About the checkfs cheatcode

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: About the checkfs cheatcode
started by: curaga

Posted by curaga on June 20 2007,09:17

When I first tried it, it seemed great. But it just went to starting runlevel 2, and instantly rebooted with lots of errors about nonexistent icons (that obviously haven't been created since it wasn't going to runlevel 5)

By checking the scripts I saw it will only check ext2 (I had ext3).

By saying "checks unmounted filesystems" in isolinux F3 page people assume it will check them all. So I propose changing it to "checks unmounted ext2 filesystems" for clarity.

Also it should be made to skip those shutdown time icon checks, but that's not too important..

Posted by Juanito on June 20 2007,11:22

This is perhaps something that comes from Knoppix rather than DSL - now that I have a USB boot working with ext2 and also a frugal hd installation, I would like to be able to use this boot code. Whilst it's not a big deal to boot from another USB on my laptop and use fsck.ext2 on the USB stick, it is entirely another matter on the hd install where the only alternative boot device is a floppy

Posted by curaga on June 20 2007,11:57

It's a DSL addon, since it isn't in any Knoppix and it is checked in dsl-config..

Posted by roberts on June 20 2007,14:13

DSL is designed primarily as a nomadic live CD or frugally installed system. The bulk of dsl-config is to support such environment. The checkfs was not designed for a traditional hard drive installation.

It should not even be needed in that case. It should be controlled via fstab and booting with nofstab. When used for which it was designed there is no icon check errors as such is controlled by the existence of the /KNOPPIX directory which does not exist in a hard drive installation.

There is limited ext3 support in the traditional hard drive install script. Other than that, ext3 is not the filesystem typically used. Isn't the purpose of using ext3 is to avoid the typically forced filesystem checks?

I do not typically run traditional hard drive installations. I do use the checkfs on my frugals without issues.

Regarding pendrives: Typically they are not ext2 either.

Posted by curaga on June 20 2007,15:16

Sorry, I forgot to mention I was using the livecd to repair another linux system, not a DSL HD-install.
It's an unmodified 3.2 livecd. Thus those errors aren't from HD install..

And ext3 can need fsck'in once in a while (I had a blackout.. It restored fine, but told it couldn't fsck fully)

Posted by Juanito on June 21 2007,05:26

Out of interest I tried checkfs on a USB boot (DSL 3.4rc1), here's what I got:

Code Sample

fsck 1.34-WIP
e2fsck 1.34-WIP
/dev/sda1: clean, 701/126976 files, 410611/506908 blocks
{RED} Standby System rebooting... {NORMAL}
INIT: Switching to runlevel: 6
INIT: Sending processes the TERM signal
/usr/bin/cleanMyDSL.sh line 12: cd: /home/dsl/: No such file or directory
ls: .xtdesktop/*.lnk: No such file or directory
No icons found
Cannot open file .jwmrc: No such file or directory
Cannot open file .xtdesktop/.xtdeskrc No such file or directory
Shutting down PCMCIA devices
...
Prepare for reboot
Wait for CD to eject, then remove CD, close cdrom drive then press enter

If I press enter, then the cycle repeats.

Don't get me wrong, I 'm not saying this should work on a USB boot - anyway it is easy to boot from a second USB stick and run a file system check on the first USB stick.

I will try this on a frugal hd installation in a couple of days time - does the script /KNOPPIX check differentiate between USB and frugal hd installs?

Posted by roberts on June 21 2007,06:02

I stand corrected on this and will add a check for boot parameter "checkfs". I guess since it was rebooting I originally did not think it a big deal.

Note, it works with frugal but you need to add the boot option "toram" in order to check the device from which you booted from. Otherwise that device is busy and is ignored. Which is what would be expected.

I have been using this feature on my thinkpad 240, which has no floppy, no cdrom and no bootable usb. I have a checkfs and toram as a grub menu item, which I ocassionally run.

Posted by Juanito on June 21 2007,06:19

Quote

I have a checkfs and toram as a grub menu item, which I ocassionally run.

Aaah-it's not going to be so easy on a lilo boot then...

Posted by curaga on June 21 2007,11:51

How about that line in livecd syslinux F3 page?