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Re: Skipping fsck during boot with systemd?



On 12/06/2014 at 12:27 AM, Ric Moore wrote:

> On 12/05/2014 05:06 PM, Renaud (Ron) OLGIATI wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, 5 Dec 2014 20:59:25 +0000 Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> But remember our current slogan "Linux is all about choice". One
>>> can choose to boot with or without "fsck.mode=skip".
>> 
>> What about the choice to stop fsck it if it has started at an
>> inconvenient moment ?
> 
> What is wrong with an fsck?? You've never had an fsck happen without
> your permission before at boot time?? Isn't it a good thing to have
> happen once in a blue moon??

The problem is not an fsck, but having a fsck happen _right then_, when
you need the computer for something else. Schedules and deadlines are a
thing.

E.g., if you're booting up to deliver a presentation at an important
meeting, the VIPs who are present are unlikely to be impressed or
patient if you have to wait ten minutes or more for the fsck to
complete.

I've seen people complain about that exact scenario in bug reports,
including I think in the Debian bug report which someone identified
earlier in this thread.

Or, as with the OP in this thread, if you're booting up to attend a
live-streaming realtime event (such as a voice-chat meeting) which is
scheduled to happen at a specific time).

Yes, you could potentially have avoided that by passing the new "skip
fsck" option on the kernel command line - but even if you didn't do that
for whatever reason (including simply having forgotten about it,
possibly due to being in a hurry), you should still have the option to
cancel the in-progress fsck, just as has been possible under sysvinit
for most of a decade at least.


From the perspective of systemd, this may be a request for a new
feature, and hence a wishlist-level bug.

But from the perspective of a Debian user (who, as people have
repeatedly reminded us, may not know or care what init system their
computer is using), this is a regression, in that a feature which Debian
used to provide is no longer available. That regression status is, or at
least IMO should be considered, enough to qualify what would otherwise
be a wishlist item as a more serious bug.

> Jimminy Crickets, be glad you aren't defragging like Win users have
> had to put up with for eons.

Unless things have changed from Win7 to Win8, current Windows
defragmentation doesn't prevent you from using your computer while it's
going on; it just slows the computer down while the defrag is in
progress. I use Windows 7 at work, and I can say that I've literally
never noticed a scheduled defragmentation occurring - either on Win7 or
on WinXP.

And even Windows boot-time CHKDSK or whatever they call it nowadays
gives you a few seconds of warning before it starts, with the option to
cancel (or, rather, postpone) the disk check. IIRC from bug discussion,
current systemd doesn't even provide that.

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.         -- George Bernard Shaw

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