# New installation Gentoo  The superblock could not be read

## lon3wolf

Hi Guys 

I'm new to Gentoo and i have done a few installation and i keep getting the same message:

```

 Checking root filesystem ...

fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda3

/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>

 * Filesystem couldn't be fixed :( [!!] 

I had a look around your forum couldn't find enough info on this error to solve it. If someone could please help me this is about the 5th time I  have reinstalled and following the manual step by step. 

```

Thank You in advance

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## disi

I never got this error before, but it states that it has problems to read the partition as ext2 filesystem (ext2 or ext2 +journaling)

Is /dev/sda3 formatted with an ext2 filesystem (or ext3)?

How does your /etc/fstab look like?

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## lon3wolf

[quote="disi"]I never got this error before, but it states that it has problems to read the partition as ext2 filesystem (ext2 or ext2 +journaling)

Is /dev/sda3 formatted with an ext2 filesystem (or ext3)?

How does your /etc/fstab look like?[/quote

Hi 

/dev/sda3 is a ext3 filesystem 

/etc/fstab

/dev/sda1     /boot    ext2   defaults,noatime     1  2

/dev/sda2     /none    swap    sw                      0  0

/dev/sda3     /           ext3     noatime              0  1

I have tried everything i could think of and i have reloaded with two different machine's.

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## disi

Did you build ext3 into the kernel (not as module). I think genkernel doesn't enable it per default. Did you use genkernel or made one on your own?

  <*> Reiserfs support

  <*> Ext3 journalling file system support

  <*> JFS filesystem support

  <*> Second extended fs support

  <*> XFS filesystem support

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=7

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## lon3wolf

 *disi wrote:*   

> Did you build ext3 into the kernel (not as module). I think genkernel doesn't enable it per default. Did you use genkernel or made one on your own?
> 
>   <*> Reiserfs support
> 
>   <*> Ext3 journalling file system support
> ...

 

I used genkernel. Okay that make's sense , how would i add this into my kernel ? They didn't mention anything like that in the manual.

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## lma1980

I had a similare issue last week. I found a clue in those bug report 335765 and 310269 and deactivating CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED fix my trouble.

I never used genkernel but I guess that if you build it once you may only cd in the /usr/src/[your genkernel version] and execute genkernel --menuconfig ; you may have to pass more option to genkernel as I don't know this utility -- shame on me   :Razz: 

It did work for me ; give it a try please.

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## lma1980

If it doesn't help try activating CONFIG_DEVTMPFS (I recall to have it flag on in my working kernel).

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## lon3wolf

 *lma1980 wrote:*   

> If it doesn't help try activating CONFIG_DEVTMPFS (I recall to have it flag on in my working kernel).

 

Hi 

I will try and see what i can figure out and will let you know if  your solution solved my issue. Thank you for your input.

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## Tony0945

Did you run mkfs or just fdisk?  Just asking, I forgot to mkfs once myself.

Also, boot with your installation CD and run fsck /dev/sda3.

Also post /boot/grub/grub.conf  Sometimes there is a typo there that causes a boot into the wrong partition.

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