problem with /etc/mtab (input output error)

[kiyoaki]

I am having a pretty serious problem with my /etc/mtab file. Yesterday I rebooted my computer and noticed from the msgs as it was shutting down that it had failed in a few tasks (I didnt jot down which these were). When linux began to boot up again I got an error with mtab whenever the start up script tried to mount a partition. X windows didnt start up and i was left with a command line console after a number of errors all having to do with mtab.

I have tried to rm /etc/mtab and i get "(input/output) error". I have tried chattr -i /etc/mtab and i get the same input output error. I have run fsck on the other partitions and they came up with a bunch of errors which were corrected and i'm pretty sure the root partition had a bunch of errors that were fixed when fsck check was forced. I'm not sure what to do next to fix my /etc/mtab file. I can provide more detailed descriptions of the errors i get on boot. I'm running a stable 2.4 kernel (mandrake 8.1) with KDE 3.0 on a 1 ghz AMD Athalon. I havent run into any problems like this before now and have been using KDE 3.0 for a month or so now without any problems.

I would appreciate any replies (I'm anxious to stop using my win2k partition as soon as possible )

[kiyoaki]

Good news! I used my Mandrake 8.1 cd and booted into repair mode. From the repair mode I as able to force a fsck on my root partition and it found and repaired the problem. I'm writing this from my favorite browser (Opera) in my favorite OS =).

[mdwatts]

Just in case you did not know, /etc/mtab is maintained by the system and should not be manually edited by any user including root.

/etc/mtab only refers to what filesystems are currently mounted.

[camelrider]

the command 'shutdown -F now ' will force a fsck on all partitions on reboot. For immediate reboot use '-rF'.

[highspl]

Same thing happened to me.....today. I haven't fixed it yet and will post when I (hopefully) do. But any help or suggestions would be great. I'm going a little blind here. This is RedHat 7.3.

The problem starts at the USB device. Then, there are around 6 or 7 other boot failures--all relating to /etc/mtab. Plops me and a command prompt. I check the hardware, try rebooting a few times, same thing over and over. Finally, it says fsck needs to be run manually and puts me and some kind of special disk fixing prompt. I run fsck on all the partitions and it finds all kinds of errors. Then I reboot.

Well, all goes well, except one thing--when it gets to the USB part of /etc/mstab, it chokes. That is the only error. My mouse is USB, and that's it. I booted into W2K to see if the mouse had broken, and all seemed well. Reboot and it still cries about the mouse.

So, uh, what happened? Why would it do this to me? I didn't add or install anything (a fan, actually, which I disconnected in hopes it would help). Is this something that will happen again someday? It seems pretty random to me--just like it happened to that other person. Also, how might I fix this?

[highspl]

Well, after two more reboots, it fixed itself. Does anyone no why it decided to do this to me????