Bug#782178: Superblock time check causes problems for fsck in initramfs

[Niels Thykier <niels@thykier.net>]

Control: tags -1 moreinfo

On Mon, 27 Oct 2014 22:51:53 +0000 Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
wrote:
> Package: e2fsprogs
> Version: 1.42.12-1
> Severity: important
> Tags: upstream
> 
> [...]
> 
> e2fsck complains if the superblock write time is in the future, and
> because the RTC is set to local time on some systems, we are doing the
> necessary correction of system time in the initramfs.  This is
> undesirable because changing the time zone may now require an
> initramfs rebuild.
> 
> You said that this check could be disabled in a configuration file,
> e2fsck.conf, and we can create that in the initramfs.  This works in
> so far as it suppresses warnings while the initramfs code is running.
> Unfortunately, every init system currently still checks the root
> file-system again.  If the RTC is set to local time and that is east
> of UTC, the first fsck sets the write time in the future, and the
> second fsck warns.
> 
> Please disable this warning by default.
> 
> Ben.
> 
> [...]

Hi Ben,

You have reassigned this to the release-notes, but it is not entirely
clear to me what exactly the solution is.

I had a look at [MAN 5 E2FSCK.CONF] and my best guess was you wanted us
to recommend people to set accept_time_fudge.  Though it defaults to
being true.

~Niels

[MAN 5 E2FSCK.CONF]: http://linux.die.net/man/5/e2fsck.conf