Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: e2fsprogs
Well, sorry if I shouldn't have opened a new bug report (this is the
first time I've ever done anything like this and I'm in a bit of a
hurry, so I'm foregoing perfect etiquette and direction-following with
the goal of perhaps giving someone some A-HA! information). So, here
goes....
I'm currently running Ubuntu 9.10 (and quite enjoy it, although it makes
me feel like a lazy slob compared to how I used to work on my other
systems - Slackware, lol), and I've had this same problem, exactly as
many people have described in various reports. In fact, I think I may
even have had this problem on an earlier release of Ubuntu, and even
with FAT-32 drives moved through various system migrations (a bad habit
of mine). So, here's what I can chip in.
First, the messages is scary, but I really don't believe it realy ever
leads to data loss. And, I've often found it a real bitch to "fix" the
drive to eliminate the problem, although I HAVE "fixed" it before. How?
Well, first let me tell you about some behaviors and things I've
noticed, which is how I've figured out how to straighten things out.
It's always been FAT-32 partitions. The partitions are usually very full
(and if you run fsck/gparted checks on them they bitch and moan that
they can't complete the "grow" the fs part of the check/fix because of a
lack of free space. Also, they usually have a mangled disk label - for
example, my current one (which is why I came researching for more info,
just in case there's easier ways to cope with this) has a disklabel of
"p></body></" (sans quotes, of course). Nice, huh? LOL! Yeah, well,
there's NO partitioning software (although I haven't tried Ranish which
might not be a bad idea - that's one sick piece of partitioning 'ware)
that can even change my disklabel to what it used to be: "HDB6_FAT32" or
"HDB6-FAT32". All software says that it'll do it, says it did it, then
poof! no change. Makes me want to try some sort of hex or sector editor
on it.
Anyways, in the thread that I'm "re-opening," there was postulation
about / or \ characters confusing things. Perhaps. I do have some
unwanted / characters, as well as other usually-escaped characters in my
disklabel. BTW, I'm not sure if they're left over from a post-recovery
data-daquiri of any of my data (although I haven't noticed any missing),
or if they're somehow being caused/placed by a bug in fsck, partitioning
tools, fs pieces etc. It almost looks like some sort of XML chunk, don't
it?
Anyways, if you're drive has enough free space, you usually can run
something like SystemRescueCD with gparted on it, which will take longer
than it ever has before, but it usually gets through it, and works some
sort of magic that allows any partitioning software (from fdisk to
parted to whatever) to change the label just like on a normal drive.
Also, at this point, the backup boot sector error mystically disappears.
I do recall one time I just got frustrated, used SystemRescueCD,
MidnightCommander and an extra partition with enough space to simply
move all the data off and then delete recreate the twisted partition
with exactly the same size, etc. specs as it was. Then moved the data
back on, everything will be okay. That's what I'm doing right now.
No, not a pretty solution, but it's not a real pretty problem either.
And I'm bettin' dollars to donuts that no one has mentioned that they're
drives are packed pretty tight. Let's think about this. Why the heck are
we, Linux users, using FAT32 partitions on nice Linux systems? Why?
Because we're lazy, quickly swapping in ancient drives into newer
systems, without doing the smart thing like migrating the data over to
some much better and more efficient file system. These partitions are
full probably because they've been around a long time, and have all
sorts of "precious" data that we swear we don't want to lose, but that
we really don't look at too often. Kind of like an attic in our
computer. A really dark, stinky, messy, dusty attic with funky rodents
running around in it. The only really intellient solution is to call in
the exterminator, and then build yourself a nice new party loft.
And this time, I'm even gonna take my own advice, and not re-do the damn
thing as FAT-32. Yeah, this means that I'm gonna have to try to think of
all the little n00b script attempts and whatnot that cobble my
Frankenstein of a systems together, so that things mount right, have the
proper paths, etc., to my precious data. But dammit, I never experience
this crap on any Linux FS. The lazy part of me wants to go the easy
route - EXT3, the show-off side of me wants to try NILFS or ButterFS,
but I'm not gonna risk wasting time learning about an FS I haven't used
yet. Nope, gimme EXT3, or EXT2, or Reiser 3 or 4, or XFS and I'll be
fine and get my house back together faster....
-- Ax-L
** Affects: e2fsprogs (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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More info about "filesystem check fails on boot, but filesystem isn't bad"
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/494843
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