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PCLOS 2009.1 Won't Boot After Power Failure


snminc

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Greetings to all, After an unplanned power failure my PC no longer boots into PCLOS. From the LiveCD I've ran fsck which didn't prompt me to fix anything. When PCLOS tries to boot there's a screed of errors including /etc/fstab no such file or directory then it reboots.Any ideas please.Thanks, Scott

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Strange . . . because a powerfailure should not do this much damage ! A few questions:1). What format was the / partition formatted ? 2). Can you from the Live CD mount the / partition of the HD installed PCLos ? And can you see if /etc/fstab is still there ?3). Does the / partition maybe have bad blocks ? ( You can check the not mounted partition with badblocks )4). Did you verify if maybe in the BIOS there are changes because of the powerfailure ? Like names of drives swapped ?;) Bruno

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Many thanks for such a swift reply Bruno.1. My / partition is ext32. The etc/fstab file had disappeared I've managed to replace it from a backup I made after renaming all the UID paths3. I ran the read only badblocks program, no blocks found4. Drive names appear intactAfter replacing the fstab file I now get a series of error mesages ending withFailed to start mesage bus. Could not get UID and GID for username "messagebus"What now oh wise one?Scott

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Hopefully, you have a separate home partition that did not get messed up. Why don't you just reinstall PCLinuxOS being careful not to format the home partition! This will go quite rapidly, and in 30 minutes or less you should have a working and updated system again.I have done this when I have copied my home partition (with an image) from one computer to another, and it saves a bunch of time since you have the right hardware installation by reinstalling the root but you don't have to go thru all the work of setting up a new home (which is the time consuming part, frequently). This only works well of course when the new computer has similar video cards, etc., but that is not a problem with your situation since it is still the same computer!Bill

Edited by BillD
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. . . The etc/fstab file had disappeared . . .
Well Scott, if the fstab file indeed did disappear I suspect that also a bunch of other files did go the same way . . . . and in that case a complete re-install is the only real option out.If you do not have a separate /home partition you best use the Live CD to make a backup of the important personal files of the /home/scott before reinstalling.In any case, this situation - actually losing files because of a powerfailure - is very unusual if you are using a Ext3 formatted partition . . . I am sorry it did happen to you.B) Bruno
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Many thanks to Bruno and Bill for their advice and commiserationsOh well looks like I'll be doing a reinstall tomorrow. Thankfully I've a seperate /home partition but as PCLOS is the primary OS for a 5 way boot I'll try to resurrect my boot loader and fstab from backups made in January.It just goes to prove how important REGULAR BACKUPS are!Worse things happen at sea.Until tomorrow, Good night all

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Thankfully I've a seperate /home partition
A separate /home partition ? Great !!
I'll try to resurrect my boot loader and fstab from backups made in January.
And you made backups too ? Excellent !!This will be easy Scott . . . . nothing to worry about !B) Bruno
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but as PCLOS is the primary OS for a 5 way boot
There's a good chance (if not a must) that it will pick up the others at install of grub. B)
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Strange . . . because a powerfailure should not do this much damage ! A few questions:1). What format was the / partition formatted ? 2). Can you from the Live CD mount the / partition of the HD installed PCLos ? And can you see if /etc/fstab is still there ?3). Does the / partition maybe have bad blocks ? ( You can check the not mounted partition with badblocks )4). Did you verify if maybe in the BIOS there are changes because of the powerfailure ? Like names of drives swapped ?B) Bruno
This has happened to me before. And I did get an OS wipeout. We lose power often around here. The reason that I lost the Linux OS was because the power was restored for a fraction of a second, then went out again, and on again, all in less than two seconds. The short power surges bursts wiped out my Linux and burned out some other equipment that I had here.
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Well, I have a enough of those kind of power outages/surges that I invested in a UPS a number of years ago, and altho I doubt the battery will still run things very long, it has never failed to protect me from the type of problem you have had! A good one, with adequate volt amp rating will run you slightly over $100 (US) when they are on sale, but I personally think they are almost a necessity if you live anywhere with an unstable power grid . . . and I have never lived where there wasn't one B) Bill

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Many thanks to all who offered advice/support/encouragement.Reinstalled PCLOS last night it had finished by the time I got back from walking the dog. You were right striker it did configure all my other OS: Mint, Zenwalk, Mythbuntu and Win XP which is strange since when I did a fresh install of PCLOS 2009.1 when it was released it did detect all the other OS, oh well.Left synaptic pulling in 244 updates whilst I snored the night away. All I've left to do is set up xmarks, edit menu.lst, fstab and the profile path for my shared Thunderbird client.For the record the power failure wasn't to the house it was from the wall socket to the PC.Note to self don't move the PC desk whilst plugged in, Not after I tied up all the excess flex. Thanks againScott

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Glad all went smooth Scott :thumbsup:

. . . don't move the PC desk whilst plugged in . . . .
. . . :( . . . LOL . . . :( . . . you got off lucky, it could have been much worse !B) Bruno
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Pretty soon I'm going to make a live cd for my PCLinux install. I've had enough updates that I don't want to start from square one again. Everything is working (floppy drive is fussy about certain floppies :( ) so it seems a good time to get an image.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Scott,You shouldn't admit things like the moving of the desk with the system on. B) Shhhhh! None of us would have ever known.

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jimtheplanner

Sorry Scott,I just gotta chip in here...The plugged in bit I can understand - coming from an electrical background should present you with no problems BUT moving a desk is pushing it a bit B) B) :hysterical: Jimps We must meet up for another beer.....

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V.T. Eric Layton

Ah... Scotland. Wish I were there to meet up with you guys for a beer, too. I'm not a big beer fan, but I sure would like to see Scotland. B)

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You more than welcome to join us for a beer Eric and I'm not a beer drinker either. Jim drinks enough Guiness for both of us.Although if he keeps up with jokes as bad as "BUT moving a desk is pushing it a bit " ;) I'll be looking for another drinking partner anyway!!!

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