[Leaplist] Floppy problem in Lenny - Debian-to all

[Whit Hansell]

Richard, Phil, John, Aaron and Cecil,
Thanks so much for your help. And everyone else too. I'm giving up on 
this problem and going to come at it in a different way. The reason is 
that I think that for some reason my kernel is screwed up and I don't 
know what to do about it. I've done two dist-upgrades using aptitude and 
in the first one the next kernel that was supposed to be upgraded to 
ended up w. broken dependencies and was installed, but w. a notation of 
broken dependencies. Or so it seemed to state. Then I went back and did 
another dist-upgrade and it said because of the broken dependencies it 
would be removed and so I went ahead w. that. I then tried to

brightsun:/# mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/fd0,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

brightsun:/# dmesg | tail
FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev fd0.
FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev fd0.
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev fd0.

The latest one installed on this drive is "linux-image-2.6.18-4-486 w. 
the version installed stated to be 2.6.18.dsfg.1-12 I have no idea what 
the dsfg.1-12 means.

The image it tried to install but which had broken dependencies is 
linux-image-2.6.21-2-486 w. the installed version having been 2.6.21-5. 
Anyway it was supposedly removed successfully, I guess.

So my thinking is that I'm going to use another drive I have and do a 
netinstall of Lenny on it and try to transfer my data over to it and see 
if I can get this kernel problem taken care of. I know it's going to be 
a total pain because the version I've got now is a carryover from Etch 
and the netinstall w. have some newer packages on it. It has Iceweasel 
instead of Iceape which is a linked version of Mozilla, OO 2.2 instead 
of 2.0, etc., etc., etc. But I don't know what else to do for now.

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has chimed in for your help. It has 
been an experience and I've learned some things even tho' it's not 
solved. I reall appreciate your efforts. Thanks again.

Oh, and I did a mount to check for an ext3 filesystem on a drive after I 
reformatted a floppy on this machine using the ext2 -j situation but it 
didn't work either.

BTW, after I wrote the above, I checked on the depends and conflicts on 
the kernel image that was messed up and this is what I found.

'***

brightsun:/# aptitude show linux-image-2.6.21-2-486

Package: linux-image-2.6.21-2-486

New: yes

State: not installed

Version: 2.6.21-5

Priority: optional

Section: admin

Maintainer: Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel at lists.debian.org>

Uncompressed Size: 52.2M

Depends: module-init-tools (>= 0.9.13), initramfs-tools (>= 0.55) | 
yaird (>=

0.0.12-8) | linux-initramfs-tool

Suggests: linux-doc-2.6.21, grub (>= 0.97-3) | lilo (>= 19.1)

Conflicts: grub (<= 0.95+cvs20040624-17), initramfs-tools (< 0.55), yaird (<

0.0.12-8)

Provides: linux-image, linux-image-2.6, linux-modules-2.6.21-2-486

Description: Linux 2.6.21 image on x86

This package provides the binary image and pre-built loadable modules 
for Linux

kernel 2.6.21 on x86 and compatible machines.



For some reason it states there are conflicts w. installed programs. 
Maybe they will clear out when I reboot.


Already installed from previous dist-upgrade runs:


I have grub 0.97-27 installed which is greater than what the above 
states is needed and is listed as a conflict.


I have module-init-tools 3.3-pre11-1


I have initramfs-tools 0.88 which is greater than the 0.55 that is 
mentioned as a conflict above.


the cvs that is installed is 1:1.12.13-8 which the description states is 
for use w. the 2.6 kernel.



Not installed.....


Yaird 0.0.12-20, but I think it is an either/or situation w. 
initramfs-tools but not sure as it is included in the conflicts line.

“Yet Another mkInitRD

Yaird generates initial boot images in initramfs format.

The boot image is an intermediate step between the boot loader (eg Grub, 
Lilo) and the init scripts on the root file system; it loads modules and 
enables devices to a level where the kernel can access the real root 
file system, and then hands over control

to the init scripts.”


“Compared with earlier implementations like mkinitrd, it does a better 
job of deciding which modules are needed for your system, so it produces 
smaller images and there is less risk of making an image that will not 
boot. This comes at a price:

only Linux 2.6 is supported (because 2.6 has sysfs, which makes

it a lot easier to do a hardware inventory).


See mkinitrd.yaird(8) for how to activate the program.


See http://wiki.debian.org/InitrdReplacementOptions for status and

comparison with other ramdisk tools.


Homepage: http://yaird.alioth.debian.org/” Synaptic description.


Oh well, I'm going to mess w. it tomorrow again.

Again, thanks for all your help guys. If anyone has an idea on 
resurrecting this to a normal state let me know. Otherwise I will be 
formatting another drive over the weekend and messing w. this once I get 
it up to speed. Thanks so much.

Whit

Richard F. Ostrow Jr. wrote:
> On Wed, July 11, 2007 9:24 pm, Whit Hansell wrote:
>   
> <snip>