Odd FSCK Error

Hi,

While performing a FSCK on one of my Empegs, I received this error.


empeg:/empeg/bin# ro
empeg:/empeg/bin# umount /dev/hda4
empeg:/empeg/bin# umount /dev/hdc4
empeg:/empeg/bin# swapon /swapfile
Adding Swap: 16028k swap-space (priority -1)
empeg:/empeg/bin# fsck -fay /
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda5 is mounted.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/hda5: 1514/4096 files (0.5% non-contiguous), 9443/16384 blocks

empeg:/empeg/bin# fsck -fay /dev/hda4
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda4 is mounted.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Cno room for private writable mapping
hecking gerror: -12
roup summary information
fsck.ext2: Memory allocation failed while retrying to read bitmaps for /dev/hda4

It does operate fine in boot and play modes. I performed the FSCK because it was taking a long time performing a Disk Integrity Check.


Anyone have an idea of what is wrong.

Thanks,

Ross

How big is your HD?

Ross does have some of the largest drives (250GB) from memory, so I'd guess that the 16MB of swap space on top of the memory available just isn't cutting it.

Are both drives partitioned with swap space? "fdisk -l" should list it, or "fdisk -l /dev/hda" and "fdisk -l /dev/hdc". I don't have my empeg handy to test.

Turn the swap space on on both drives and see how it goes. "swapon /dev/hdc?" where ? is the partition

The Disk Integrity Check is a sign you need to do the fsck I'm pretty sure too so you're on the right track.

You might consider only turning on the swap partition on the disk you're not trying to fsck, so that fsck and swap aren't competing.

Whatever the correct outcome ends up being, please someone let me know what the correct instructions should be here. He was following those instructions.

It'd run slightly quicker but you'd still hit the problem of lack of memory.

Running with both swap partitions enabled should make it possible for fsck to complete or to use the unused partition and turn it into swap.

Hi,

I will check on the swapfile space. I did have it set to 32MB during the development phase we went through for large drives.

I have seen a similar issue with another dual 250GB, but it was nearly full and I think that was a problem with the cache reserve. That one has A LOT of files and playlists on it even with additional cache reserve set.

It could be that it wasn't built properly. In the next day or so, I will check out the above suggestions.

Thanks everyone,

Ross

Or if you have the parts (i.e. 2.5 to 3.5 inch adapter and a suitable PC) you could try to fsck it in a regular PC with lots of memory.

There's nothing special in the empeg fs that should prevent this, is there?

Means pulling apart the empeg and the computer of course, so not the most practical route. And doesn't help the next time it happens.

Turning on swap only on the other drive won't help if memory is lacking. It would make the process quicker if there was enough memory.

Another alternative is creating more swap as a regular file on the other disk (assuming you have some space which I wouldn't think would be much of a problem)

dd of=/dev/zero if=/file/onotherdisk count=2000 (for a 100MB file)
mkswap /file/onotherdisk
swapon /file/onotherdisk

Then do your fsck.

There's nothing special in the Empeg ext2fs, no. But don't do this with a Rio Central -- its ReiserFS is a hacked-up mixture of two different versions, and no PC can safely reiserfsck it.

Peter

Some of the QNAP NAS boxes are like that too, except it's ext4 they've buggered up.

Cheers

How is this different from any other version of ReiserFS?

Did they ever fix the problem with storing ReiserFS images on a ReiserFS filesystem and then running reiserfsck?

Who knows? I think it's pretty well abandoned now that Hans is in prison.