on 19 Sep 99, Oliver Elphick wrote... >My normal approach to this is to run fsck with the -y option, to let it >answer yes to all questions; alternatively, you can answer its questions >one at a time yourself: just say yes every time, because the alternative >is correcting the disk with a binary editor, which is almost certainly >not possible for you. I know I wouldn't want to try! > >After this process, you may find some disconnected files in the partition's >/lost+found directory. You will have to examine these to try and work >out where they came from. > >If you end up with any files whose permissions are insane and which cannot >be deleted, you will have to give up and recreate the partition. >
This in response to my cry for help. Daniel Faller and Mark Brown also replied basically on the same lines. Many thanks to you all. When I thought I understood your advice, I did '# fsck -y /dev/hdbxx' and as I'm sure you anticipated the repair was effected without difficulty. Booting is now normal and I have no 'dicky' files. This is a relief - (for senior citizens like me each problem comes as another first-time 'catastrophe' and seems insoluble). My /usr filesystem was also file-checked (I think in the normal routine manner). I haven't seen any reference yet to, the basis on which this is done, the 'maximal' referred to, and how and where is it set. My gratitude and regards, John.
