Not able to read files from hda1...

[merck4819]

I am brand new to the world of Linux, and I am hoping that someone can help me resolve a problem I am having while running knoppix (v4.0) from a live_cd. When I try to boot from the CD without using any "cheats" the process hangs when it gets to 'Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab...'. I am able to work around this problem by using 'nofstab', but once everything is up and running, I am not able to find any /hd* folders on the desktop. I've tried to mount the drive manually but have not had any luck so far. The computer I am using is an old Toshiba laptop with windows XP (one hard drive single partition), so I know I can not write to the hard drive, but I would like to be able to read from it. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[rwcitek]

Welcome to Knoppix, merck4819,

When I try to boot from the CD without using any "cheats" the process hangs when it gets to 'Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab...'.

Some questions:
- What version of Knoppix are you using? (4.0.2?)
- Have you looked at the Tips&Tricks section of the Cheatcodes page? My guess is that you might want to try the failsafe cheatcode.
- If yes, what boot options did you try and how far did you get in the boot process?
- Are you getting any error messages and, if yes, what exactly do they say?

Please post back and let us know how things go.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[merck4819]

Thank you for your reply. To answer your questions:

-Yes, I am using v4.0.2
-I tried all of the cheatcodes in the Tips&Tricks sections with the following results:
boot: knoppix vga=0 - hung on following statement:
Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab...
boot: knoppix acpi=off pnpbios=off noapic noapm
same results as above
boot: failsafe debug -b 3 - I was able to get through boot process and startup, but still was not able to see hard drive. The only things present on desktop are CD-ROM, Floppy, KNOPPIX.desktop, and trash.desktop icons. I am able to get the same results by booting with the 'nofstab' cheatcode (without losing all of the other hardware functionality).

-I haven't gotten any error messages at all except for one regarding a sound card driver which I don't think would have any affect on this issue.

Any other suggestions on how I might be able to find and mount the hard drive would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!

[rwcitek]

boot: failsafe debug -b 3
I was able to get through boot process and startup, but still was not able to see hard drive. The only things present on desktop are CD-ROM, Floppy, KNOPPIX.desktop, and trash.desktop icons. I am able to get the same results by booting with the 'nofstab' cheatcode (without losing all of the other hardware functionality).

How did you get a desktop? The -b and the 3 at the boot prompt should have droped you into emergency mode and a virtual text console, respectively.

Boot to a virtual text console with the following: boot: failsafe 3. Then type the following code:

true ; ( set -x
cat /proc/cmdline
cat /proc/partitions
fdisk -l /dev/hd?
) >& output.txt

Please post the contents of output.txt here.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[merck4819]

It did drop me into emergency mode with a virtual text console. I was able to get to a desktop by typing init 5 one the boot process was complete.

Entering the command below:

true ; ( set -x
cat /proc/cmdline
cat /proc/partitions
fdisk -l /dev/hd?
) >& output.txt

from the text console after booting with failsafe -3 produced an empty (0byte) file.

[rwcitek]

It did drop me into emergency mode with a virtual text console. I was able to get to a desktop by typing init 5 one the boot process was complete.

Fair enough. It just caught me off-guard since a desktop is not what is expected when booting with "-b 3".

Entering the command below:

true ; ( set -x
cat /proc/cmdline
cat /proc/partitions
fdisk -l /dev/hd?
) >& output.txt

from the text console after booting with failsafe -3 produced an empty (0byte) file.

Now that is also unexpected. Here's what I get when I type those commands on my machine:

root@tty1[/]# true ; ( set -x                                                   
> cat /proc/cmdline                                                             
> cat /proc/partitions                                                          
> fdisk -l /dev/hd?                                                             
> ) >& output.txt                                                               
root@tty1[/]# cat output.txt                                                    
+ cat /proc/cmdline                                                             
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=0 nomce dma fromhd=
/dev/hda1 noeject noprompt 3                                                    
+ cat /proc/partitions                                                          
major minor  #blocks  name                                                      
                                                                                
   3     0    1048320 hda                                                       
   3     1    1048288 hda1                                                      
 240     0    1942016 cloop0                                                    
+ fdisk -l /dev/hda /dev/hdb /dev/hdc /dev/hdd /dev/hde /dev/hdf /dev/hdg /dev/h
dh                                                                              
                                                                                
Disk /dev/hda: 1073 MB, 1073479680 bytes                                        
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2080 cylinders                                      
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes                                  
                                                                                
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System                  
/dev/hda1   *           1        2080     1048288+  83  Linux                   
root@tty1[/]#

Are you sure you didn't mistype something? What happens if you just type 'cat /proc/cmdline'?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[merck4819]

Thank you for the quick response. After trying to run that command again, I realized that it was not completing successfully, so I ran it piece by piece. the results are below (please excuse the formatting as I am sitting at a different XP desktop). Notice that the results of the 3rd command are not complete. When executing them one at a time, the first 2 worked successfully, but the 3rd just hung after a couple of seconds and didn't do anything else. The text pasted below was the only thing in the file when it froze:

+ cat /proc/cmdline
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us vga=normal atapicd nosound noapic noacpi pnpbios=off acpi=off nofstab noscsi nodma noapm nousb nopcmcia nofirewire noagp nomce nodhcp xmodule=vesa initrd=minirt.gz BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux 3


+ cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

3 0 19535040 hda
240 0 1942016 cloop0

+ fdisk -l /dev/hda /dev/hdb /dev/hdc /dev/hdd /dev/hde /dev/hdf /dev/hdg /dev/hdh

[rwcitek]

+ cat /proc/cmdline
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us vga=normal atapicd nosound noapic noacpi pnpbios=off acpi=off nofstab noscsi nodma noapm nousb nopcmcia nofirewire noagp nomce nodhcp xmodule=vesa initrd=minirt.gz BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux 3

Good. This shows you are booting with failsafe.

+ cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

3 0 19535040 hda
240 0 1942016 cloop0

Good. Linux sees the drive as a ~20 GB drive on hda.

+ fdisk -l /dev/hda /dev/hdb /dev/hdc /dev/hdd /dev/hde /dev/hdf /dev/hdg /dev/hdh

Does linux hang completely at this point or are you still able to switch to another virtual console and type commands?

I'm guessing that knoppix has difficulty with either your IDE channel or your drive.

Boot again with boot: failsafe 3 and they type the following:

 ( set -x 
dmesg
hdparm -I /dev/hda
) >& output.txt

Please post the contents of output.txt here if anything is given.

Here's another thing to try. In virtual console 1 (VC-1), type this:

while : ; do dmesg -c ; sleep 1 ; done

In virtual console 2 (VC-2), type this:

sleep 5 ; fdisk -l /dev/fd0 /dev/hda

Switch back to VC-1. You should see an error message regarding "dev fd0" and then possibly about hda. Post any error messages about hda. If nothing shows up, switch back to VC-2. Anything on the screen?

BTW, to switch between virtual consoles type Ctrl-Alt-F1 for VC-1, Ctrl-Alt-F2 for VC-2, etc.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[merck4819]

I apologize for not replying back with the results sooner, but I was away on business and did not have access to the laptop. Thank you for all of your help so far, but I think we can terminate this thread. I only wanted to access a few files off of the hard drive, and after copying them out to a network folder I was able to open them without a problem. Since Knoppix seems to be working fine with all of the other hardware on the machine, I don't think I need any more help at this time.

thanks again!