install corrupts existing ext3 multi-boot partitions

[Jim B]

I had the same thing during FC2 testing and did not get any response
from the list on how to fix it.  I stumbled across a fix last week when I
ugraded the system to a new Athlon 64 system.  I created new disk
partitions an a larger 160 GB disk and used cpio to copy the files.
I could then reboot from the new disk into Red Hat 9!  The old disk
is still unbootable.  If someone can provide a fix, I could then use
the old hardware with the old disk.

Jim

----------mail to FC2 list on 5/17/04-------------------
I have a system with FC2 on /dev/hda6 (/) and /dev/hda1 (/boot).  I also have a
RedHat 9 system installed on /dev/hda8 (/) and I dual boot the system.  The disk
also has Win2K and WinXP.  The FC2 is a fresh install over a FC2 Test 3 system
as I used this system for testing of the FC2 test releases.  Somewhere along the
line during the FC2 testing, the RedHat 9 system can no longer be booted.  I get
the following messages:
...
...
XT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
attempt to access beyond end of device
03:08: rw=0, want 1219858868, limit=36893241
attempt to access beyond end of device
03:08: rw=0, want 1219858868, limit=36893241
Kernel panic: No Init found.

I think this started after I did a "fixfile" on a FC2T2 system and had the
RedHat partition mounted and it was "fixed" too.  I am really not sure when the
partition became unbootable.  The limit value in the message is the size of the
partition as reported by fdisk.  I also get alignment errors reported from
sfdisk.  The same errors that are reported with other users who have dual boot
problems.  I even tried the fix suggested for the dual boot problem, but it had
no affect.  I do not have a problem with either windows systems, it is just with
RedHat 9.  The system is a Tyan 2460 with two Athlon 1200 cpus and 120 GB disk.

Any idea of now I can get this system bootable?  I can read/write it just fine
from FC2.  It just won't boot.

Jim
-------------------------end of old mail--------------------

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Reiser" <jreiser at BitWagon.com>
To: <fedora-test-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 8:56 PM
Subject: install corrupts existing ext3 multi-boot partitions


>I believe that I may have suffered a case where a fresh install of
> Fedora Core 3 [Test 3] with SELinux in targeted, permissive mode borked
> existing multi-booted installations of RedHat 9, RedHat 8.0, and RedHat
> 7.3 [separate ext3 root filesystems for each].  The typical symptom when
> booting an old system is a console message:
>    Freeing unused kernel memory:  156k freed
>    attempt to access beyond end of device
>    03:09: rw=0, want=1219858868, limit=5863693
>    Kernel panic: No init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel.
> I definitely had been multibooting FC2 with selinux=disabled in
> /etc/sysconfig/selinux.  I changed to targeted, permissive mode for
> FC3test1, FC3test2, and FC3test3.  The last successful boot of RH9
> was July 20 according to its /var/log/messages.
>
> The cause might be that install causes all existing ext3 filesystems
> get the new attribute ext_attr, and older kernels have bugs interpreting
> this.  This seems to happen even for filesystems that were omitted from
> the mount list when DiskDruid was run during install of FC3test3.  "Auto
> management" of /media/idediskN might be a reason why.
>
> Both RH9 e2fsck 1.32 (09-Nov-2002) and RHEL3 e2fsck 1.35 (28-Feb-2004)
> say that all filesystems are OK [checked in RH9 rescue mode, and from
> RHEL3: unmount, then "e2fsck -f /dev/hda9", etc.], but the old kernels
> don't get it.  A multibooted RHEL3 2.4.21-20.EL does work correctly.
>
> Which component(s) deserve(s) a bugzilla report for this?  Exactly where
> in the install process did ext_attr get applied to existing filesystems?
> It seems to me that the Release Notes for Fedora Core 3 should mention
> this situation.
>
> So, how do I recover?  [I need to boot the old systems to support
> customers who run them.]  What about a procedure like this:
>   1. Boot RH9 rescue mode.  Create a new ext3 without ext_attr.
>   2. Boot FC3test3 rescue mode with selinux=0.  Mount old and new
>      partitions; copy all files from old to new.
>   3. Edit /etc/fstab of FC3test3 to list all ext3 partitions,
>      and use 'ro' [readonly] or 'noauto' for ones that must
>      not ever have ext_attr turned on.
>   4. Try to boot RH9 using the new copy (after adjusting the ext3 label,
>      etc.)
>
> What am I overlooking?
>
> -- 
>
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