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Re: fsck errors on boot



Andrew Sackville-West wrote on Dec, 16:

[...]

> >>errors look like this
> >>
> >>/dev/hda3: Superblock last mount time is in the future
> >>/dev/hda3: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY

[...]

> >This has just happened to me when I booted with a Knoppix Live CD and 
> >mounted /dev/hda1. I didn't dig deeper into the problem, but Knoppix 
> >seemed to have set the system time incorrectly. It looks as though the 
> >last mount time is written to the filesystem superblock, so root was left 
> >with the Knoppix wrong system time. When I booted with Debian, I got the 
> >same messages you got. I didn't run fsck manually. At the next Debian 
> >reboot, fsck was automatically run and then, no more error msgs.
> 
> I just used a knoppix disk to do fsck on all my partitions (as I 
> couldn't get to / to do fsck manually). Then I rebooted into knoppix 
> again and ran fsck on all partitions and they came up clean. so I reboot 
> into debian and again get the errors. I know what you're saying that 
> maybe knoppix is writing incorrectly, but I got this error long before I 
> thought of sticking knoppix in. And I don't get an automatic fsck on 
> reboots either.

After you finish booting Knoppix, check the system time with date. Boot with 
Debian and compare its system time with Knoppix's. Most likely they'll be very 
different.

My understanding (or lack of) is:

1. When you mount a partition or run fsck, the current system time is written 
   to the partition's superblock.

2. When you access that partition again, the program (mount, fsck, ...) 
   compare the superblock's time with the system time, and if they're too 
   different, complains.

Therefore, when you run fsck from Knoppix, Knoppix's system time goes to the 
superblocks. When Debian tries to mount the partitions, mount complains 
because the recorded time is too different from the current system time.

What do you have to do ? fsck from *Debian* and not Knoppix. Or, better still, 
set Knoppix system time to the correct value *before* mounting any partitions 
on your hard drives.

[...]

> I think its a e2fsprogs issue. what version are you running?

It doesn't look like it to me.

[...]

> so with totally clean partitions from Knoppix, I still get errors. Some 
> of those partitions were never mounted in knoppix either and should not be 
> generating this error as no new mount time should be written.

But if you ran fsck on them, they'll have been "tainted" by Knoppix. If the 
system times are different, clean partitions to Knoppix will have the effect 
of making them appear "dirty" to Debian.

My knowledge doesn't go much farther than this. I hope it suffices to explain 
and solve your problem.

Paulo



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