On Sat, 5 Sep 1998, Ulrich Hausmann wrote:

> Bill,
> 
> did it and got all kinds of rsd*s - rsd0a thru rsd6h (but indeed sd1a
> isn't there). Now, how do I run
> fsck_ffs on rsd1a. As I said, I do not understand the related man pages
> very well . . .:(
> 
> When I try 'fsck_ffs -b 32 -p -d /dev/rsd1a', I'm getting an error (sd1a
> does not exist). What would be the correct syntax (command, I should
> type in).

That syntax looks good. But try it without the -p and the -d. You might
also try it without the -b 32. I know you had problems w/ a bad superblock
at first, but if you've written to the drive since then, it might be ok
enough to fsck. ??

> Btw, for diffidence I did a 'cat rsd1a' just to see, it it wasn't faked.
> And no, it isn't: got an endless screen scroll and sometimes I could
> distinguish a name (Leo Weppelmann). 

rsd1a represents the whole partition as a text file.... It's not too
useful to 'cat'. :-)

Unfortunatly it's been a while since I played with the installer. I think
it might be able to make device nodes. If so, try using it to delete one
of the rsd1's (rsd1b would be fine as I doubt you'll fsck swap). Then make
a sd1a device node. The major number would be 4, and the minor number
would be 8.

Can you just start over? I know it'd be a pain, but it sounds like you
have MAJOR file system damage, and you might not be able to recover. :-(

I'll probably be out of touch this weekend, but others on the list should
be able to help.

Good luck!

Take care,

Bill