e2fsck fails: "The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2"
 

I have a system running linux 2.6.26.3, with the ext3 filesystem. I'm trying to upgrade the system to the linux 2.6.33.2. The older linux kernel used /dev/hda# device to access the filesystem. The new kernel is using /dev/sda# to access the same filesystem.
When I boot using 2.6.33.2, the filesystem seems to be recognized and mounted fine, but e2fsck fails. Here is some of the boot logs:

[ 2.174844] drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[ 2.193771] VFS: create_dev /dev/root --> ROOT_DEV.
[ 2.208416] VFS: do_mount_root for /dev/root-->ext3
[ 13.515101] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
[ 13.552942] EXT3-fs (sda3): using internal journal
[ 13.567379] EXT3-fs (sda3): 1 orphan inode deleted
[ 13.581741] EXT3-fs (sda3): recovery complete
[ 13.722192] EXT3-fs (sda3): mounted filesystem with journal data mode
[ 13.741534] VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) on device 8:3.
....
Mounting filesystems
checkroot: start/stop argument: start
checkroot: Root device: /dev/sda3
checkroot: Mount point: /
checkroot: Current forced reboot count: 0
checkroot: Remount to ro exit code: 0
checkroot: Checking root file system...
Log of /sbin/e2fsck -v -y -f /dev/sda3
Fri Aug 18 00:00:14 2000

e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
/sbin/e2fsck: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda3

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

/sbin/e2fsck died with exit status 8


Now, if I revert the kernel back to 2.6.26.3, the same file system passes e2fsck just fine. I'm running e2fsck 1.41.4 in both cases. Any thoughts? Does this have anything to do with the sda# vs hda#?

Here is the similar log, when the system comes up ok with the 2.6.26.3:

[ 4.692983] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
[ 4.733566] EXT3 FS on hda3, internal journal
[ 4.746619] EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
[ 4.873510] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with journal data mode.
[ 4.891264] VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem).
....
Mounting filesystems
checkroot: start/stop argument: start
checkroot: Root device: /dev/hda3
checkroot: Mount point: /
checkroot: Current forced reboot count: 1
checkroot: Remount to ro exit code: 0
checkroot: Checking root file system...
Log of /sbin/e2fsck -v -y -f /dev/hda3
Fri Aug 18 00:00:05 2000

e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Joe


UPDATE: I figured out the issue. I was missing the actual devices in the /dev/. I created the devices sda1-4 in the /dev/, and the e2fsck is happy now! :)

Umm, /dev/sda1-4 will be gone after the next shutdown. Btw. don't you umount the partitions you check?