[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] markgolly:
Management Synopsis

How do I keep /system from getting mounted during recovery startup so that I can get it fsck'ed?

Details

Got my Note w/ German LC1 and have been running stock+root (via Mobile Odin/SuperSU) all the way to German LRK w/o issue (and, yes, no wipes while on ICS). I tried HydraCore v2.1, v3, and v3.5 while on LRK but wasn't happy - it seemed to stutter quite a bit for my taste, moreso than what others were reporting.

So, I decided I needed to start fresh to really give HydraCore a fair shake, and saw that German LRQ was out. I downloaded LRQ and used Mobile Odin to flash it along with HydraCore v3.5. I then booted into recovery and wiped, then rebooted and ... bootloop - constant reboot at the opening "Samsung Galaxy Note GT-N7000" opening screen.

So I used heimdall on Linux to flash LC1 w/ a rooted /system, booted into recovery and wiped again, and it booted up just fine.

So I loaded up Mobile Odin and flashed LRQ again - this time completely stock. bootloop.

I did this ping-pong between LC1 and LRK/LRQ (and taking much care to not wipe on a stock ICS kernel) quite a few times. LC1 always seemed to work, but I'd get bootloops or (later) LRQ's acore force-closing when I updated no matter how I updated (Mobile Odin, heimdall, or Samsung updates).

So I got the bright idea that I had /system corruption. I looked for a way to fsck it and found the "ext4-optimize.zip" package. I flashed back to LC1, entered recovery, and tried running the ext4-optimize.zip update package - hung at "unmounting /system".

I then flashed HydraCore v3.5, entered CWM, and tried running "ext4-optimize.zip" package again - hung at the same place.

I then entered CWM and went to mounts and tried unmounting /cache - worked, then unmounted /system - hung.

Help?!?

Edit

Found this post by forest1971. Trying it now.

Edit 2

Wow, this has really been a trip. Digging through my memory I finally remembered what I did to cause this (and yes, I did it to myself - live and learn I guess). What I did was I flashed HydraCore OC edition on a VoltGroup A Note and then let the battery run down to the point the system shut off. I must say the display looked pretty "funky" just before it shut off. The reason this didn't "click" for me until now was that I put a fresh battery in and my Note booted right back up without issue - or seemed to - and it was several days later that I tried to install Samsung's German LRQ firmware and everything went bonkers.

I'm still not quite "out of the woods" yet, but my Note is back to running very well - just have the "null keyboard" issue left to fix - but I consider that pretty minor compared to where my Note was just 24 hours ago....

Anyway, what I have done to fix this is:

1. Used heimdall to flash forest1971's 4pda_kernel. This raises the flash count, so we'll take care of that in a bit.

2. Boot into CWM/recovery and use it to unmount /cache, /system, /data, and /sdcard. For whatever reason, the CWM that is in HydraCore would just freeze while unmounting.

3. Connect the Note to my Linux machine and use ADB to first try to fsck the dev block devices that /cache, /system, /data, and /sdcard were all on.

4. fsck couldn't totally clean the block devices, so I used the phone to format /cache, /system, /data, and /sdcard.

5. fsck still couldn't clean the block devices, so I did the "dd" trick forest1971's post to read the total block devices to make sure I hadn't really triggered the eMMC brick issue. They all worked so its not eMMC brick....

6. Then I used "dd" to write zeros to the block devices:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/<block-device-to-clear> bs=1M

7. Back to the phone to format /cache, /system, /data, and /sdcard.

8. Back to the computer to fsck - all the block devices passed! No more corruption - at least on those devices....

9. fsck'ed the "hidden" partition and it came back clean, so I mounted it, erased its contents, and unmounted it.

10. Reboot Note into ODIN mode and used heimdall to flash LC1 firmware w/ root. Let everything reboot as it wanted....

11. Installed Mobile Odin and flashed LPY firmware. Let everything reboot as it wanted....

12. Use Mobile Odin and flashed LRK firmware. Let everything reboot as it wanted....

13. Use Mobile Odin and flashed LRQ firmware. Let everything reboot as it wanted....

14. Use "Triangle Away" to take care of the flash counter triggered in step #1.

15. Use Mobile Odin and flash HydraCore STD version. Not going to touch OC anymore....

16. Factory Reset.

I can't help but think that I've got more corruption in the flash just waiting like a time bomb. However, I've done what I can. If my Note starts acting up, then I'll take the warranty route.