I Keep getting "EXT2-fs warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended" on my Compact Flash based FS

[lennyk430]

Hi all,

I'm working on a ppc based embedded system, and am using a compact
flash based filesystem.
When I created the filesystem I ran: tune2fs -c 1 <device location>
My /etc/fstab looks like this:
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0

But for some reason I keep getting: "EXT2-fs warning: mounting
unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended"
and my filesystem doesn't auto-run the fsck (e2fsck) utiliy - WHY?
WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?

Thanks in advance,
Lenny.

[Juergen Beisert]

How should the filesystem itself do that?

jbe

[gfine]

When you formatted the CF the mke2fs program it told you it would
require a check after XX mounts. You reached (or exceeded ) that
limit.

You need to do a 'tune2fs -c 0' (I think) on the CF after you do a
mke2fs, to turn off checking.

G

[lennyk430]

> > and my filesystem doesn't auto-run the fsck (e2fsck) utility

>
> How should the filesystem itself do that?
>
> jbe

OK, I guess I understand the problem...
But, alas, how can I force the auto-check to run every XXX mounts?
The warning is received before the root fs is mounted - so there must
be a way:

"EXT2-fs warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Freeing unused kernel memory: 132k init"

Thanks again,
Itamar.

[david]

On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:14:15 -0700, lennyk430 rearranged some electrons to
say:

shutdown -F is supposed to force fsck on the next reboot.

[Juergen Beisert]

lennyk430 wrote:

> On Aug 11, 4:34 pm, Juergen Beisert <jbeis...@netscape.net> wrote:
>> lennyk430 wrote:
>> > I'm working on a ppc based embedded system, and am using a compact
>> > flash based filesystem.
>> > When I created the filesystem I ran: tune2fs -c 1 <device location>
>> > My /etc/fstab looks like this:
>> > # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
>> > rootfs / rootfs rw 0 1
>> > proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
>> > sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
>> > devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
>> > tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
>>
>> > But for some reason I keep getting: "EXT2-fs warning: mounting
>> > unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended"
>> > and my filesystem doesn't auto-run the fsck (e2fsck) utility
>>
>> How should the filesystem itself do that?
>>
>> jbe
>
> OK, I guess I understand the problem...
> But, alas, how can I force the auto-check to run every XXX mounts?

Run always (every boot) e2fsck on this partition. If the filesystem is clean
it returns immediately, if not it will check and repair it. After XXX
mounts (using the tune2fs tool to setup this count) it forces a whole check
automatically, even if the filesystem is was marked clean.
Don't forget to mount the rootfilesystem as *read only* from kernel's side,
to run e2fsck on it. After e2fsck has done its job, remount "/" with write
permissions.

> The warning is received before the root fs is mounted - so there must
> be a way:

Not "before", this warning occures while mounting.

jbe

[yoha...@gmail.com]

first of all, the message comes from this entry on fstab,

rootfs / rootfs rw 0 1

your root is a rootfs and not an ext2/ext3 thats why fsck -a fails
because it calls for fsck.rootfs instead of fsck.ext2 (fsck is a
frontend
for the 'fsck.fs' backends).
secondly, shutdown -F normally creates an empty file /.autofsck
and in most rcS scripts checks for the existence of this file before
calling fsck -a.
third, mount knows that the root is an ext2 so it complains about
dirty filesystems from the fstab entry (some distro makes mount
also calls fsck without repairing).
fourth, i dont think using tune2fs to check every mount is
appropriate,
at least give it a larger range, say 1000 mounts. the last field on
fstab
('1') already checks it for every mount. i don't know if its
relevant, but
isnt compact-flash has some limits on how many writes to an area?
i mean e2fsck would write the last fsck stamp to it.

well, hope this helps
ys