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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Ubuntu error: invalid magic number, cannot boot (Mike Miller)
>    2. Re: Ubuntu error: invalid magic number, cannot boot (Mike Miller)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 14:08:25 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Mike Miller <mbmiller+l at gmail.com>
> To: TCLUG List <tclug-list at mn-linux.org>
> Subject: [tclug-list] Ubuntu error: invalid magic number, cannot boot
> Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1210031757310.25266 at taxa.psych.umn.edu>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII
>
> I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on a RAID1 array a few months ago and explained
> it all here:
>
> http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.tclug/20855
>
> I have been running Unity on the box but I normally attach to it via VNC
> (with IceWM) in an SSH tunnel.  A few days ago the VNC session hung on me
> and the Xvnc process was at 100% CPU.  I had to kill it.  (Probably a
> known bug, but I'll skip that story for now.)  Before starting it up
> again, I ran update-manager from the console.  I could see that there was
> something seriously wrong with Unity -- the task bar on the side had only
> one item in it, that was just a grayed out box, and it was unresponsive.
> After running update-manager I rebooted.  I don't know what the exit
> status was for update-manager because it was gone and I don't know if it
> did much.
>
> After rebooting, I have this error:
>
> error:invalid magic number
> error:you need to load the kernel first
>
> Grub will show some options for other kernels.  I have tried some, and
> none of them will boot.  They hang with a bunch of info on the screen.
>
> Any ideas on how to proceed?  What tests should I be doing to find the
> source of the problem?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Mike
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 23:11:47 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Mike Miller <mbmiller+l at gmail.com>
> To: TCLUG List <tclug-list at mn-linux.org>
> Subject: Re: [tclug-list] Ubuntu error: invalid magic number, cannot
> 	boot
> Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1210041953000.31634 at taxa.psych.umn.edu>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII
>
> Update -- It turns out that the oldest kernel on the list was able to work
> in recovery mode which took me to a screen saying this:
>
> Recovery Menu (filesystem state: read-only)
>
> With options: resume, clean, dpkg, failsafeX, fsck, grub, network, root
> and system-summary.
>
> Looking at system-summary it seems pretty normal to me.  The RAID seems
> intact.  So I tried "resume" next.  This got me back to the window
> manager.
>
> Looking back, I'm wondering if my problem was that I didn't reboot the
> system after one set of updates before installing another huge batch of
> updates.  This is from back when the system was starting to behave badly
> but it was still running:
>
> Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-26-generic x86_64)
> 414 packages can be updated.
> 116 updates are security updates.
> *** System restart required ***
>
> It was asking for a reboot, but I didn't do it before updating the
> packages.  Clearly, I should have been keeping up on the updates -- I was
> used to being reminded, but when I don't see the :0 display, I don't see
> the update manager.  Now when I ssh to the box I see this:
>
> Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64)
> 9 packages can be updated.
> 5 updates are security updates.
>
> So I've dropped back a few kernel versions.  What do you think I should be
> doing at this point?  I'm not sure what is wrong or how to fix it.  Maybe
> if I do the updates and reboot, I'll be back to where I want to be.
>
> Anyone?  ;-)
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> On Thu, 4 Oct 2012, Mike Miller wrote:
>
>> I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on a RAID1 array a few months ago and explained
>> it
>> all here:
>>
>> http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.tclug/20855
>>
>> I have been running Unity on the box but I normally attach to it via VNC
>> (with IceWM) in an SSH tunnel.  A few days ago the VNC session hung on
>> me and
>> the Xvnc process was at 100% CPU.  I had to kill it.  (Probably a known
>> bug,
>> but I'll skip that story for now.)  Before starting it up again, I ran
>> update-manager from the console.  I could see that there was something
>> seriously wrong with Unity -- the task bar on the side had only one item
>> in
>> it, that was just a grayed out box, and it was unresponsive. After
>> running
>> update-manager I rebooted.  I don't know what the exit status was for
>> update-manager because it was gone and I don't know if it did much.
>>
>> After rebooting, I have this error:
>>
>> error:invalid magic number
>> error:you need to load the kernel first
>>
>> Grub will show some options for other kernels.  I have tried some, and
>> none
>> of them will boot.  They hang with a bunch of info on the screen.
>>
>> Any ideas on how to proceed?  What tests should I be doing to find the
>> source
>> of the problem?
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>> Mike
>>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
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> tclug-list at mn-linux.org
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>
> End of tclug-list Digest, Vol 94, Issue 1
> *****************************************
> The first thing I would try is booting into a shell and running fsck on
your boot disk.
Reboot the machine and press e in the grub screen for edit.
Go to the kernel line and press e to edit that line.
Then add to the kernel line

init=/bin/bash

when you boot you go straight to the shell.
then do a file system check on your boot drive
fsck -t ext3 /dev/sdax
t is for file system type in this case ext3
and the x in sdax is your partition number.
sda is for sata drives, if you have an ide drive use hdax

Most of the time its a file system error and was very common when I was
doing raid arrays in my advanced linux classes. Bad super block is also
common.
If you are still having troubles run fsck from a live cd/usb. But you will
have to run the cd in live mode, mount the offending drive, and chroot
into the drive.
As a last resort you can update-grub from the live cd after you have
chroot'ed into you installed environment.
Let me know what you encounter.
,Ron