Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 09:59:19 -0600 From: Doug Poland <doug@polands.org> To: Espen Tagestad <espen@modula.no> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Softupdates ( why not to use on / fs ) Message-ID: <20020130095919.B26823@polands.org> In-Reply-To: <20020130124756.A15728@modula.no>; from espen@modula.no on Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 12:47:56PM %2B0100 References: <3C593C4A@epostleser.online.no> <20020130124756.A15728@modula.no>
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On Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 12:47:56PM +0100, Espen Tagestad wrote: > On Wed, Jan 30, 2002 at 12:34:11PM +0100, Christer Gundersen wrote: > > As i read the RELEASE NOTES, i see that SOFTUPDATES will be activated by > > default under install. but it also says that it will not enable SOFTUPDATES on > > the root ( / ) fs . why? is that bad? > > Because with SoftUpdates read/write operations often delay, sometimes > up to 30 seconds before it's done. Then, if a machine crash occurs it > may lead to a larger loss of data. That can cause unrecoverable damage > to your system. > I can attest to that. Last week I changed my /etc/fstab. Immediatley after exiting vi, I mounted a floppy with a FAT filesystem with the intention of saving this important system file. I forgot to disable the write-protect tab on the floppy and simply popped the floppy out of the drive, switched the tab, and put it back in. When I did an ls /dev/fd0 my system hung. I reset the machine, the / partition had errors that fsck fixed. Unfortunately, /etc/fstab was gone. Ouch. It took me two hours to get my box up and running again. Lessons learned: 1. turn off softupdates on / 2. be VERY careful mounting/unmounting removable media 3. before disaster strikes... 4. have a fixit floppy/cd before #3 5. print portion of handbook dealing with Emergency Restore Procedures HTH, -- Regards, Doug To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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