Re: Serious ext2fs problem

Theodore Y. Ts'o (tytso@MIT.EDU)
Wed, 1 Jan 1997 03:17:33 -0500


Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 09:51:59 -0500 (EST)
From: "Andrew E. Mileski" <aem@nic.ott.hookup.net>

Sorry, as I didn't have the time to wait for an upgrade, I had
to solve the problem the only way I could figure.

I don't recall the exact message, but it was something about a field
length being 0.

Grumble.... if you're going to kvetch on the list, *please* take the
time to write down the exact message. I spend a lot of time trying to
make e2fsck be as reliable as possible, but I do need your help --- and
that means taking careful notes when things go wrong, and filing good
and useful bug reports. Linux is a cooperative effort, and users have
to do their part.

Yhis is especially true since I don't have a bevy of help desk people to
handle my level one technical support (i.e., "Sir, are you sure your
computer is plugged in?", "Ma'am, the CD-ROM tray isn't a coffee cup
holder"). <grin>

Isn't it possible to look at the kernel code and make sure that all
errors the kernel reports are addressed by fsck?

As far as I know, e2fsck is much more paranoid than the kernel, and
there hasn't been any new checks added to the kernel recently.

The most likely suspect for a number of the problems I've heard so far
*is* a one-time hardware read error....

- Ted