[enderbean]

Ok, my laptop was running just fine (ubuntu 7.10), and I think the last thing I did was update (but I did not upgrade to 8.04). When I start up now, it says there is an error on the disk and checks it, then comes up with this output:

Inode 13910689 (/usr/share/python-support/python-gobject/pygtk.py) has invalid mode (00).


/dev/sda1: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
        (i.e., without -a or -p options)
fsck died with exit status 4
                                                                                     [fail]
 * An automatic file system check (fsck) of the root system filesystem failed.
A manual fsck must be performed, then the system restarted.
The fsck should be performed in maintenance mode with the root filesystem mounted in read-only mode.
 * The root filesystem is currently mounted in read-only mode.
A maintenance shell will now be started.
After performing system maintenance, press CONTROL-D
to terminate the maintenance shell and restart the system.
bash: no job control in this shell
bash: groups: command not found
bash: lesspipe: command not found
bash: Command: command not found
bash: The: command not found
bash: dircolors: command not found
bash: Command: command not found
bash: The: command not found

What does it mean, and how can I fix it? Thank you so much.

[MikeTbob]

It means that fsck found an error on your Hard drive and you need to run the command manually. I would suggest that you boot your Ubuntu LiveCD and run fsck from there.
The command would be something like
fsck -t ext3 /dev/hda1 for the 1st partition /dev/hda2 for the 2nd and so on. If you want to check the entire drive you could use
fsck -t ext3 /dev/hda
Or if you have SATA drives, then use this
fsck -t ext3 /dev/sda1
Also, be sure the partition that you are repairing is not mounted when you do this.
See the man page for lots of good info on fsck
man fsck