Ext4 died

[bodhi.zazen]

It appears I just lost an Ubuntu install.

Ext4 file system, unexpected power failure.

Boot drops to busy box ...

From a live CD :

root@ubuntu:~# fsck -y /dev/sda1
fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
/dev/sda1: recovering journal
Superblock needs_recovery flag is clear, but journal has data.
Run journal anyway? yes

fsck.ext4: unable to set superblock flags on /dev/sda1

root@ubuntu:~# fsck /dev/sda1
fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
/dev/sda1: recovering journal
Superblock needs_recovery flag is clear, but journal has data.
Run journal anyway<y>? yes

fsck.ext4: unable to set superblock flags on /dev/sda1

root@ubuntu:~# fsck /dev/sda1
fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
/dev/sda1: recovering journal
Superblock needs_recovery flag is clear, but journal has data.
Run journal anyway<y>? no

Clear journal<y>? no

/dev/sda1: clean, 138871/373152 files, 681246/1492029 blocks

root@ubuntu:~# fsck -y /dev/sda1
fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
/dev/sda1: recovering journal
Superblock needs_recovery flag is clear, but journal has data.
Run journal anyway? yes

fsck.ext4: unable to set superblock flags on /dev/sda1

root@ubuntu:~# fsck /dev/sda1
fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
/dev/sda1: recovering journal
Superblock needs_recovery flag is clear, but journal has data.
Run journal anyway<y>? no

Clear journal<y>? yes

/dev/sda1 was not cleanly unmounted, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information

/dev/sda1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda1: 138871/373152 files (0.2% non-contiguous), 681246/1492029 blocks

root@ubuntu:~# mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

root@ubuntu:~# dmesg | tail
[ 1894.643462] JBD: recovery failed
[ 1894.643468] EXT4-fs: error loading journal.
[ 1894.645367] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 12582912 512-byte hardware sectors: (6.44 GB/6.00 GiB)
[ 1894.645385] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 1894.645387] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 1894.645404] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 1894.645422] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 12582912 512-byte hardware sectors: (6.44 GB/6.00 GiB)
[ 1894.645432] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 1894.645434] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 1894.645450] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

root@ubuntu:~# mke2fs -n /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
373152 inodes, 1492029 blocks
74601 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=1530920960
46 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8112 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736

root@ubuntu:~# e2fsck -b 32768 /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.41.4 (27-Jan-2009)
Superblock needs_recovery flag is clear, but journal has data.
Recovery flag not set in backup superblock, so running journal anyway.
/dev/sda1: recovering journal
Superblock needs_recovery flag is clear, but journal has data.
Recovery flag not set in backup superblock, so running journal anyway.
e2fsck: unable to set superblock flags on /dev/sda1

YIKES

Suggestions anyone ?

[nolliecrooked]

It appears I just lost an Ubuntu install.

Ext4 file system, unexpected power failure.

Boot drops to busy box ...

From a live CD :



YIKES :(

Suggestions anyone ?

:lolflag:

re-install :P

[4Orbs]

When it happened to me it wasn't even a power failure, just a system lockup during some vigorous copy/paste activity. I couldn't fix it. And when I deleted the ext4 partitions, the reformatting of the new unallocated space to ext3 took an unusually long time.

[brncao]

A user warned me not to use ext4 yet because of that. So I stuck with ext3. Reformat?

[ActiveFrost]

Lesson #1 - use UPS More on-topic - reinstall !

[nolliecrooked]

out of curiosity, did you make a seperate /home folder, and use swap?

[bodhi.zazen]

I use a /data partition and not a /home partition so yes I keep my personal data separate from my OS.

Yes I have a swap partition.

I know I can re-install from back up, I am wondering if anyone has a fix.

If no solution is offered in the next day or so I shall re-install.

I am also going to revert to ext3 for the time being, at least for backups.

[ibuclaw]

To quote Tso himself, you could try:

e2fsck -b 32768 -B 4096 /dev/sda1

As...

That forces the use of the backup superblock right away, and might help you get past the initial error.

Iain

[hal8000]

I've never lost data on any linux filesystem, so your post is scary. I've once had a powercut during a thunderstorm but was on a resiser filesystem and recovery was possible from an alternate superblock.

I found this superblock recovery (for Sun)
http://marc.info/?l=linux-ext4&m=123140952031871&w=2

you'll need to compile it for linux, but it may help to find an alternate superblock on ext4 file systems.

Luckily your /home is ona separate partition but perhaps testdisk may recover something from your / partition if any other files need restoring.
Hal

[lovinglinux]

I've never lost data on any linux filesystem, so your post is scary. I've once had a powercut during a thunderstorm but was on a resiser filesystem and recovery was possible from an alternate superblock.

Yes it is scary. I guess I'm lucky, because I had several power failures since I started to use ext4 and none of them resulted in any errors.