Ubuntu becomes unusable - force fsck when needed

[Saad Shakhshir]

When there is an ext3 filesystem error, many times Ubuntu will reboot, do an
automatic fsck, and then report something like the following:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
dev/hda2 contains a file system with errors-check forced

unexpected inconsistency RUN fsck manually without -a or -p options

an automatic file system check of the root file system failed

a manual fsck must be performed then system rebooted
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ubuntu will then not boot and it renders the system completely unusable to
most average users.  My friend got one such message the other day and called
me to ask me what was wrong.  He had booted into windows instead of Ubuntu
because he couldn't get it to start.  I knew it was a clear case of simply
running fsck /dev/hda2, but we don't live even remotely near each other.  So
I had to get my friend to boot in recovery mode and then manually start the
ssh daemon so that i could ssh into his PC.  Mind you this person is your
average run-of-the-mill computer user, no command line knowledge at all.

After that point it was just a simple case of running fsck /dev/hda2 and
agreeing to all of the fixes.  Then I rebooted his PC and all was good.
This is something that happens quite often with ext3 file systems,
especially in places where the electricity is unreliable and systems are not
always shut down properly.  It is important and not too difficult to have
fsck run automatically in such cases so that outside intervention such as my
own is not required.

-SS-
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