# e2fsck



## Entcee (Dec 18, 2004)

Should I be worried about this message in the kernel log?

EXT2-fs warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

I have seen that message for about two years now.
I haven't ever run e2fsck.


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## tortio (Jan 31, 2002)

Gunnyman said:


> I have seen that message for about two years now.
> I haven't ever run e2fsck.


It's kind of like when you interrupt the boot session of WinXP and then restart it again. WinXP knows it didn't boot up 100% successfully the last time, but doesn't know why so it tries to run chkdsk on your drives, which for the most part you can cancel out of. The OS just doesn't know the state of the filesystem.


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## Entcee (Dec 18, 2004)

Thanks Gunny, your help is appreciated!

BTW I see you are in Greenville SC, I live just north of Charlotte NC


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## Entcee (Dec 18, 2004)

tortio said:


> It's kind of like when you interrupt the boot session of WinXP and then restart it again. WinXP knows it didn't boot up 100% successfully the last time, but doesn't know why so it tries to run chkdsk on your drives, which for the most part you can cancel out of. The OS just doesn't know the state of the filesystem.


Yeah, I know what it does, I just diodn't know if I should be concerned about it. I actually ran e2fsck (in read only mode so it only checked it and did not change anything) and it found some errors, but I will NOT be attempting to fix the errors it found.


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## Gunnyman (Jul 10, 2003)

the errors are usually indexing problems too and nothing to be terribly concerned about.


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## hulla (Jun 4, 2005)

e2fsck is a safe program to run. I did it quite a few times when I had that error on multiple occasions. I don't really check the logs anymore so I haven't run the program recently.


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## Entcee (Dec 18, 2004)

hulla said:


> e2fsck is a safe program to run. I did it quite a few times when I had that error on multiple occasions. I don't really check the logs anymore so I haven't run the program recently.


What switches (if that is what they are called - I am a windows guy) did you use to fix the errors?


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

Entcee said:


> What switches (if that is what they are called - I am a windows guy) did you use to fix the errors?


Make sure the file system is mounted readonly -- it's unsafe to run e2fsck on a file system mounted readwrite.

```
/sbin/e2fsck -p /dev/hda4
```
 is a reasonable command line, with 4 changed to 7, if appropriate. This is what the tivo startup scripts use to check and repair /var.


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