[AuckLUG] /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

[Martin Bähr]

On Fri, Mar 23, 2007 at 09:47:32PM +1200, Cheng Eu Chew wrote:
> I just restarted my computer as it was getting a little laggy for some
> reason and when it starts up again, when trying to mount the root
> filesystems it comes up with this error:
> 
> BusyBox v1.01 (Debian 1:1.01-4ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash)
> Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
> 
> /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
> / #

ignore that tty error, that's just a sideeffect, the real problem is
that mounting root failed, and the question is why.

my suspicion is that the filesystem check failed. you should be able to
see the errors before you got to that shell.

normally it is something like:
automatic fsck failed, try it manually.

if that is the case then that is what you should do.
find out for which device the fsck failed and run fsck on it in that shell.
depending on the severity of the problem, it may ask you a few
questions. generally it doesn't make any sense to answer anything but
yes, however: if the case is really bad then you may loose data.

do you have a backup? if yes, then proceed, if no then is there anything
of importance on that disk? if yes, boot from a live cd and make a
backup of the diskimage before! running any fsck.
then run fsck. if you lost important files after the fsck come back here
to ask for hints how you might recover them from the backup image.

(i had one case where the normal fsck would have wiped the whole disk
because the superblock was totally hosed and all directory information
was lost but because i had a backupi of the broken diskimage i could try
another way which helped me recover 2/3rds of the data.)

if the fsck succeeds without to many errors, and most importantly, no
files in lost+found then try rebooting.

greetings, martin.
-- 
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Martin Bähr       http://www.iaeste.or.at/~mbaehr/