[arch-general] Mounted ext4 filesystem without journal

[Uwe Sauter]

There is a tool called testdisk (https://www.cgsecurity.org) that will scan all blocks of your disk and try to 
interprete whatever leftovers of the filesystem it finds. It might be able to recover some parts but you will need a 
second disk as recovery target.

Good luck.


Am 07.02.21 um 18:39 schrieb Alexander Kapshuk via arch-general:
> I haven't had any replies to the email below so far.
> Not sure if that's because that email didn't make it through to the mailing
> list, even though it does show up here
> <https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-general/2021-February/048597.html>,
> or if it's because the problem I'm asking help for is unique and the
> members of the list have nothing to suggest.
> 
> Thought I'd resend the original email just in case.
> Any pointers would be appreciated.
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Alexander Kapshuk <alexander.kapshuk at gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, Feb 4, 2021 at 5:40 PM
> Subject: Mounted ext4 filesystem without journal
> To: General Discussion about Arch Linux <arch-general at archlinux.org>
> 
> 
> Most probably due to a buggy custom kernel, fsck on /dev/sda2, i.e the
> root partition, failed with a rootfs prompt and an invitation to run
> fsck on /dev/sda2 presented.
> On having done that and rebooted, when performing fsck on /dev/sda2,
> the system reported that:
> /dev/sda2 had not been cleanly unmounted
> 0.4% non-contiguous blocks
> mounting /dev/sda2 on real root
> EXT4-fs (sda2) mounted filesystem without journal
> Root device mounted successfully, but /sbin/init does not exist.
> 
> The wiki article on fsck troubleshooting,
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fsck#Troubleshooting, suggests
> using tune2fs to write a new journal to /dev/sda2.
> But it doesn't seem to be available when in rootfs.
> 
> Booting into the Arch Linux installation CD and mounting /dev/sda2
> over /mnt reveals lost+found as the sole contents of the directory.
> As an experiment, mounting /dev/sda1 over /mnt confirms the presence
> of all the files there are on my boot partition.
> 
> Any pointers on how to proceed with this would be much appreciated.
>