Re: making bootup fsck more user-friendly
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On 2008-06-13 13:38, David wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 1:12 PM, Johannes Wiedersich
> <johannes@physik.blm.tu-muenchen.de> wrote:
>> read 'man tune2fs' for some tips for setting interval and mount count to
>> something that better meets your needs.
>
> This isn't a solution for me. I want fsck to run regularly, but to
> still have a way to by-pass it when I need to. Making fsck run less
> frequently will leave me with the same problem. eg every 100th boot I
> will still have to wait 10-20 minutes before I can start using the PC,
> which is a royal PITA.
So basically you want to have the check without having to wait for the
check to finish. I don't know, how you want this to be accomplished.
Either the check runs automatically or you have to run it manually.
>> Ctrl-C worked without problems the last time I tried on my debian lenny.
>>
>
> I tested this on 2 Sid boxes, both had the problem. In the past (with
> Testing & Stable) hitting Ctrl-C will randomly either leave the
> partition read-only, or will re-mount it in write mode.
OK, I checked again. Ctrl-C works for /home but not for / . So, I guess
you would have to move your data to another partition. I have a rather
small / partition, so fsck is fast and I probably never have interrupted
it up to now. My /home partition is large, takes a long time to fsck and
I haven't had problems interrupting it in order to have it checked next
time. Again, since the feature works for other partitions than / , I'd
guess that there is a good reason why it isn't implemented for / .
(Maybe I'm wrong. Is there someone out there who knows better?)
>> Set your mount count and intervals apropriately for your needs. You
>> could also fsck manually (shuttdown's -F option), whenever it suits you,
>> eg. disable automatic checking and only check manually.
>
> This is a pain. I would need to find time when I'm not using the PC,
> but still want it to be on, which is not often. I like to turn off my
> PC when I'm not using it, and to not have to wait for it when I do
> want to use it.
You cannot reliably fsck / when the computer is on. It either has to be
at boot time or else you have to boot from another / like from a rescue
CD/DVD.
>>> - /sbin/shutdown allows the user to (any of these would help):
>>> * Force a fsck during the restart (-rF), and then to shut down the system.
>> Does not work for me, because I want to shut down the computer
>> completely, not just waste all that power with standby mode. I.e. if you
>> want to turn off the power supply completely, shutdown is not enough,
>> YOU have to switch off manually.
>>
>
> I think this depends on hardware. Most of my boxes shut down
> completely when I run 'shutdown -P'. But there are a few (maybe old
> kernel) which go into stand-by mode even when I really want shutdown
> to power it off.
In my experience *any* computer will be in some kind of standby mode as
long as there is no physical interruption to the power. Some power
supplies don't have a 'physical switch', but that just means that they
will always use a few watts of electricity unless you remove the cord or
put a physical switch between the box and the electrical outlet.
Are all leds of your ethernet off, when the computer is off and there is
a ethernet connection to a router? Newer hardware has some 'wake on lan'
option to boot the computer via ethernet, but of course that means that
the ethernet cards are not off, but on standby -- wasting your
electricity even if you don't want to use 'wake on lan'.
> If shutdown isn't meant to work this way, then why does it have a -P option?
The electronics can not really pull the plug or physically disconnect
from the sockets. It's like with your TV set: it will always be on
standby, if 'switched off' by the remote control. Only a physical
switch, operated by a person will really disconnect the thing from the
mains. Some consumer applications don't have these switches nowadays,
but that just means you have to pull the plug in order to fully power
off :-(
I've even seen some floor lamps that still consume a power of some 10 W
when switched off, because the transformer is still on and has not been
disconnected. Better designs have the power switch between socket and
transformer and _not_ between transformer and light bulb.
>>> - ability for a readonly fsck on a r/w filesystem to gather info to
>>> make a later fsck on the filesystem as r/o to find and fix problems
>>> faster.
>> Do you have some technical expertise on how to implement this? I doubt
>> that the ext3 developpers overlooked that, if there was a good technical
>> solution....
>
> Might be because ext3 devs are mainly focused on servers which are
> turned on 24/7 & rarely rebooted. The kind of feature I'd like would
> be more useful for desktop users.
I guess the defaults are very conservative settings regarding
reliability of your data and were implemented at a time when there was
no journalling for data protection.
As I said before, it depends on the importance of the data and quality,
frequency and reliability of your backups. Another point to consider is
how quick you have to recover, etc.
For what it's worth, I fsck my home after 100 mounts or 6 months. / is
fsck'ed more often, but since it doesn't take long, I just never
bothered. I also have smartmontools checking the health of my disks.
YMMV,
Johannes
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