/hda3"
    Aborted

Tried other options (rebuild tree, etc.) with reiserfsck and recvd. same
message.

Currently can't mount the drive (/dev/hda1 or3) with mount command while
running
from rescue CD.

1.  Are there any H/W tests to see if the drive is good or bad?
2.  Are there any bugs that would cause these errors in this version of
Reiserfs?
           If there are known bugs, is there any way to recover the
partitions?
3.  Should I try to reformat (with marking of bad sectors, etc. on) and
then reload SuSe 7.3?
          If reformat and reload, what steps should I take to prevent
the same future problem?
4.  Should I just upgrade to a 10 GB HD and reload 7.3?


Thanks for the help

Rob Reilly


----------------------
Rob Reilly
rreilly at cfl.rr.com
http://home.cfl.rr.com/rreilly
407-718-3274
----------------------