I don't know how to code Linux to fix that "gd-dm error", but if I was suffering that mess, I would try a variety of silly little "cross my fingers" experiments first-off.. Sometimes they work.. usually they don't...
- Install the hd into another tower, and try it...
- Pull the tower's battery for a couple minutes, reinstall the battery, then try it.. often works to eliminate silly problems...
- Flash copy & paste the problematic backup to a freshly installed OS on a different hd, then try it...
- Go to the CD & Flash backups...
I backup every-day to flash drives.. Once a month everything goes to a reformatted DVD.. This way should the OS ever get compromised I never ever lose any treasured files... Don't trust DVD's too much.. I hear that big business remakes CD backups, because sometimes CD's fail after ten years...
When the OS does go "thht", I rush to pull-off my bookmarks & pw's, and "DBAN autonuke" the hd, reinstall F-14 plus the 500 updates, plus my custom peripheral package options.. Only takes a couple hours to make it a fresh new OS.. and another 2-hours to upload my files after I've "clam-scanned" them all.. A few very wise experts, I've chatted with, claim they format their hd's every 2-months, even if they don't need it...
I strongly suggest everyone buy a QUALITY minimum 8-gig flash, and maintain a daily backup on it.. Those cheapy flashes just can't be trusted.. A few years ago, all I did was accidentally drop a cheapy one on the side-walk, and lost everything on it.. It wouldn't load any more.. Luckily I had a fresh CD backup...
Right this weekend everyone with a functional brain should make a complete backup of all their treasures, so you won't have to suffer the horrid grief of losing everything should the OS suddenly go "thht"... But! this last reinstall, I was shocked to find that DBAN didn't fully erase the hd.. One of my FireFox custom configurations remained on the hd somehow.. Normally I use no-script to block the Google logo on the Google surf page the moment it shows.. This new install had the Google page come up with the logo already blocked.. which means that "bully blackheads" have probably found a way to bypass something in DBAN's rewriting the hd.. which will probably be fixed in a couple days by Derek, if he has the time... Maybe DBAN needs an option to re-spin the hd to check the hd after rewriting, to ensure that it really is fully cleaned after being "DBAN autonuked"..?
Next time I clean this glitchy hd, I'm gonna try running DBAN twice... I don't know if it will fix the glitch..? It's just a silly experiment.. How the Google-page opens after the new-install should tell it...
Does anyone know of another, simple to use, hd eraser, besides DBAN.. I'd like to run them both when cleaning a seriously compromised hd, like this one...
On 12/10/2011 01:26 PM, Linda McLeod wrote:
When the OS does go "thht", I rush to pull-off my bookmarks& pw's, and "DBAN autonuke" the hd, reinstall F-14 plus the 500 updates, plus my custom peripheral package options..
I don't know what you're doing to make Fedora fail often enough to worry about this, but my experience is very, very different from yours. The last time I did a clean install on my desktop, it was F9 and, except for F10 and F15 which I skipped because they seemed flaky, I've used preupgrade to go from one to another without any trouble until F16. Right up until that upgrade blew up on me my computer was rock solid, running 24/7. And, if my suspicions are right, it's either a bad USB port or keyboard that's giving me grief, not the OS, but that's beside the point. For the vast majority of users, Fedora, like any mainstream Linux distro doesn't keep going tits up on you and needing reinstallation.
Instead of spending so much time on disaster recovery, you might consider spending a little time finding out just what it is you're doing (or not doing?) that's making your system act so hinky.