[H-GEN] I don't understand this.

[Ewan Edwards]

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I have a RH73 box that has developed some sort of filesystem error on 
/dev/hda5 such that at boot time a filesystem check is automatically started.  
Unfortunately, the check only gets 4.5% through before a kernel panic with a 
message something about not handling a null pointer reference.

In an attempt to fix this I temporarily took the disc out, put in another and 
installed RH9 on it.  Then put the original hdd back in as /dev/hde[1].  The 
plan was to run fsck under RH9 on all the /dev/hde partitions.  

The partitioning scheme on the RH9 installation is;
/dev/hda1     /
/dev/hda2     swap

The RH73 installation has has six partitions including a swap partition, 
/dev/hda1 to /dev/hda6. 

When attempting to boot RH9, /dev/hde1gets mounted on / instead /dev/hda1.   
There are also messages about not being able to mount non existant partitions 
/dev/hda4, /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 and the boot fails.  

I figure that once /dev/hde1 is mounted on /, the /etc/fstab file from the 
RH73 installed is being used, and since /dev/hda3 to 6 don't exist the errors 
are generated.  What I don't understand is, why /dev/hde1 would be mounted on 
/ when /dev/hda should be mounted on /.  Where could the system be getting 
told to mount /dev/hde1 when it should be mounting /dev/hda1 on the root 
directory?

I've taken the RH73 hdd out again and RH9 boots without any problem.  I've 
checked /etc/fstab on /dev/hda1 and found it to be correct.  I've tried 
booting RH73 in single user mode, but it still tries to mount all the 
partitions and runs into that filesystem error on /dev/hda5.

Suggestions for what to try next?


[1]  I have a PCI card that gives me an extra two IDE channels[2].
[2]  Failing any better suggestions, that comes out next and the RH73 hdd goes 
in as /dev/hdc.



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