Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 12:44:33 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, David Benfell <benfell@parts-unknown.org> Subject: Re: operation not permitted on entropy file Message-ID: <20140810124433.da498898.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20140810103119.GA26958@slackbox.erewhon.home> References: <20140810070239.GA80734@home.parts-unknown.org> <20140810103119.GA26958@slackbox.erewhon.home>
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Allow me a small additional statement: On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 12:31:19 +0200, Roland Smith wrote: > If a filesystem isn't dismounted properly (e.g. because of a crash), you > should get a warning during the next boot. And the system would run a > filesystem check in "preen" mode (see fsck(8)). If it finds serious errors > that cannot be repaired in preen mode, you should get an error message. The problem is: When you do _not_ have background_fsck="NO" in /etc/rc.conf, all this happens in background, and soon you're in XDM and your X session, so you don't get the error message. Still the system continues booting and working "normally" for the price of "silent" file system corruption. In my opinion, this setting should be the default. It's better to have a delay in the boot process, or a _stop_ of the boot process in case a severe file system damage has been detected. I also think it's more important to know about this fact than it is to quickly be guided into a "comfortable environment" that makes you believe everything is okay, while in fact it isn't. This kind of operation also makes sure that you can get aware of the "please re-run fsck" message in case a second pass is required. In the end, you get "file system marked clean", and only _now_ you know that things are okay. > As others have mentioned, run a full fsck of the filesystem that /var is on > from single user mode. Performing this check out of SUM or via live system media is the most convenient strategy. > Trying to make a backup in this state will probably not work. Maybe files cannot be read, or are improperly read (and therefore wrongly represented in the backup). When I do backups, I usually make sure two things: 1st, the file system is _clean_, 2nd, the file system is protected against alteration (r/o mount, or not mounted at all). I know there are "snapshots" (as they exist in relation with fsck, too), but I don't trust them. Many years ago, such a snapshot made it _impossible_ for fsck to do its job. Once it was removed, I got my files back (for the price of a few lost file names, but still better than nothing). -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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