Checking the file system every 22 boots

[Karl Larsen]

Nils Kassube wrote:
> Karl Larsen wrote:
>   
>> Ioannis Vranos wrote:
>>     
>>> Why does Ubuntu run a full file system ext3 check every 22 times?
>>> ext3 is considered robust. Is the default mode of ext3 under Ubuntu
>>> 7.10 other than "ordered mode"? Is there any way to disable this
>>> unnecessary forced file system check?
>>>       
>
> Yes, you can disable it, but I'm not sure if it is a good soultion. This 
> is the warning from the tune2fs manpage:
>
> | It is strongly recommended that either -c (mount-count-dependent) or -i
> | (time-dependent) checking be enabled to force periodic full e2fsck(8)
> | checking of the filesystem. Failure to do so may lead to filesystem
> | corruption due to bad disks, cables, memory, or kernel bugs to go
> | unnoticed until they cause data loss or corruption.
>
> I don't know if the warning also applies to ext3, but unless somebody can 
> explain, why it is used by Ubuntu even though it might be unnecessary, I 
> will keep the file system checks active. Usually I change the time 
> between system checks to 4 weeks. It is done with the command
>
> sudo tune2fs -c 0 -i 4w DEVICENAME
>
> in a terminal, where DEVICENAME is the entry in /dev for the partition to 
> modify. If you really want to disable the checks entirely against the 
> warning above, use this command:
>
> sudo tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 DEVICENAME
>
>   
>>     You can get it to not ask but I really do not care. It happens and
>> takes just a few seconds and is automatic. Just slows down booting
>> slightly.
>>     
>
> It may be a few seconds only with your machine. Here it is about 10 
> minutes. And according to Murphey's law the system check is very likely 
> to happen just when you are in a hurry. Therefore it can be really 
> annoying.
>
>
> Nils
>
>   
    I decided to let it check the partition every 6 months. It looks 
like this

root at karl-desktop:~# tune2fs -c 0 -i 6m /dev/hda9
tune2fs 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007)
Setting maximal mount count to -1
Setting interval between checks to 15552000 seconds

I didn't check to see if the seconds are correct :-)



-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
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