Re: New install - Unable to get my ppc Mac Mini to boot the root partition

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Mark Knecht <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi all,
> =C2=A0 I have a Mac Mini that I've used for the last couple of years. I
> was trying to get it up to date but at some point it failed with a
> message about the main root partition not being an ext2 filesystem. I
> took the opportunity to rebuild the machine from scratch, at this
> point twice, but I continue to get the same message. I'm trying to
> determine if something about the machine is completely hosed and the
> machine will never work again or if it's just some problem I'm having.
>
> =C2=A0 In these rebuiilds I went the direction of completely wiping the
> hard drive and starting from scratch. I used mac-fdisk, hit 'i', had
> only the Apple partition map, and then created the next 3 partitions
> as per the install guide. The installs (both of them) went cleanly and
> I didn't seem to have any problems running yabootconfig as far as I
> can tell. No complaints from the software except for my typing a path
> to the kernel incorrectly a couple of times. Once I got that right it
> seemed to finish and created the yaboot.conf file below.
>
> =C2=A0 When I attempt to boot the system finds the kernel, does all the
> early boot stuff, says it finds /dev/hda and /dev/hda, then it starts
> the init stuff with the green '*' and [OK] on the right until it wants
> to mount the root partition. At that point it tells me the partition
> is wrong, not ext2, and quits.
>
> =C2=A0 I don't understand how the partition can be incorrect if it's good
> enough to find the kernel to boot.
>
> =C2=A0 Can someone set me right on what I might be doing incorrectly here=
.
> If the info below isn't enough let me know what you need.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
>
> livecd ~ # mac-fdisk /dev/hda
> /dev/hda
> Command (? for help): p
> /dev/hda
> =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0# =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0type name =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0length =C2=A0 base
> =C2=A0 =C2=A0( size ) =C2=A0system
> /dev/hda1 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 Apple_partition_map Apple =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 63 @ 1
> =C2=A0 =C2=A0( 31.5k) =C2=A0Partition map
> /dev/hda2 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 Apple_Bootstrap bootstrap =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 1600 @ 64
> =C2=A0 =C2=A0(800.0k) =C2=A0NewWorld bootblock
> /dev/hda3 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 2097152 @ 1664
> =C2=A0 =C2=A0( =C2=A01.0G) =C2=A0Linux swap
> /dev/hda4 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 Apple_UNIX_SVR2 root =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =
=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 154202672 @
> 2098816 =C2=A0 ( 73.5G) =C2=A0Linux native
>
> Block size=3D512, Number of Blocks=3D156301488
> DeviceType=3D0x0, DeviceId=3D0x0
>
> Command (? for help): q
> livecd ~ #
>
> livecd ~ # mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/gentoo/
> livecd ~ # mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
> livecd ~ # mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
> livecd ~ # chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
> livecd / # env-update
>>>> Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache...
> livecd / # source /etc/profile
> livecd / # export PS1=3D"(chroot) $PS1"
> (chroot) livecd / # ls -al /boot/
> total 5064
> drwxr-xr-x =C2=A02 root root =C2=A0 =C2=A04096 Aug 28 16:51 .
> drwxr-xr-x 19 root root =C2=A0 =C2=A04096 Aug 31 10:17 ..
> -rw-r--r-- =C2=A01 root root =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 0 Aug 22 03:50 .keep
> lrwxrwxrwx =C2=A01 root root =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 1 Aug 28 15:23 boot -> =
.
> -rwxr-xr-x =C2=A01 root root 5195929 Aug 31 09:31 kernel-2.6.34-gentoo-r1
> (chroot) livecd / #
>
> (chroot) livecd / # cat /etc/yaboot.conf
> ## yaboot.conf generated by yabootconfig 1.0.8
> ##
> ## run: "man yaboot.conf" for details. Do not make changes until you have=
!!
> ##
> ## For a dual-boot menu, add one or more of:
> ## bsd=3D/dev/hdaX, macos=3D/dev/hdaY, macosx=3D/dev/hdaZ
>
> boot=3D/dev/hda2
> device=3D/pci@f4000000/ata-6@d/disk@0:
> partition=3D4
> root=3D/dev/hda4
> timeout=3D30
> install=3D/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
> magicboot=3D/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
>
> image=3D/boot/kernel-2.6.34-gentoo-r1
> =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0label=3DLinux
> =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0read-only
> (chroot) livecd / #
>

The messages on the screen when trying to boot are:

* Checking root filesystem
ext2fs_check_if_mount: Can't check if filesystem is mounted due to
missing mtab file while determining whether /dev/da4 is mounted.
fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hda4
/dev/hda4:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem.
<snip>

* Filesystem couldn't be fixed. :(

- Mark