Hi Gaudenz Thanks a lot for your response.
After quite a few tests I'm still stuck with a non-loading root partition. That is, I get to the first boot prompt from where I can choose to start a CD, Linux or OS X. Both the CD and OS X can be booted. Linux doesn't boot. On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 05:35:45PM +0200, Gaudenz Steinlin wrote: > Hi > > On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 04:46:11PM +0200, Wolfgang Pfeiffer wrote: > > Hi All > > > > I can't e2fsck my root partition any more - looks seriously like that > > partition went belly up on me. [ ... ] > > > > Affected machine is a Powerbook5,8a Typo. Should say: Powerbook5,8 > > If you are able to download and burn a CD, trying one of the Lenny beta CDs > might help. They have a special rescue mode included. I'm not sure though if > dumpe2fs is included. Didn't help: neither dumpe2fs nor smartctl is on that CD ... strange thing is, that OS X on its own partition, on the same drive, is still booting. I even updated successfully OS X on its disk partition ... So it's not clear to me yet whether this disk (hda) is really hosed or not. Excerpt from the Debian install syslog, cut: kernel: hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } kernel: hda: dma_intr: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError }, LBAsect=76724680, high=4, low=9615816, sector=76724680 kernel: ide: failed opcode was: unknown kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 76724680 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device hda7, logical block 1 kernel: hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } kernel: hda: dma_intr: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError }, LBAsect=76724676, high=4, low=9615812, sector=76724676 kernel: ide: failed opcode was: unknown kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 76724676 kernel: Buffer I/O error on device hda7, logical block 0 kernel: hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } kernel: hda: dma_intr: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError }, LBAsect=76724680, high=4, low=9615816, sector=76724680 kernel: ide: failed opcode was: unknown kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 76724680 ... and the errors on sectors 76724680 and 76724680 are reported again and again ... and only these 2 sectors, IINM .. Failing hda7 is the root partition. hda6, not being listed here, with quite a few errors, was recoverable ... tho it's not quite clear whether this hda6 errors started while I was playing with the Debian Installer (Etch, IIRC) ... IIRC: the installer later on didn't even see hda7, whereas mac-fdisk did (took quite some time for it to finish the detection ...). "Apple Hardware Test" on the OS X install CD seems to hang/crash, or simply does not load even after 15 Minutes or so ... Oh, and I was playing with libfreevec, on Linux, before this happened ... Whatever. If everyone else understands as much as I do, I'll try to reinstall (ask me someone why I hate that idea ... :) Thanks again, Gaudenz ... :) Best Regards Wolfgang -- heelsbroke.blogspot.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]