Re: cannot open initial console

[Vitaly Fertman]

On Thursday 23 February 2006 09:46, Matheus Izvekov wrote:
> On 2/23/06, Matheus Izvekov <mizvekov@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On 2/22/06, Matheus Izvekov <mizvekov@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > Hi all
> > >
> > > When i tried kernel 2.6.15.4, i noticed i cant boot it, i get
> > > "warning: cannot open initial console" then it reboots. I've searched
> > > for it and found the breakage occurs from 2.6.15.1 to 2.6.15.2
> > >
> > > Before i start to bisect to find the culpirit, and as there were few
> > > changes, anyone has a good guess about what broke it?
> > >
> > > Thanks all in advance.
> > >
> >
> > Found the bad patch by reversing by hand.
> >
> > diff --git a/fs/reiserfs/super.c b/fs/reiserfs/super.c
> > index 42afb5b..9c38f10 100644
> > --- a/fs/reiserfs/super.c
> > +++ b/fs/reiserfs/super.c
> > @@ -1131,7 +1131,7 @@ static void handle_attrs(struct super_bl
> >                         REISERFS_SB(s)->s_mount_opt &= ~(1 << REISERFS_ATTRS);
> >                 }
> >         } else if (le32_to_cpu(rs->s_flags) & reiserfs_attrs_cleared) {
> > -               REISERFS_SB(s)->s_mount_opt |= REISERFS_ATTRS;
> > +               REISERFS_SB(s)->s_mount_opt |= (1 << REISERFS_ATTRS);
> >         }
> >  }
> >
> > Reversing this fixes the problem, double checked it. What was that
> > patch supposed to do anyway?
> >
> 
> Adding Vitaly Fertman to this thread, as he is the one who seems to
> have submitted that patch.

this line enables attribues by default -- sets the mount option flag. 
the problem was that the value itself, instead of the flag, was set.

reiserfs_attrs_cleared on-disk super block flag indicates if attributes 
of all files were cleared initially or not -- fs is ready to use attributes.
if they were not cleared, files may contain garbage instead of attribute flags. 

reiserfs_attrs_cleared flag may lie, garbage in file attributes may appear 
due to using old kernels/reiserfsprogs, before attributes were supported by 
reiserfs; or due to a corruption.

so it seems better to disable the enable-by-default behaviour -- look into 
the attachment please -- and clear the file attributes before using them: 
	reiserfsck --clean-attributes <device>

-- 
Vitaly
> --- Begin Message ---
>  Unfortunately, the reiserfs_attrs_cleared bit in the superblock flag can lie.
>  File systems have been observed with the bit set, yet still contain garbage
>  in the stat data field, causing unpredictable results.
>
>  This patch backs out the enable-by-default behavior.
>
>  It eliminates the changes from: d50a5cd860ce721dbeac6a4f3c6e42abcde68cd8, and
>  ef5e5414e7a83eb9b4295bbaba5464410b11e030.
>
>   fs/reiserfs/super.c |    2 --
>   1 files changed, 2 deletions(-)
>
> Signed-off-by: Jeff Mahoney <jeffm@xxxxxxxx>
>
> diff -ruNpX dontdiff linux-2.6.15/fs/reiserfs/super.c linux-2.6.15-reiserfs/fs/reiserfs/super.c
> --- linux-2.6.15/fs/reiserfs/super.c	2006-02-06 19:54:27.000000000 -0500
> +++ linux-2.6.15-reiserfs/fs/reiserfs/super.c	2006-02-12 11:19:15.000000000 -0500
> @@ -1121,8 +1121,6 @@ static void handle_attrs(struct super_bl
>  					 "reiserfs: cannot support attributes until flag is set in super-block");
>  			REISERFS_SB(s)->s_mount_opt &= ~(1 << REISERFS_ATTRS);
>  		}
> -	} else if (le32_to_cpu(rs->s_flags) & reiserfs_attrs_cleared) {
> -		REISERFS_SB(s)->s_mount_opt |= (1 << REISERFS_ATTRS);
>  	}
>  }
>  
> -- 
> Jeff Mahoney
> SuSE Labs
>
>
> --- End Message ---