fstab entries for external USB hard drives led to fsck.ext3 failure on boot, bug?
I am writing in follow-up to an earlier message called
'F!3@$%ing fsck! On boot it dies... yet drive okay?!?' which can be
found here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/10/msg03405.html
and the follow-up:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/10/msg03563.html
(thanks David for your comments)
I haven't figured-out exactly what the problem is. However, I
have narrowed it down and more-or-less resolved it for the
time being.
On booting my Debian system got something like:
---------
[sbin/fsck.ext3 (1) -- /mnt/mdk] fsck.ext3 -a -C0 /dev/hda11
/dev/hda11: clean, 5765/130048 files, 1425960/2596497 blocks
Reiserfs super block in block 16 on 0x309 of format 3.6 with standard journal
Blocks (total/free): 200800/192582 by 4096 bytes.
Filesystem clear.
Reiserfs super block in block 16 on 0x30a of format 3.6 with standard journal
Blocks (total/free): 200800/192582 by 4096 bytes.
Filesystem clear.
fsck died with exit status 9
File system check failed.
A log is being saved in /var/log/fsck/checkfs if that location is writable.
Please repair the file system manually.
A maintenance shell will now be started.
CONTROL-D will terminate this shell and resume system boot.
Give root password for maintenance (or type Control-D to continue):
---------
My '/etc/fstab' was as follows:
---------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 /mnt/transfer vfat rw,user,noexec,umask=0000 0 2
/dev/hda3 /boot ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/hda5 / reiserfs defaults 0 1
/dev/hda6 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hda7 /usr reiserfs defaults 0 2
/dev/hda8 /var reiserfs defaults 0 2
/dev/hda9 /tmp reiserfs defaults 0 2
/dev/hda10 /home reiserfs defaults 0 2
# /dev/hda11 /mnt/media reiserfs defaults 0 2
# /dev/hda11 /mnt/mdk reiserfs defaults 0 2
/dev/hda11 /mnt/mdk ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdc /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/winxp ntfs ro,user,noexec,umask=022 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/external vfat rw,user,noauto,noexec,umask=0000 0 2
/dev/sda2 /mnt/f_external ext3 rw,user,noauto,noexec 0 2
/dev/sda3 /mnt/g_external ext3 rw,user,noauto,noexec 0 2
---------
When I "commented-out", i.e. added a "#" infront of the '/dev/sda2' and
'/dev/sda3' entries in the fstab file the error did NOT occur.
What this implies is 'fsck.ext' is failing on '/dev/sda2' and '/dev/sda3'
despite that they aren't being mounted. The "noauto" option in the fstab
file (briefly discussed here
-- http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/docs/Raven/EyeView/SSR05/SSR05-09.htm )
is a setting that I thought should avoid this problem but it
(1) does NOT avoid the failure of fsck and
(2) the error message deliver by 'fsck' ---- 'exit status 9' (a combination
of 'exit status 1' and 'exit status 8', which are "File system errors
corrected" and "Operational error" respectively) does NOT suggest a
problem with '/dev/sda2' and/or '/dev/sda3'.
There is either a subtility I do not understand about external drives/mount in /etc/fstab
--OR--
there is a bug in 'fsck.ext3'.
The objective of the last two line in my fstab i.e.:
-----
/dev/sda2 /mnt/f_external ext3 rw,user,noauto,noexec 0 2
/dev/sda3 /mnt/g_external ext3 rw,user,noauto,noexec 0 2
-----
were to allow me to quickly mount an external hard drive (after plugging-in)
with the two following commands:
-----
# mount /dev/sda2
# mount /dev/sda3
-----
as described at the following URL under the heading "MOUNT EXTERNAL USB HARD DRIVE":
http://individual.utoronto.ca/bonert/debian_install.html
If the above fsck.ext3 failure is due to nothing but ignorance of fstab
settings on my part I have the following to say:
(1) the fsck.ext3 error messages leave a little bit to be desired
(2) the default behaviour of a debian install should be allow writing
of the error file in '/var/log/fsck/checkfs' or another location
(i.e. /tmp). It seems a bit sloppy to me that some executables
(fsck.ext3) in debian on boot try to write to a position to which
they ordinarily do not have adequate permissions.
Michael
========================================
System/Hardware
========================================
Toshiba Satellite A20 -- A20-31Q: 2.53GHz (PSA20C-0231Q)
Processor: Intel Pentium IV, 2.53GHz
Memory: 512 MB
Install log: http://individual.utoronto.ca/bonert/debian_install.html
Debian GNU/Linux release: testing
Kernel: Linux version 2.6.11-1-686 (dannf@firetheft) (gcc version 3.3.6
(Debian 1:3.3.6-6)) #1 Mon Jun 20 22:00:38 MDT 2005
Desktop: KDE 3.5.5
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