For the past few weeks, I have noticed an increasing number of display errors, with odd graphic symbols or screen fragments appearing when opening new windows. Today, without warning, the machine stopped recognizing trackpad clicks and keyboard input -- including an inability to shut down through normal means. After two emergency shutdowns, I restored from a backup. Although everything looks normal following the restore, I decided to run fsck as root; each time I did so with fsck -TVy, it reported errors. After doing this several times, I started to worry about creating further filesystem damage, so I restored again. This time, I ran fsck -TVn, with the following results: [root@localhost user]# fsck -TVn Checking all file systems. [/sbin/fsck.ext2 (1) -- /] fsck.ext2 -n /dev/sda1 e2fsck 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007) Warning! /dev/sda1 is mounted. linpus was not cleanly unmounted, check forced. Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes Deleted inode 211959 has zero dtime. Fix? no Deleted inode 211996 has zero dtime. Fix? no Pass 2: Checking directory structure Entry 'saved_state' in /home/user/.gconfd (211963) has deleted/unused inode 211868. Clear? no Entry 'saved_state' in /root/.gconfd (358534) has deleted/unused inode 132468. Clear? no Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity Pass 4: Checking reference counts Pass 5: Checking group summary information Block bitmap differences: -268017 -432189 -432199 -463935 -(546874--546875) Fix? no Inode bitmap differences: -132468 -211868 -211959 -211996 Fix? no linpus: ********** WARNING: Filesystem still has errors ********** linpus: 106979/1840544 files (0.4% non-contiguous), 1280290/3676869 blocks Should I ignore these errors and proceed, or is there anything that I can do to correct them? Repeatedly running fsck doesn't seem to help, and may be making matters worse.
Is your restore a full image? If so, format the entire drive 1st before restoring. See if that helps.
I'm restoring using the aa1backup utility from Macles*, which I assume is a full image: Can one format the drive that is actually running the machine, or do I have to create a bootable flash drive (is this even possible) and format from it?
[localhost user]# fsck -TVn Checking all file systems. [/sbin/fsck.ext2 (1) -- /] fsck.ext2 -n /dev/sda1 e2fsck 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007) Warning! /dev/sda1 is mounted. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You're checking a mounted filesystem, of course it will show errors; the on-disk state is inconsistent. It has to be unmounted, which is impossible for the root FS when you're running from it, or mounted read-only, which is how the init scripts perform fsck on the root FS. Options: 1 Reboot and let the init scripts do the fsck. 2 Boot from an external USB drive and run the fsck from there.
I figured that trying to check a mounted filesystem was the problem. I'm not going to worry about it unless problems return.
Checking a mounted fs will lead to trouble. First, if there are problems on your fs, you should create a file called forcefsck: sudo touch /forcefsck while being on the power adapter (otherwise, the standard script probably won't your fs. Second, option -n answers no to every question, so the fs won't be rapaired. I wouldn't expect problems after a fs check with the errors you indicated, still quite harmless... Klaus
Re: fsck errors I'm beginning to suspect a hardware problem. The problem with the trackpad buttons re-appeared today. After rebooting several times, I again restored from a known good backup (made over a month ago). When the machine finishes the boot process, the cursor is in the middle of the screen, and as soon as I touch the trackpad, the right-click menu appears. Same thing if a mouse is plugged into a USB port and I move it. I just wrote down the following from watching a boot sequence: Timeline starting point is display of the BIOS startup screen: +10 Desktop appears +30 Begin WiFi connection +60 Connection established 15 seconds of disk activity (16gb flash drive) 7 more seconds of disk activity After all disk activity stops, move the cursor; Right-click pop-up menu appears without clicking any buttons Hit esc to suppress pop-up menu; right-click from trackpad does not activate menu Using trackpad, move cursor to the red shutdown button at bottom right, no response to left-click Right-click from mouse brings up shutdown menu (it seems that the clicks from trackpad have been cached); Cancel Using mouse anywhere on screen, right-click brings up pop-up menu Right trackpad button continues to do nothing Left trackpad button now works, including over the red shutdown button Applications (such as FireFox) behave the same way: left trackpad button works; right does not; all work with mouse I have not made any command line config changes or settings changes in approximately 2 months, during which period it's been completely stable. This behavior started within the past 24 hours. I have kept detailed records of all config changes and software installations, so in principle, I could copy all data to a USB, re-install Linpus, and start over, but it's not something I look forward to -- with no guarantee of a different outcome when finished. Ideas? Could flashing the BIOS help?
I think I figured out the problem. The right button on the trackpad was stuck, which explains the pop-up menu on start, the cached right click input when using the mouse, and the inconsistent behavior of the left trackpad button. After clicking the right trackpad button multiple times at its top and bottom, the problem disappeared -- I hope, not to return.
Posted too soon, as the problem has returned, but I'm still leaning toward a flaky right button on the trackpad.
Searching elsewhere on this forum, I see that trackpad button problems are not unusual. Mine just waited 5 months before appearing.
