Startup scripts of Debian Lenny don't perform file system check while on battery power
Hi -
sorry I can't use reportbug because I am not using Debian anymore. Using the
bug-report search engine I couldn't find a report related to my experience. I
don't know the name of the Debian package which contains the feature that I
assume has messed up the data in my ext3 file system.
Here is the story: After an apt-get update && apt-get upgrade my system
crashed three times while on battery power (supend to RAM which perfectly
worked before wasn't properly waking up anymore) Subsequently my ext3 file
system was corrupted in such a way that fsck.ext3 couldn't repair it
anymore - system gone, some work lost that I couldn't recover from the disc.
I think the reason is that the startup scripts of the Lenny version I was
running (installed with the netinstall cd in June or July on a Asus EEE PC
901 and frequently updated until it broke on Dezember 23rd 2008) omits the
file system check if it detects a mobile system running on battery.
The startup scripts issue a warning of the kind "Warning! Skipping file system
check because the system is running on battery power" - I don't know the
exact wording - so the sysadmin has to perform the check manually after
boot-up to avoid data loss...
Given that my system and some of my data went to digital nirvana I don't think
adding such a "feature" was a smart move - especially if there is no
mechanism included which avoids mounting a corrupted file system over and
over again without a file system check! Checking a interrupted ext3 mount is
a matter of seconds so where is the point in skipping the check?
This is the second time in my Debian user experience where I see kooky things
going on in the bootup phase - I remember Woody attempting to mount already
mounted file systems several times. At least this didn't hurt much.
I like Debian and I'm surely going to use it again somewhere some day. And I'm
sorry that I didn't write this email earlier - but I was busy and I was
pissed. I'm running Slackware 12.2 now on the 901. It is not comfortable but
it doesn't break because of an update and I can trust the people writing the
startup scripts.
Cheers,
elektra
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