Made the big mistake of powering off my backend for the first time in a while (I wanted to measure its power consumption with a Kill-A-Watt prior to installing new components).

I'd been suspicious of some odd delays when going to the System Status page of MythWeb, but had no other reason to suspect problems.

When I restarted, it dumped out to a command line and said I needed to run fsck in manual mode. I tried to do so and it prompted me for approximately one kerjillion errors it found. I kept running fsck until it found no more errors.

It apparently cleaned up things very VERY well, as now I get to the KnoppMyth boot screen and it stops there.

Is it worth trying to recover? Of course, the dead setup is two LVM-ed drives which complicates matters. My new components are arriving today and I'm leaning towards just starting from scratch and reconfiguring everything. The only thing I'll really miss having is the database of recorded shows for the past 2-3 years.

Thanks for listening and/or any pointers and/or not yelling at me for not having a backup of the database of recorded shows for the past 2-3 years.

Personally I would start by determining what isn't running - Is it MySQL, mythbackend, what?

If MySQL is OK, then try to run a backup (/usr/local/bin/mythbackup). If that fails, start from scratch. If successful I would get that backup onto removable media or another system, then attempt an upgrade to the same version. If the upgrade fails I might install from scratch, copy the backup over and try the upgrade again.

You didn't mention what new components are arriving today - If your disk(s) are going belly-up and you don't have replacements, then the above isn't really going to help. If new disk(s) are showing up, you could try the install from scratch/copy backup over/run upgrade method.

What do you mean you don't have a backup??!!?!? (Couldn't resist...)

Sorry, I was vague on where my system is stuck at (edited first message accordingly).

I meant the KnoppMyth _bootsplash_ screen that says "Welcome to KnoppMyth" with the boot progress indicator (which does not progress at all, doesn't even start). Not the "KnoppMyth" wallpaper with Tux on the sofa.

I will have to try to find how to get it to not boot with bootsplash on. I'm sure it's here somewhere, just have to find the right search terms.

The new components will completely replace the old ones: only thing I'm leaving is the case. I was hoping to backup key data before that, but Murphy beat me to it.

Thanks for not yelling too loud.

Ahh, OK, never used it myself. Can you boot from the F27 CD and chroot to your drive? See http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... AsRescueCD for details (this may help as well). If so, you can try running /usr/local/bin/config_bootsplash.sh to disable the bootsplash, then on the next reboot you should see where the system is hanging.

There are a whole cluster of disaster recovery pages on the wiki... http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=DisasterRecovery

The BootToSingleUserMode link under Disaster Recovery did not help me, as the bootsplash image would still load. If I find the command to boot without it I'll add it to that wiki page.

I then used the install CD to boot from and then used the exit command at the bottom of the main menu to get to the console. Used the mount command, then the chroot command failed. Did a dir and all I could see was the "lost+found" directory, which was filled with files or directories that had various numbers, nothing recognizable at all. I gave up at that point.

Yeah, sounds like you're well and truly fsck-ed.

You maybe able to salvage the system. I've written a few times (sorry you'll have to search) on how I boned myself. Once, was due to power outage (I think) and the system got hosed. I didn't have a backup, but I was able to use the raw MySQL data. I just copied /var/lib/mysql/mythconverg onto the new system. Running fsck made a lost+found and I had to find it, but I was able to rescue everything.

The next time was before last Allhallows Eve. When I accidentally formated one of the drives in the LVM volume. I was able to recover everything! Both of these incidents, I posted on under Hints & Tips.

Good luck!

I understand your problem, sorry

Here is what I would do about this

When your partition system became unstable you ran

"fsck in manual mode"

It worked but the results where not what you expected. Basically it put all of your files into the lost+found folder. Because it did not know what to call them it used numbers instead of names (UGH)!!! So everything is a jumbled mess of numbers. You need a different tool to sort out the mess and recover the partition. Assuming that the hardware is fine and this is just a software problem. How about one that works with LVM.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Good Luck

Thanks, Cecil, I did find that thread (had forgotten about it until you mentioned it) and will save it.

Thanks also to RacerX, will have to give that a shot, sounds very promising.

The good news on this is that my wife said "What's this about MythTV being down? When will it be back? Do you need a new computer? That's fine if you do, just bring back MythTV!"

I am having a similar issue. Did you ever find a solution.

Rkshack

_________________
5.5
6150k8ma-8ekrs
Athlon64 3200+
1gb ram
250gb hda
750gb sda
nvidia 6200
central time

My solution was starting from scratch. It was time to upgrade anyway.

I'd try that recovery disk that RacerX mentioned first, it seemed the easiest solution.

I used testdisk. I analyzed the disk that has my lvm partition and it gave said everything was fine. Anything else?

_________________
5.5
6150k8ma-8ekrs
Athlon64 3200+
1gb ram
250gb hda
750gb sda
nvidia 6200
central time

If I do a reinstall and don't delete my lvm partition. Can I mount it to myth after the reinstall without losing the data?

rkshack

_________________
5.5
6150k8ma-8ekrs
Athlon64 3200+
1gb ram
250gb hda
750gb sda
nvidia 6200
central time

This is essentially how upgrades work. On the other hand your problem seems to be with the FS on that logical volume, and reinstalling (or upgrading to the same version) isn't going to help there, not to mention that installing is a destructive operation. Don't go there until you exhaust all your other options.