Comment 2 for bug 668561

I had this problem and kainbox's solution #18 at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1601810&page=2 worked for me. downloaded slax live cd, which does not try to mount anything, then ran e2fsck -y -f -v /dev/sda2 and got the system back next boot. NB: had to copy files from the slax dir on slax cd over to a hard drive first.