6 replies to this topic

[manish-mohania]

Hi all,

It is going to be long post, so please be patient and stay with me.

When I boot my linux I get the following error :

Quote

Decompressing Linux ...
crc error
-- system halted

What can be the cause ?
I have tested my RAM with memtest86. All results O.K
I have seagate 160GB sata drive, I have tested it with SEATOOLS provided by the same company. All results OK

Detailed Problem Description
------------------------------------

Initially I had Debian Linux on my system, It started giving error when I log in to GNOME:

Quote

1) Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error from Bonobo
when attempting to register the file manager view server

2) The panel has encountered a fatal error.
The panel could not register with the bonobo-activation server (error
code: 3) and will exit.
It may be automatically restarted.

Later, I started to get this error on boot:
I did not get this error consistently. Sometimes my system booted fine with no error and sometimes I got this error.

Quote

RAMDISK: incomplete write (-28 != 32768) 8388608
crc error
Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS : Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0)

and eventually I started getting this error:

Quote

Decompressing Linux ...
crc error
-- system halted

My first thought was that my installation has gone corrupt so I am getting these errors, hence I re-installed my system but this time I installed Fedora Core 9

But Fedora also refused to boot with the same error:

Quote

Decompressing Linux ...
crc error
-- system halted

I am able to run Knoppix Live CD with no problem. It is running fine with graphical mode. It think it can't be a RAM problem ???

What can be the probable cause ?
Can it be RAM problem ... ?
Can disk checking utilities provide false reports ? ... What other tools can I use in Linux to check for bad blocks in hard disks in Linux ?

Thank you for your patience and time :-)

[jlhaslip]

I have Ubuntu 9.10 installed on this system and one of the new features in this version is a Disk Utility which does a hard-drive check on start-up.
I get a warning about bad sectors every time I boot, but so far the system has started okay for me.
Download an ISO of Ubuntu 9.10 and dual-boot into it to see if it runs okay and also to see what the results are for the hard drive.
I forget the name of the Utility, but I can find out if you need to know.

[rvalkass]

A CRC (cyclic redundancy checking) error means your PC is either not writing data correctly to the hard drive, not storing it correctly, or not reading it back correctly. The sort of errors you're getting also point towards a hard drive issue. A live CD works only from your system's RAM, so try using a live CD to check your hard drive for errors. See if you can mount the hard drive from the live CD, and if you can read data from it OK. If not then it looks like you might be needing a new HDD.

[manish-mohania]

@All
Thank you for addressing my problem

@Jlhaslip

yup, I downloaded the Ubuntu ISO. I used the GParted utility to check the drive and it showed no bad blocks. It uses e2fsck to check drive. please, Let me know if you know someother hard disk checking utility. I have installed Ubuntu on my drive and right now I am posting this reply using Ubuntu only

However I am having problems with Ubuntu also. I think I should check my system with a new hard drive (I don't know but I am getting a strong feeling about this). My system didn't run with initrd enabled, I had to run it with noinitrd command line option as:

root (hd0, 1)
linux /vmlinuz noinitrd

at grub command line.

When I tried to mount initrd image as loop device (Is it possible to do this ???). I found the CRC error when unzipping the image with gzip utility.

Also, I found problem with panel while l logged in to the system. No Applet(clock, etc) was registered with panel.

I checked the md5sum of Ubuntu ISO and it was O.K. I also did the disk integrity check, It was O.K. Installation also went fine. Ubuntu as a Live CD ran absolutely fine.

No clues what went wrong ???

@rvalkass

yup, you may be right !!!
I am able to run any Live CD perfectly well. It is just when I install on my hard drive, it start to malfunction. Interesting thing is it doesn't show up any errors for bad blocks or anything.

Actually my drive is still on warranty period. I would get it repaired if anything is wrong with it. However they won't take it unless it actually shows up any errors on disk check.

I don't know if it is my wish to get my hdd replaced or it is really a bad disk.

[shadowx]

Try saving files to, and reading them from the problem drive will you are inside the linux ISO

If you find no errors with disk checking tests, and you are able to read/write without any errors then you may need to try re-installing the system, just to see.

the CRC does point to a hardware failure but i think before you do anything drastic like buy a new drive or send yours off for weeks for repairs its worth spending 45 minutes installing linux again

[k_nitin_r]

Hi!

@manish-mohania

You might want to try running a disk test from the BIOS. You can enter the BIOS setup by pressing a key (a different key depending on the make and model of your desktop or laptop PC) and one of the menus or operations there ought to indicate a "hard drive test" or something similar. You might also want to try resetting the settings that the BIOS setup stores in the CMOS - there ought to be a reset option in the BIOS setup but if you cannot find it, you can also pull out the CMOS battery for a couple of minutes and then stick it back in before powering up your computer system.

You can also have the partition table re-written using the disk partitioning utility (usually fdisk, which interestingly has the same name as the disk partitioning utility in Microsoft DOS and PC-DOS, or divvy) on your Linux distribution. You can also perform a full disk scan for errors from within Windows or using the file system checker utility (fsck) in Linux.

If all else fails, you might want to pop the lid by unscrewing the few screws that hold the case together and finally check the connections for the hard disk drive, particularly the data cable on both the hard disk drive end and the controller end. If the controller is not integrated onto the motherboard, you might want to also re-insert the disk controller to ensure that the problems are not due to a loose connection.

[manish-mohania]

@shadowx
@k_nitin_r

Thanks for your suggestions ... reinstalling the linux and cleaning up the case, and re-plugging the cables did the trick. I think it may be giving problems due to loose wires. But I have to admit I had to install linux a few times to get it working. I still can't believe solution is so simple

I have installed KNOPPIX on my system and it is working fine, Let's see if it stays for a month with no problem then I will think to switch to debian/ubuntu. As for now I am happy with this system.

Thank you all for all the help. I am falling in love with this forum.