e2fsck not fixing root partition

William M. Perkins (bill@grnwood.grnwood.richmond.us.net)
Thu, 4 Apr 1996 23:59:37 -0500 (EST)

I am having a problem with e2fsck not fixing a problem I have with
my root partition /dev/sda2 (ncr53c810). My system crashed while
I was trying to start DOOM up. and upon rebooting I was instructed
to run fsck manually. But, no matter how many times I run e2fsck
on sda2, I get the following:

> e2fsck 1.01, 30-Oct-95 for EXT2 FS 0.5a, 95/03/19
> Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
> Pass 2: Checking directory structure
> Directory inode 50891, block 0, offset 0: directory corrupted
> Salvage? yes
>
> Missing '.' in directory inode 50891.
> Fix? yes
>
> Missing '..' in directory inode 50891.
> Fix? yes
>
> Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
> '..' in /usr/src/linux-1.3.84/fs/msdos (50891) is . (0), should be /usr/src/linux-1.3.84/fs (24804).
> Fix? yes
>
> Pass 4: Checking reference counts
> Inode 2 has ref count 33, expecting 34.
> Set i_nlinks to count? yes
>
> Inode 24804 has ref count 18, expecting 17.
> Set i_nlinks to count? yes
>
> Pass 5: Checking group summary information
>
> /dev/sda2: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
> /dev/sda2: 18369/77216 files, 261650/307923 blocks

I have seen a simular message before with different directory names
associated with these same inodes when I had to reboot my box after a
crash on a previous occasion. The only way that I can think of to fix
this problem is to dump the whole root filesystem to tape, mke2fs the
partition anew, and reload the files.

I am not really sure if this is a problem with ext2 filesystem, e2fsck,
or whatever.

Bill

PS: The system is a 486DX2 with builtin ncr53c810 controller and running
the 1.3.84 kernel. The SCSI disk is a Conner CFP1060S (1.06 GB). 

-- 
William M. Perkins                       Internet - wperkins@us.net
The Greenwood                               or    - bill@cais.com
Commodore is dead.  Long lives the Amiga!  (AmigaOS/Linux/NetBSD)