Reinstalling Grub

[desm]

Thanks - it booted further that time, but it got quite ugly.

Superblock could not be read

fsck died with exit status 8.

I modified your method and retrieved the log file:

Log of fsck -C -R -A -a
Mon Jul 21 22:16:19 2008

fsck 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hda6
/dev/hda6:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

fsck died with exit status 8

It looks serious...

[Jonathan183]

Are you sure the /etc/fstab entry is correct?
When you mount the partition from the live cd if you run

mount

what do you get?
Can you post /etc/fstab contents and output of mount command?

[desm]

Mount:

proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /lib/modules/2.6.20-15-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /lib/modules/2.6.20-15-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
/dev/bus/usb on /proc/bus/usb type none (rw,bind)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
/dev/hda7 on /manmount type ext3 (rw)

Fstab:

# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda8 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda6 /home ext2 defaults 0 2
/dev/hda7 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 ext2 rw,user,auto,exec 0 0
/dev/hdb2 /media/hdb2 ext2 rw,user,auto,exec 0 0

I did try and format the above, but it collapses when posted.

I have a feeling I should be using hda8 instead of hda6. I'll try that tommorow and post back my results. Thanks for helping me thus far !

[Jonathan183]

/etc/fstab has incorrect entries ...

# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda7 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda6 not sure what this is but hda6 is swap ... should it be hda5? /home ext2 defaults 0 2
/dev/hda6 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 ext2 rw,user,auto,exec 0 0
/dev/hdb2 /media/hdb2 ext2 rw,user,auto,exec 0 0

Ed: entries in bold above need to be changed ... root, home and swap all need to be changed. I think the home partition is likely to be on sda5 but if you are not sure then you can always mount the partition and search for a folder with your regular user name eg user name desm then mount sda5 and search for folder desm. If you can not find the separate home partition then just add a # on the home entry in fstab ... ie #/dev/hda6 /home ... this should allow the system to start but your regular user login may fail.

[desm]

It worked wonders and I'm now running debian again (), and more familiar with setting up grub.

So thankyou, and I certainly appreciate the effort you've put in!

[Jonathan183]

Glad its all sorted enjoy your Debian!