I have a small problem. I've had a machine go down and it came back up with dirty filesystem on /var and /usr. fsck has solved the problem with /var, after 10 times through. fsck seems unable to resolve the inconsistencies with /usr however. fsck is running for the 15th time right now. It looks to me like a probable bad sector on the disk. My question is there a way to force the machine to boot with a dirty filesystem, so that I can pull data from /etc to move to a new disk? Barring that, is there still a procedure to force the system to boot, update the inodes with whatever information it can find, and mark the other files as unreadable? Thanks in advance. Doug Allen
On Fri, Aug 08, 2003 at 07:49:42AM -0700, doug@allensystemconsultants.com wrote:> I have a small problem. I've had a machine go down and it came back > up with dirty filesystem on /var and /usr. fsck has solved the > problem with /var, after 10 times through. fsck seems unable to > resolve the inconsistencies with /usr however. fsck is running for > the 15th time right now. It looks to me like a probable bad sector on > the disk.If you have a CD with "live" filesystem, it may help you here. -ip -- Paradise is exactly like where you are right now ... only much, much better. -- Laurie Anderson
> My question is there a way to force the machine to boot with a dirty > filesystem, so that I can pull data from /etc to move to a new disk? > Barring that, is there still a procedure to force the system to boot, > update the inodes with whatever information it can find, and mark the > other files as unreadable?Use -f to force the mount. Depending on how bad the fs corruption is, you may be able to get pretty much everything you need. Jaime Bozza
On Friday, Aug 8, 2003, at 07:49 US/Pacific, doug@allensystemconsultants.com wrote:> I have a small problem. I've had a machine go down and it came back > up with dirty filesystem on /var and /usr. fsck has solved the > problem with /var, after 10 times through. fsck seems unable to > resolve the inconsistencies with /usr however. fsck is running for > the 15th time right now. It looks to me like a probable bad sector on > the disk. > > My question is there a way to force the machine to boot with a dirty > filesystem, so that I can pull data from /etc to move to a new disk? > Barring that, is there still a procedure to force the system to boot, > update the inodes with whatever information it can find, and mark the > other files as unreadable?You don't need to mount /usr to copy /etc. Boot the system single-user. Mount a floppy on /mnt. cp -R /etc /mnt. Halt the system and pull the floppy.
Fred,> You don't need to mount /usr to copy /etc. Boot the system > single-user. > Mount a floppy on /mnt. cp -R /etc /mnt. Halt the system and pullthe> floppy.Ok, this makes sense. I also have data (queued email) I'd like to recover on /var, but it doesn't come up reliably. I think I'm going to take what I can get though at this point. I'll re-enter the approx. 1000 users, get mail running again, and then worry about trying to recover the spooled messages that some of these people have let sit all summer. Thanks to all who made suggestions. Doug Allen Doug Allen Allen System Consultants