From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Feb 21 0:53:22 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B27B37B401 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2003 00:53:20 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C2E3A43F85 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2003 00:53:18 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.7/8.12.7) with ESMTP id h1L8rC5U004934 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2003 08:53:12 GMT (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost) by happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.7/8.12.7/Submit) id h1L8rCS2004933 for freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG; Fri, 21 Feb 2003 08:53:12 GMT Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 08:53:12 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: installkernel first? Message-ID: <20030221085312.GB4221@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Seaman , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG References: <1045718989.3e5467cdd1dee@webmail.adam.com.au> <20030220153710.GA19633@fif.office.inext.hu> <1045807067.3e55bfdbd5f75@webmail.adam.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1045807067.3e55bfdbd5f75@webmail.adam.com.au> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.3i X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.2 required=5.0 tests=IN_REP_TO,REFERENCES,SPAM_PHRASE_00_01,USER_AGENT, USER_AGENT_MUTT version=2.44 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, Feb 21, 2003 at 04:27:47PM +1030, bastill@adam.com.au wrote: > Not being familiar with single user mode, I didn't realise that only / was > mounted in that mode (so why does the handbook put "fsck -p" as the FIRST > command, before "mount -a" ? ). That would be because fsck(8) only works effectively on unmounted file systems -- it really doesn't need anything else trying to write stuff to the filesystem while it's trying to fix it. In fact, in single user mode the root partition is initially mounted read-only, precisely so that fsck(8) can fix up the root filesystem without the danger of writes to the partition at the same time. It used to be the case that the instructions explicitly told you to remount the root fs read-write before doing a 'mount -a', but 'mount -a' has done all of that option changing stuff for you automatically for several years now. The new 'background fsck' capability in FreeBSD 5.0 (as I understand it) relies on the capability to treat the filesystems on the newly booted machine as 'snapshots', so that modifications to the fs are held in cache memory and only written out to the disk once the fsck(8) process has finished cleaning up the underlying stuff. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message