(SOLVED) bootloader or device issues after dual boot install xp and pclos

[jaybee]

Thanks for responding! I've had bad luck with other distro forums before:

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xac74ac74

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1       11099    89152686    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           11100       19896    70661902+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           19897       20023     1020127+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Here's the backup information we need, in your Reply #2.  Grin Grin Grin

So, one can wipe the MBR, recreate the partition table, then reinstall grub, without doing a complete installation of either OS. Worst case scenario is that there's a bad block within the fist logical block, and the procedure fails, dictating a new drive. Best case scenario, we do the procedure and everything works properly again. It seems worth a shot, to me. Cheesy

***********
Okay, I do not know how to do that, but I'll bet it's on the net somewhere. Also, I do have many tools including a new UBCD which includes tools for reinstalling the MBR from a file - oh, you said recreate the "partition table". Ya, I'm clueless on that, but would like to solve this one as I've been here before and did the whole reinstall windblows, then the real OS thing. So, I'll start looking and if you have any links or instructions you'd like to throw at me, that would really be great!

[jaybee]

Is there any possibility that   testdisk   could recreate the partition table?
***********
Thank You, I'll look at that too.

[ThirdOfSix]

jaybee,

I don't really like to get into the middle of something like this. But I just have to ask a couple of questions since you have already wiped your PCLOS install.

A while back, you said:

I've been using pclos for years and like to swap drives and experiment. Also, I used the same CD on this Dell C610 as well as another C610 and a Dell GX260. They all worked fine. I'm pretty sure the CD is good. Be back shortly with the info.

This leads me to believe that you have been into the hardware and know how to change drives etc.

Have you been into the machine since the last time you had mepis running on it?

And, do you by chance have a Western Digital drive in that machine?

The reason that I ask is that I have had similar experiences when using Western Digital drives. They seem to be much more finicky about the IDE interface.

Anyway, I am wondering how your system is cabled up and if the drive is the only device on the particular IDE connector on the motherboard and whether it is set up for cable select and so on.

On one of my systems with and ASUS motherboard and a Western Digital drive, it will only work reliably with the drive connected as the master and jumpered as such and on the end of the cable. I have cables that have the master in the middle and it does not like it.

I recently worked on an Intel based machine with a WD drive that was behaving odd to say the least. An optical drive had been changed out on it and it was trying to use a WD drive with cable select. That machine had really odd intermittant errors on drive access unless you unplugged the optical drive even though the configuration had worked before. Just a change in brand of optical drive triggered the new symptoms.

Anyway, I was able to get the system working by making sure the the WD drive was on the right port and jumpered as master and the optical drive was jumpered as secondary.

On some WD drives, you have a choice on jumpered as master with other drives present or no jumper which makes it master when it is by itself and a choice of cable select. I Don't think that I have ever gotten one to work reliably on cable select on any of the older machines that I have worked on.

I have a number of Western Digital drives so I am not knocking them. I just wanted to point out that when using them, the whole IDE interface can exhibit some strange things unless everything is set up just right.

Bottom line, check and see how things are cabled up and at least, re-seat the cable connectors before you do too much more jumping through hoops.

Also, if the drive is new enough to have the S.M.A.R.T system built in, you might want to find one of the utilities that accesses that information and see if it is showing a near failure condition.

I'll back out of the thread now.

Good luck!

[Old-Polack]

Okay, I do not know how to do that, but I'll bet it's on the net somewhere. Also, I do have many tools including a new UBCD which includes tools for reinstalling the MBR from a file - oh, you said recreate the "partition table". Ya, I'm clueless on that, but would like to solve this one as I've been here before and did the whole reinstall windblows, then the real OS thing. So, I'll start looking and if you have any links or instructions you'd like to throw at me, that would really be great!

I can do better than that, and give you a step by step, command by command, run through, for your exact drive. All you need is the PCLinuxOS liveCD. You need to log in as root, and use the dd and fdisk applications in a terminal. Once the partition table is rebuilt, grub can be reinstalled from the same terminal, using the grub shell. Sounds scary, but it's very simple.

For my curiosity, is this an IBM/Hitachi 160 GB drive? I ask because the specs are exactly the same as mine.

Code: [Select]

Disk /dev/hdb: 164.7 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd7523ebd

While yours says 164.6 GB, the actual bytes are exactly the same, as are all the rest of the specs, except the Disk identifier: number.

If this looks like fun to you, I'll run the whole procedure on my hard drive, and copy/paste the output, with color coding and explanations of what's happening at each stage. 

[jaybee]

**Two Replies
ThirdOfSix, I understand your cautious comments. It does make sense for me to follow old-polack through to the end on this one, but it never hurts to exchange thoughts and bring up ideas. Thank You! FYI, the drive is a Hitachi Deskstar jumpered as master and cabled on the end with the optical in the middle of the same cable.

Old-Polack, since the laptop I am on now has the exact same setup (same xp pro and same pclos) dual booting, can I use some of the info (different partition numbers) to change the table to work? I'm just fishin'
 Jaybee

Oh, you just responded.....I'll  post this anyway and read on.

[jaybee]

Okay, Old-Polack,
Yes, this is a Hitachi 160. Hey, I'm actually very technically minded and can handle anything you need to do - I just have little experience in this field. Whatever is easiest for you is just fine for me. I'm not at all afraid of commands - just know nothing about them. I was thrilled to move from DOS to a GUI as well. So, where do we start?

[Old-Polack]

Okay, Old-Polack,
Yes, this is a Hitachi 160. Hey, I'm actually very technically minded and can handle anything you need to do - I just have little experience in this field. Whatever is easiest for you is just fine for me. I'm not at all afraid of commands - just know nothing about them. I was thrilled to move from DOS to a GUI as well. So, where do we start?

The first thing to do is backup any personal data you can get off the drive, if that's not already been done, and if it's still possible. Usually once one has arrived at this stage, it's too late for that, so one just does the procedure. 

We start with booting into the liveCD, logging in as root, then opening a terminal. The first thing to do is wipe the MBR with the dd command. Pressing the Enter key after each command is a given.

[root@localhost ~]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 

This writes zeros to each bit of the first 512 byte sector of the hard drive, effectively erasing any information that currently exists there.

Next we use the fdisk application to create the partition table, with the exact same cylinders as before.

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk /dev/hda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 20023.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): m    <-- We use the command m to see the command menu.
Command action
   a   toggle a bootable flag
   b   edit bsd disklabel
   c   toggle the dos compatibility flag
   d   delete a partition
   l   list known partition types
   m   print this menu
   n   add a new partition
   o   create a new empty DOS partition table          <-- Note all commands are single letters, spelled out here
   p   print the partition table
   q   quit without saving changes
   s   create a new empty Sun disklabel
   t   change a partition's system id
   u   change display/entry units
   v   verify the partition table
   w   write table to disk and exit
   x   extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): o
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xac74ac74.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.


The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 20023.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): p         <-- To print the partition table, which should now be empty

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xac74ac74

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Command (m for help): n       <-- Command n for new.
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-20023, default 1):   <Enter>             <-- To accept the default.
Using default value 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-20023, default 20023): 11099

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (11100-20023, default 11100):   <Enter>             <-- To accept the default.
Using default value 11100
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (11100-20023, default 20023): 19896

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 3
First cylinder (19897-20023, default 19897):   <Enter>             <-- To accept the default.
Using default value 19897
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (19897-20023, default 20023):   <Enter>             <-- To accept the default.
Using default value 20023

Command (m for help): p      <-- To print the new partition table, as is.

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xac74ac74

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       11099    89152686   83  Linux
/dev/hda2           11100       19896    70661902+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           19897       20023     1020127+  83  Linux

Command (m for help): t        <-- To change a partition's system id.
Partition number (1-4): 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 7
Changed system type of partition 1 to 7 (HPFS/NTFS)

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 3
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
Changed system type of partition 3 to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris)

Command (m for help): p       <-- To check the changes.

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xac74ac74

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       11099    89152686    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           11100       19896    70661902+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           19897       20023     1020127+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Command (m for help): w       <-- To write the partition table to the hard drive, and exit.

I can't do that command without destroying my own partitions, so I just use q to quit without saving changes. You will get a message about the new partition table being usable after the next boot, or some such, or possibly without rebooting, after issuing the command partprobe. Just to be sure, issue the command, then try fdisk -l to see for sure that the running kernel sees the new partitions.

[root@localhost ~]# partprobe /dev/hda

You will get a popup window for each partition found. Just click Cancel for each, or Open with Konqueror, if you want to see the partitions mounting and view the content, which should all still be there.

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xac74ac74

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       11099    89152686    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           11100       19896    70661902+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           19897       20023     1020127+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

If you get this far without errors, it's time to install grub to the MBR.

[root@localhost ~]# grub

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename. ]

grub>                  <-- This is the grub prompt. Yours won't be blue.


We know that grub exists on /dev/hda2 in the /boot/grub/ directory. We can ask grub to find the stage2 file there, to verify that it still exists.

grub> find /boot/grub/stage2
 (hd0,1)

Having found the file, we tell grub to use that partition to install from.

grub> root (hd0,1)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"...  17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,1)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

If you see the succeeded and Done, grub is properly installed.

grub> quit

[root@localhost ~]#

You will see a message about Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time. which is actually a left over from grub starting. Ignore it.

From this point you should be ready to try booting to the installed system again.

Post your results.

[jaybee]

Bummer dude - same results:
could not resolve resume device (uuid= ~a different device number than before~)
booting has failed.
Now, I did get stupid at first and misunderstand what I was supposed to type, but I think I got back on track. I also did the fdisk -l command and saw my external - unplugged it and ran fdisk -l again - you'll see.
Also, I never got the pop-up windows you mentioned (I assume from partition mounting) Here is what I typed:

[root@localhost root]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.0147102 seconds, 34.8 kB/s
[root@localhost root]# fdisk /dev/hda
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklab
el
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x6d6aa33e.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.


The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 20023.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): partprobe /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6d6aa33e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Command (m for help): m
Command action
   a   toggle a bootable flag
   b   edit bsd disklabel
   c   toggle the dos compatibility flag
   d   delete a partition
   l   list known partition types
   m   print this menu
   n   add a new partition
   o   create a new empty DOS partition table
   p   print the partition table
   q   quit without saving changes
   s   create a new empty Sun disklabel
   t   change a partition's system id
   u   change display/entry units
   v   verify the partition table
   w   write table to disk and exit
   x   extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): o
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xca474f39.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.


The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 20023.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xca474f39

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-20023, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-20023, default 20023): 11099

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (11100-20023, default 11100):
Using default value 11100
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (11100-20023, default 20023): 19896

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 3
First cylinder (19897-20023, default 19897):
Using default value 19897
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (19897-20023, default 20023):
Using default value 20023

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xca474f39

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       11099    89152686   83  Linux
/dev/hda2           11100       19896    70661902+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           19897       20023     1020127+  83  Linux

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 7
Changed system type of partition 1 to 7 (HPFS/NTFS)

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 3
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
Changed system type of partition 3 to 82 (Linux swap / Solaris)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xca474f39

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       11099    89152686    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           11100       19896    70661902+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           19897       20023     1020127+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource    busy.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.
[root@localhost root]# partprobe /dev/hda
[root@localhost root]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xca474f39

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       11099    89152686    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           11100       19896    70661902+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           19897       20023     1020127+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8b50dba8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        6709    53890011    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2            6710       13083    51199155    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda3           13084       19457    51199155    b  W95 FAT32
[root@localhost root]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xca474f39

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       11099    89152686    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           11100       19896    70661902+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3           19897       20023     1020127+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
[root@localhost root]# grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
[root@localhost root]# 

[Old-Polack]

jaybee:

Did you actually do the grub install, and get the success flag? I figured you did, but I forgot to tell you all the grub information gets lost when you quit. Just checking.

[jaybee]

Yes, it said "successful" twice just like in your instructions. Should I do it again?

[Old-Polack]

Yes, it said "successful" twice just like in your instructions. Should I do it again?

No, If it's installed, it's installed. Now we need to start over again with the error messages you get when trying to boot. The term "same results:" Isn't very specific. Resolving the resume device is easily fixed, but not really important at this stage. What happens before, and after "booting has failed" is. Again we need the exact wording, to see if there are any subtle changes, or what the current reason for the failure is. Surprise, surprise, there can be a lot of them.

[jaybee]

Well, I said "same results" because the wording was exactly the same right down the line as I typed earlier except for the device number. I'll boot again in the a.m. in case I missed a change and respond with the exact wording. Later,
 Jaybee

[jaybee]

Okay, when I boot up, the pc stops at a pclos splashscreen with a progress bar along the bottom. No progress is ever shown so I hit 'escape' to see what happened and this is what I see:

loading uhci-hcd module
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver u3.0
usb 1-6.3: new low speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
loading reiserfs module
usb 1-6.3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Loading scsi_mod module
SCSI subsystem initialized
Loading sd_mod module
Drivere 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
Loading libata module
Loading pata_sis module
Loading pata_acpi module
Loading ata_generic module
usb 1-6.4: new high speed USB device using ihci_hcd and address 4
waiting for driver initialization
usb 1-6.4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Could not resolve resume device (UUID=86de8aae-7a36-4c62-9a37-f0bfac2ed848)
Creating root device
Mounting root filesystem
mount: could not find filesystem '/dev/root'
Setting up other filesystems
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
Switching to new root and running init
switchroot: /dev does not exist in new root
Booting has failed

[Old-Polack]

Okay, when I boot up, the pc stops at a pclos splashscreen with a progress bar along the bottom. No progress is ever shown so I hit 'escape' to see what happened and this is what I see:

loading uhci-hcd module
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver u3.0
usb 1-6.3: new low speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
loading reiserfs module
usb 1-6.3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Loading scsi_mod module
SCSI subsystem initialized
Loading sd_mod module
Drivere 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
Loading libata module
Loading pata_sis module
Loading pata_acpi module
Loading ata_generic module
usb 1-6.4: new high speed USB device using ihci_hcd and address 4
waiting for driver initialization
usb 1-6.4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Could not resolve resume device (UUID=86de8aae-7a36-4c62-9a37-f0bfac2ed848)
Creating root device
Mounting root filesystem
mount: could not find filesystem '/dev/root'
Setting up other filesystems
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
Switching to new root and running init
switchroot: /dev does not exist in new root
Booting has failed

Note above that the pata_sis module is being loaded, so the hard drive and it's partitions should be seen, and the reiserfs module is loading to read a reiserfs formatted partition. I do not see an ext3 module loading, but your /etc/fstab (below) says that is what is to be used to mount the / partition.

# Entry for /dev/hda2 :
UUID=486b5678-97be-4423-835a-c303aacff036 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/hda3 :
UUID=7743a23d-2cbf-4d8e-9318-ea2ee47161d7 swap swap defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0

If the / partition is actually formatted with reiserfs, your /etc/fstab needs to be edited to properly reflect that.

If the / partition is actually formatted with ext3, as is indicated by /etc/fstab, then the ext3 module needs to be loaded from the initrd image, not the reiserfs module.

To test which is the actual condition, try editing the /etc/fstab using kwrite, from the liveCD, logged in as root.

[root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/hda2                <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# kwrite /mnt/hda2/etc/fstab                <Enter>

Replace ext3 with reiserfs, save the file, then try to reboot to the installed OS.

Post your results.

[jaybee]

 I'm sorry. My bad. Remember earlier I installed mepis, then reistalled pclos? I must have chosen Reiser instead of ext3. Here is what the fstab now looks like: ( I didn't change anything - this is how it is currently installed ):

# Entry for /dev/hda2 :
UUID=84573e86-4a30-40a1-afb3-c4c0772d8950 / reiserfs defaults 1 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/hda3 :
UUID=86de8aae-7a36-4c62-9a37-f0bfac2ed848 swap swap defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0

Do I need to update you again with more info??
Sorry,
 Jaybee