Hello, I am doing some testing on a PXA270 based processor (on a single board computer) which makes the processor vulnerable to bit flips. One such bit flips seems to have corrupted the file system. The debug port on the board (it is a single board computer) had the following message when i think the FS corruption occured : <7>init_special_inode: bogus i_mode (33061) init_special_inode: bogus i_mode (30071) init_special_inode: bogus i_mode (34065) init_special_inode: bogus i_mode (30061) init_special_inode: bogus i_mode (33061) init_special_inode: bogus i_mode (30071) After this happened, directories like bin etc. were corrupted ( I am pasting the screen shot of ll commands that i did) which meant that i could not start the board again using the same FS (I had to re install the root file system on the hard drive). My question is what error could have caused a file system corruption like this. Is it possible to trace and analyze if i have the whole FS backed up? The OS was debian linux. I hope the question is clear and the given information is useful enough to make some comments. Here is the screen shot of the ll commands for 2 of the directories: (The total space in the partition was 4GB) ************************************************************************* segrith.cse.psu.edu 66% du -khs bin 426G bin segrith.cse.psu.edu 67% ll total 446404348 cr-Sr-S--- 8240 959265076 876099129 32, 50 Oct 2 1997 bin drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 30 2005 boot drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 24576 Oct 10 15:29 dev drwxr-xr-x 61 root root 4096 Oct 10 15:32 etc drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 30 2005 home drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 31 1969 initrd drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4096 Jan 12 2006 lib drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 16384 Dec 31 1969 lost+found drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Dec 19 2005 media drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Apr 26 15:39 mnt drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 19 2005 opt dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 31 1969 proc drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Oct 9 23:10 root drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 1 11:38 sbin drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 12 2006 selinux drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 31 1969 srv drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 31 1969 sys drwxrwxrwt 4 root root 4096 Oct 10 15:29 tmp drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 Dec 19 2005 usr drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 Dec 19 2005 var segrith.cse.psu.edu 68% cd root/samplecodes/test7/ segrith.cse.psu.edu 69% du -khs * 426G a.out 0 err.out 434G matrix_a 458G matrix_b 394G matrix_c 426G matrix_d 434G matrix_e 394G matrix_f segrith.cse.psu.edu 70% ll total 3107434033 ?---rw---x 11552 892546336 959789109 943207220 Dec 28 1993 a.out -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Oct 10 15:09 err.out ?---rwS--t 13869 909522483 540549173 926166304 Dec 28 1993 matrix_a ?--Srw-r-x 11552 943140128 757084720 808726580 Dec 28 1993 matrix_b ?---rwx--x 8246 842276912 540030005 859124013 Feb 11 1987 matrix_c ?---rw---x 11552 892546336 959789109 943207220 Dec 28 1993 matrix_d ?---rwS--t 13869 909522483 540549173 926166304 Dec 28 1993 matrix_e ?---rwx--x 8246 842276912 540030005 859124013 Feb 11 1987 matrix_f segrith.cse.psu.edu 71% ************************************************************************ Thank you! Sincerely, Rajaraman
On Wed, 25 Oct 2006, Rajaraman Ramanarayanan wrote:> I am doing some testing on a PXA270 based processor (on a single board > computer) which makes the processor vulnerable to bit flips. One > such bit flips seems to have corrupted the file system.I don't know these PXA270 processors but your comment reads as if the processor is "prone to bit-flips by design", which I can't believe...so, I guess the cpu broke somehow, was overheated or sth.? If so, that's like having faulty memory or faulty data-paths in general (bus errors, bad cabling, too hot processors, etc...). And kinds of errors can be caused by this and the fs can't do much about it because the code in the fs-driver (any fs) isn't executed in the way it is meant to.> segrith.cse.psu.edu 66% du -khs bin > 426G bin > segrith.cse.psu.edu 67% ll > total 446404348 > cr-Sr-S--- 8240 959265076 876099129 32, 50 Oct 2 1997 binso, the system thinks /bin is a 426 GB character device on a 4GB filesystem? you could run a recent version of e2fsck and see what can be repaired but I'd suggest to get a stable hardware platform and playback your backups :( Christian. -- BOFH excuse #54: Evil dogs hypnotised the night shift