Failed to start file system check- can't boot into arch

[cursive turtle]

I've a dual boot with windows and arch.
Shrinked 70G off the ext4 using cfdisk ( forgot to resize and wrote on the partition table directly ).
The 70G I shrinked was unused btw.

Extended my windows ntfs with the same + had around 18G free in it already.
Wrote around 50G of data on the same as well.

After that, when I tried to boot into arch I was presented with this error.
I have some timeshift backups as well but they were on the same ext4 so not sure if it helps.

[abstract path]

well you just cut off the last 70G of your ext4

there might have been stuff there

filesystems arent defragmented

they can use the space at the end

and you cut it off

the fs is corrupt beyond repair use your backups

[cursive turtle]

the timeshift backups? they were on the same ext4

[abstract path]

🤦‍♂️

let me see

you might have data loss

[cursive turtle]

that's not an issue I have the files backed up

but configuring arch again from scratch is an issue for me

[abstract path]

ok

well

you need to boot a live iso

[cursive turtle]

yeah I have that- what do I do after that?

[abstract path]

resize the partition to be what it was before

[cursive turtle]

[cursive turtle]

thanks that's the only thing I haven't tried till now

[split stream]

speedy_lex received a thank you cookie!

[cursive turtle]

will lyk what happens

[merry raft]

😐 you shrunk the partition without resizing the filesystem first

[abstract path]

its not gonna fix itself

you will need to do a bunch of e2fsck stuff

tell me when you made your partition the original size

[subtle salmon]

resize the partition to the original size with fdisk

then run e2fsck

then resize2fs to resize filesystem

then resize partition with fdisk

[abstract path]

uh

idk if e2fsck will find everything

depends on if he has trimmed the ssd, if he has overwritten it

[merry raft]

Maybe recoverable just from filesystem operations

but not from

Wrote around 50G of data on the same as well.

Filesystems aren't filled linearly

so even though the ext4 had free space it doesn't mean it wasn't in the cut off space

All depends on luck tho

[subtle salmon]

Maybe, worth a try

[abstract path]

yes

e2fsck -f once he has resized the partition

[subtle salmon]

Yeah

[cursive turtle]

a question

[abstract path]

yes?

[cursive turtle]

do I use cfdisk and just edit the partition table or use gparted to resize

[abstract path]

i havent used either of these

idk anything just resize it to be the original size

[cursive turtle]

alright will use gparted in the case

should I edit the partition table then resize?

[abstract path]

edit partition table DONT resize

[cursive turtle]

alright

[abstract path]

done?

[cursive turtle]

doing it

done

[abstract path]

ok

now run e2fsck -f /dev/nvme0n1p2

show the output

needs sudo btw

[abstract path]

y

abort

the partition still too small

1 sec

[cursive turtle]

yeah i did increase correct 70G tho

28 mb i think

[abstract path]

wait

can you run sudo dumpe2fs /dev/nvme0n1p2 | grep -e 'Block size'

[merry raft]

Gparted will either
Shrink the fs first and then shrink the partition
Or enlarge the partition and then the fs

So not good

[abstract path]

it aborts

[merry raft]

In this case

Because the fs is already broken

[abstract path]

@cursive turtle this pls

[abstract path]

ok so you need to add exactly 28M to the partition size

use cfdisk

[cursive turtle]

yeah enlarged the partition with 70G but there is still 28mbs of difference

[abstract path]

did you add 28M to the part size?

[merry raft]

Note that it's not an issue if the partition is too large

[cursive turtle]

it says this when i try to open cfdisk again

[abstract path]

NO

[merry raft]

You ran cfdisk on the partition

[cursive turtle]

yea mb just noticed that

[merry raft]

Not the drive

[cursive turtle]

this again now?

increased the 28mb

[abstract path]

show what it says

[cursive turtle]

resized to 307.52734375G

[cursive turtle]

here

[abstract path]

oof

wait

[cursive turtle]

[abstract path]

go in a second shell

and run debugfs /dev/nvme0n1p2

then stat 6290504

[abstract path]

yeah and in here run stat 6290504

[cursive turtle]

done lex

[abstract path]

wait leave this

@cursive turtle you said you have timeshift snapshots right?

[cursive turtle]

yeah in the same ext4 tho

i remember configuring it so it should be there

[cursive turtle]

should I not let it clear the bad inodes?

[abstract path]

no

[cursive turtle]

alright

[abstract path]

where would your timeshift backups be?

[cursive turtle]

/timeshift should I check by mounting it now?

[abstract path]

so /timeshift is on the corrupted filesystem

[cursive turtle]

yeah

[abstract path]

you cant mount it because its corrupted

are you fine with restoring from a timeshift backup?

install ext4magic

[cursive turtle]

yes no issues

[abstract path]

install ext4magic

then sudo ext4magic /dev/nvme0n1p2 -r -d recovered_timeshift -f /timeshift

[cursive turtle]

looks like the gparted iso is very minimal

booting from the arch iso to do this then

[cursive turtle]

will need to add ubuntu to my ventoy to do this

[abstract path]

why

[cursive turtle]

it says target not found in arch iso

[abstract path]

yeah

ig build from source

[cursive turtle]

and building it takes up alot of space which isnt possible in a live iso

[abstract path]

or use ubuntu iso ig

[cursive turtle]

yeah doing that now

[abstract path]

ls -l recovered_timeshift

[cursive turtle]

no such file or directory

[abstract path]

oh

try make it

mkdir recovered_timeshift

and then run the ext4magic command again

[cursive turtle]

the ext4 can be mounted btw

[abstract path]

wdym

[cursive turtle]

tried mounting to check where the timeshift folder is

[abstract path]

default settings?

[cursive turtle]

wdym

[abstract path]

unmount it

[cursive turtle]

already done- ran the ext4magic command after unmounting

[abstract path]

where were your timeshift things saved to

did you even make a backup?

[cursive turtle]

I dont really remember tbh but it should be the default location

[abstract path]

or just install it

[cursive turtle]

yeah pretty sure I did

[abstract path]

then it should have been /timeshift

[cursive turtle]

regarding that I have no idea why it is not

[abstract path]

did you run any timeshift command manually or enable any timeshift systemd service?

[cursive turtle]

enabled the systemd service

for weekly snapshots i think

[abstract path]

i dont think you have any snapshots

[cursive turtle]

maybe

[cursive turtle]

@merry raft should I clear the bad inodes?

[merry raft]

You can fsck with -p

Or you can press enter

In normal cases those are the safe defaults

[cursive turtle]

that wasnt working as there was inode corruption

so i just used -f with-y and it corrected everything and dumped the files with bad structure in lost+found

[cursive turtle]

recovered /home and switching to endeavour now

thanks @merry raft and @abstract path