Hi list.
I already checked this problem with Google and with my LUG, and would
like to ask on this mailing list before I fire off a bunch of feature
requests in the Debian BTS.
===== FROM MAIL TO MY LUG =====
I've tried Googling for this but haven't found much info, so asking here.
Every X days or Y reboots, Linux (on my home PC, which I boot & shut
down 2x each day) wants to scan partitions for errors at startup.
While this is a bit annoying (can't use the PC for 10-20 minutes), I
usually let it finish and read a book while waiting.
But at other times I want to use the PC quickly for something, and
waiting for fsck to finish isn't an option. The problem is, hitting
Ctrl+C in the middle of boot fsck leaves your root partition in
read-only mode, and the machine has a lot of boot problems, and takes
a long time. I've tried this a few times this morning when I was in a
hurry (reboot, ctrl+c during fsck, hit boot problems so reboot again),
but in the end was forced to let fsck finish.
Is there a way to interrupt the bootup fsck 'cleanly', so that it will
remount read/write, and retry the next time you boot?
Even better would be a way to get fsck to run in the background after
you're already logged into KDE. Maybe not to actually fix problems (I
understand this is hard to do in r/w mode, while being actively used,
for technical reasons), but at leat to flag them for the next 'real'
fsck so they can be checked and fixed quickly then if they aren't
bogus...
Any suggestions?
===== A FEW (TRIMMED FOR BREVITY) REPLIES FROM MY LUG POST =====
On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 10:08 AM, Morgan Collett
<morgan.collett@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubuntu 8.04 / hardy supports cancelling the fsck on boot cleanly with
Esc (or is it Ctrl-C? I haven't tried it myself.)
You can change the number of boots:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5050801&postcount=14
You can change it to once a month:
http://martin.ankerl.com/2007/11/03/howto-change-ubuntu-forced-fsck/
You can try AutoFsck which does the fsck on shutdown instead:
http://micrux.net/?p=52 AT YOUR OWN RISK of course...
---
On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 10:12 AM, Deon Bredenhann
<deon1@propellerheads.co.za> wrote:
If you leave the box on or running through the night, just force an fsck
once a week.
Have a cron entry at 2 in the morning run 'shutdown -F -r now'
This will reboot and force fsck to run. If you do this on a weekly base,
you will most likely not run into the I'm-in-a-hurry-now problem. Would
like to know what other solutions people have out there.
---
On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 10:12 AM, Liam Smit <liam.smit@gmail.com> wrote:
I'd suggest increasing the number of reboots between file system
checks. Have a look at tune2fs.
A more drastic approach would be to change to a different file system
which does not require such frequent fsck.
Is there a way to interrupt the bootup fsck 'cleanly', so that it will
remount read/write, and retry the next time you boot?
Probably not once it's running i.e. there is an element of risk
involved in stopping a running fsck. Rather prevent it from starting.
Even better would be a way to get fsck to run in the background after
you're already logged into KDE. Maybe not to actually fix problems (I
understand this is hard to do in r/w mode, while being actively used,
for technical reasons), but at leat to flag them for the next 'real'
fsck so they can be checked and fixed quickly then if they aren't
bogus...
That would probably corrupt the file system being checked unless it
was first unmounted.
==========
I researched the options they mentioned, and I'm not happy with the
situation (at least with Debian Unstable, I don't use Ubuntu).
I want to submit these feature requests, but first I'd like some
feedback from this list before I do so:
sysvinit:
- When it's time (during startup)to run a full fsck, give the user a
few seconds to hit ESC before running them
- /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.
* Force a fsck during shutdown, after drives have been unmounted
+ But only if an fsck is due the next time the machine boots?
e2fsprogs:
- fsck allows the user to abort cleanly with ESC (fsck will be
retried on the next boot)
- 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.
David.