Red Hat 9: Group Descriptors Corrupted

[fjl3]

The computer that controls our ENTIRE Call Center is running Red Hat 9, and is now a paperweight.

It says Group Descriptors Corrupted, and all the searching I have done says "Locate and run fsck with alternative metadata structures.", but we can't figure out how to get any kind of prompt.

I have downloaded Red Hat 9 and made a boot CD, and a LiveUSB, but I can't get this machine to boot from either.

We have had this problem since yesterday, and since we don't pay the $30,000 a year for support to our software vendor, we can't get any help.

Is there a way to run fsck, or restore the system from a backup tape, or ANYTHING BEFORE the Grub screen? Is there a Grub command that can help?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated, we are very desperate.

If you need more info please ask, and I will answer as best as I can.

Reformatting, and reinstalling is not an option as we do not own the proprietary OneSystem software required to run our Call Center.

[jayd512]

Since RH9 is almost an antique at this point, caution is word one.
I'm assuming you have system back-ups.
If that's the case, then the only thing I can think of would be to run fsck from a LiveCD.
SystemRecueCD might be able to do the job, and would probably be my first choice for this, as it also has restore tools included.

Other than that... I'm not sure.

[atreyu]

SysRescCD is definitely a good idea, but jc, why can't you boot with the RH9 CD that you downloaded? You should be able to boot it, and assuming the isolinux bootloader kicks in and show you the boot options, you should be able to append " rescue" to the kernel parameters. There might even be a "Rescue mode" entry that you can just select, I don't remember (but don't think so).

I only ask b/c it seems "safer" for lack of a better word, to use the native RH 9 disk to try and rescue it, versus anything else (which still might work, but should be a fall-back, IMO).

[fjl3]

The machine will not boot from CD, or USB.

We have two other machines that it will boot from the CD, but not the machine we are having trouble with.

[fjl3]

SysRescCD is definitely a good idea, but jc, why can't you boot with the RH9 CD that you downloaded? You should be able to boot it, and assuming the isolinux bootloader kicks in and show you the boot options, you should be able to append " rescue" to the kernel parameters. There might even be a "Rescue mode" entry that you can just select, I don't remember (but don't think so).

I only ask b/c it seems "safer" for lack of a better word, to use the native RH 9 disk to try and rescue it, versus anything else (which still might work, but should be a fall-back, IMO).

I agree, but it never gives us a boot prompt.

[atreyu]

right, I should have put that together ... Red Hat 9 means ancient hardware, too...

so you can't boot with ANY CD...hmmm... well, how brave are you? Is it a singe hard drive in the PC? You could temporarily remove it and put it in another PC that can CD/USB boot, then run fsck (and anything else) and then put it back.

You could also, add a 2nd drive to the PC and install a fresh, new OS (CentOS 5/6 or Fedora 16, e.g.), and grab that call center software from the original drive.

Or you could just add the effed up drive to another PC and install a new OS on that 2nd PC, and again, have access to the call center data.

As a point of caution, you could also back up the drive, before you do anything else, using Clonezilla, but you may not have time to do that.

[jayd512]

Is it a singe hard drive in the PC? You could temporarily remove it and put it in another PC that can CD/USB boot, then run fsck (and anything else) and then put it back.

I thought about the same thing.
But I hadn't considered the 'software grab'.
I think if there was a problem with that, it may be dependencies on older libs, or issues with SW compatibility. Great option though!

[fjl3]

Those are great suggestions, but we don't have any other machines that are as ancient.

[atreyu]

@jayd512,
Good point - if the CC stuff is binary, then he'd want to install RH9 instead of something shiny and new...

you can get actually download Shrike here...

Index of /pub/redhat/linux/9/en/iso/i386

[atreyu]

Those are great suggestions, but we don't have any other machines that are as ancient.

why does the machine have to be ancient? Do you mean no PC has an IDE interface? Or some other hardware dependency?