Ext3 users - Nov 2001 - [PROBLEM] setting data=writeback in /etc/fstab for /

Hi everybody,

I had a problem which you may be interested in.

I set data=writeback in /etc/fstab for each of my ext3 partitions (because
it complains on "mount -o remount,data=writeback" with "ext3:
journal mode
can't be altered on remount" or similar) and rebooted.

Problem: / was mounted read-only, I couldn't remount it (because mount
appends the options from fstab, which led to the same error). Even if I put
data=ordered on the mount-option-line, it wouldn't work - because the other
data= entry is seen before or after, and this gives me an error and aborts.

The only way to repair this was to reboot and give the kernel the options
"rw init=/bin/bash" and repair that.

To avoid this problem I see some alternatives:

- Don't use another journaling mode except the default on /.
- use initrd or pivot_root
- change mount so that multiple options with the same name are folded into one
- change ext3 so that journaling changes on mounted fs's are simple ignored.


Any remarks, anybody???


Regards,

Phil



-
This message is RSA-encrypted: n=33389, e=257

Hi everybody,

I had a problem which you may be interested in.

I set data=writeback in /etc/fstab for each of my ext3 partitions (because
it complains on "mount -o remount,data=writeback" with "ext3:
journal mode
can't be altered on remount" or similar) and rebooted.

Problem: / was mounted read-only, I couldn't remount it (because mount
appends the options from fstab, which led to the same error). Even if I put
data=ordered on the mount-option-line, it wouldn't work - because the other
data= entry is seen before or after, and this gives me an error and aborts.

The only way to repair this was to reboot and give the kernel the options
"rw init=/bin/bash" and repair that.

To avoid this problem I see some alternatives:

- Don't use another journaling mode except the default on /.
- use initrd or pivot_root
- change mount so that multiple options with the same name are folded into one
- change ext3 so that journaling changes on mounted fs's are simple ignored.


Any remarks, anybody???


Regards,

Phil



-
This message is RSA-encrypted: n=33389, e=257

Hi,

On Mon, Nov 12, 2001 at 07:24:47AM +0100, Ph. Marek wrote:
> To avoid this problem I see some alternatives:
> 
> - Don't use another journaling mode except the default on /.
It should work: it just needs to be done at mount time.  I'll add a
persistent field to the filesystem to record the default journaling
mode so that this can be done once and for all without any other
user-space changes.
> - use initrd or pivot_root
Right.
> - change ext3 so that journaling changes on mounted fs's are simple
ignored.
If the user asks for something illegal, it's far better to say no than
to silently drop the user's request.

Cheers,
 Stephen