fstab issue?

[-RYknow]

Hey guys. Just have a quick question. I currently am running Ubuntu 10.10. I have a Raptor X as my primary drive, and I have 3x 1TB HDD, and a 2TB HDD. All of the storage drives are formatted to NTFS.

Everyone once and awhile (seems to be totally random) when I restart, the machine gives me an error that drive such and such is not ready. Press S to skip, or M for manual repair...or something to that effect. It's not always the same drive. The first time this happened, I reformatted and reinstalled Linux. After a couple weeks, it happened again. At that point I figured it had been awhile since I had reformatted all the drives. So I moved everything around and reformatted each drive individually (this was a complete headache...and took DAYS to complete ).

So tonight I restarted...and it happened again. I've been using the NTFS config tool so that the drive all mount on startup. Tonight I decided to just edit the fstab. I deleted all the drives, and restarted. Once I rebooted I ran the NTFS config tool, and all the drives came right up after another restart. I suspect I'm only a few restarts away from getting the error again...so if anyone has any suggestions that would be great.

Although the machine is working fine right now...here is my fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
/dev/mapper/nvidia_fcdfcdbg1 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sde1 /media/2_TB ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/Storage ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /media/TV_1 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/TV_2 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

Thanks,
-RYknow

 

[anhikilator]

Why are you using NTFS in a linux environment? If there's no reason, i would move to ext3 or ext4. If you have windows too, it is possible to read ext2/3 partitions with ifsdrives but.

From my experience, it was always a headache to write to a non-native file system. You can create a fat-32 partition somewhere so you can write from both worlds if needed.

 

[-RYknow]

The machine was originally dual booted. At this point, I have zero use for Windows. I've been running linux on all my machines now for about three years.

The only issue I have is that all my HDD's are full. IIRC, I had formatted a drive to ext3 at one point, and for some reason I don't get as much free space on the drive? Is this correct, or am I remembering wrong?

-RYknow

 

[anhikilator]

The machine was originally dual booted. At this point, I have zero use for Windows. I've been running linux on all my machines now for about three years.

The only issue I have is that all my HDD's are full. IIRC, I had formatted a drive to ext3 at one point, and for some reason I don't get as much free space on the drive? Is this correct, or am I remembering wrong?

-RYknow

It depends on how you partitioned the drives. Do you know how to do it manually? If not I can give you a hand. Using fdisk and mkfs it's all you need. If you are not using windows I would not hesitate in moving to any linux filesystem...

 

[mbentley]

you shouldn't see much in the way of total available space between ntfs and ext3/4. i would definitely suggest switching to a native fs as well. while linux has decent read & write support, i would only use it for reading and writing files when you have no other alternative. if there is any way you can shift the files around to be able to reformat the drives, i would strongly suggest it.

 

[Automata]

EXT3 may be taking more space because it reserves a percent or two of the disk for root. I believe it is 5% by default. You can change that with the tune2fs command.

Change to only reserve 1%:

tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sdXY

Change to 0% reserved:

tune2fs -m 0 /dev/sdXY

Replacing "X" with the drive letter and "Y" for the partition number. That should bring back the "lost" space.

 

[anhikilator]

EXT3 may be taking more space because it reserves a percent or two of the disk for root. I believe it is 5% by default. You can change that with the tune2fs command.

Change to only reserve 1%:

tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sdXY

Change to 0% reserved:

tune2fs -m 0 /dev/sdXY

Replacing "X" with the drive letter and "Y" for the partition number.

+1

but NTFS reserves some space too for the recycler and if you don't manually change it, you don't see that either.

 

[HankB]

I would check the SMART information on your drives. I usually use:

smartctl -a /dev/sda

(or /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc and so on.)
Check for any indication of problems. In particular, I usually look at the remapped sector count. Low numbers are OK, If that starts to grow, it means a drive is starting to fail. You may need to install smartmontools. On Ubuntu at least they are not installed by default.

When you get this warning, if you hit continue, does everything come up OK?

How many drives do you have? Is there an option to delay spin up of any of them in your BIOS? I wonder if your PSU just doesn't have enough oomph to spin them all up at once.

I would also check dmesg output and logs (in /var/log) for some indication of why the drive was not ready.

-hank

 

[-RYknow]

When you get this warning, if you hit continue, does everything come up OK?

How many drives do you have? Is there an option to delay spin up of any of them in your BIOS? I wonder if your PSU just doesn't have enough oomph to spin them all up at once.

-hank

When I hit S to skip, the machine will boot fine. But the drive it has indicated will not mount on startup. If I click on it, it mounts without issue.

As for my PSU, I have a PC Power and Cooling 750 watt PSU. I have 5 HDD's, a DVD rom, and it's running an EVGA 8800GTX. Should be more then enough for this machine.

I will try some of the suggestions listed here. One quick question. I had played around with an EXT3 FS on one of the drives before. I had issues setting rights and permissions to the drive. I pretty much couldn't do anything with the drive, because I didn't have the rights to do so. Any suggestions?

-RYknow

 

[anhikilator]

When I hit S to skip, the machine will boot fine. But the drive it has indicated will not mount on startup. If I click on it, it mounts without issue.

As for my PSU, I have a PC Power and Cooling 750 watt PSU. I have 5 HDD's, a DVD rom, and it's running an EVGA 8800GTX. Should be more then enough for this machine.

I will try some of the suggestions listed here. One quick question. I had played around with an EXT3 FS on one of the drives before. I had issues setting rights and permissions to the drive. I pretty much couldn't do anything with the drive, because I didn't have the rights to do so. Any suggestions?

-RYknow

fdisk /dev/sd#
n for new partition
p for primary
leave the sectors and sizes as default
w to write and exit

mkfs /dev/sd#1

and you should good to go with no permissions involved.

 

[Automata]

Make sure you have permission to create files/folders on the mount point. Make sure you mount as rw (read/write), which is usually set if you use "defaults" in the configuration.

 

[HankB]

I will try some of the suggestions listed here. One quick question. I had played around with an EXT3 FS on one of the drives before. I had issues setting rights and permissions to the drive. I pretty much couldn't do anything with the drive, because I didn't have the rights to do so. Any suggestions?

The default permissions for the mount point may not allow the user to create files or directories at that point.

Fix this using the 'chmod' command run as superuser:

sudo chmod a+rwx /mount/point

'/mount/point' is where you mount the filesystem. Do this with the filesystem mounted. 'sudo' gives you superuser rights for the following command. 'chmod' changes file permissions. 'a+rwx' gives read, write and execute rights to all users. Directories require execute rights to traverse. Once you get that directory set, anything you create in it will have the correct permissions for your access.

HTH,
hank

 

[-RYknow]

I would check the SMART information on your drives. I usually use:

smartctl -a /dev/sda

(or /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc and so on.)
Check for any indication of problems. In particular, I usually look at the remapped sector count. Low numbers are OK, If that starts to grow, it means a drive is starting to fail.

So my issue just happened again after a restart. Oddly enough the system locked right up on me. I can't think of another time thats ever happened. I have to wonder if I'm dealing with possible hardware failure. I tried running the command you gave me to check SMART. I keep getting a "permission denied" response.

Here is my fstab after a restart with the drive failing to mount on startup:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
/dev/mapper/nvidia_fcdfcdbg1 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sde1 /media/2_TB ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/Storage ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /media/TV_1 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/TV_2 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

-RYknow

 

[Automata]

You have to run smartctl with root permissions.

 

[-RYknow]

Strange...

After my post, I noticed my fstab was the same as my previous post (when there was nothing wrong). Just for the heck of it I rebooted, and the machine booted fine. Seemed to have been a fluke this particular time... There is obviously something wrong somewhere. I'm hoping to replace all my 1TB drives with 2TB drives when taxes come in. Maybe that will fix my issue.

-RYknow

 

[-RYknow]

You have to run smartctl with root permissions.

Yeah...I'm an idiot... LOL

Not really sure what I'm looking for, so here are the results of the SMART check on the drive that keeps giving me an issue:

ryknow@ryknow-Server:~$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb
[sudo] password for ryknow:
smartctl 5.40 2010-03-16 r3077 [x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Caviar Black family
Device Model: WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0
Serial Number: WD-WMATV1383160
Firmware Version: 07.00K07
User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 8
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Sun Jan 30 19:42:16 2011 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (19200) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 221) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x303f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 253 253 021 Pre-fail Always - 6591
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 304
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 1480
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 302
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 54
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 304
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 115 095 000 Old_age Always - 35
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x0036 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 92911294
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

How does it look?

-RYknow

 

[Automata]

Can you use [code][/code] tags instead, please? It breaks the spaces otherwise. You will need to re-paste it from the terminal.

 

[-RYknow]

Can do. Here you are:

ryknow@ryknow-Server:~$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 5.40 2010-03-16 r3077 [x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Caviar Black family
Device Model:     WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0
Serial Number:    WD-WMATV1383160
Firmware Version: 07.00K07
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Sun Jan 30 19:46:58 2011 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82)	Offline data collection activity
					was completed without error.
					Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
					without error or no self-test has ever 
					been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		 (19200) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
					Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
					Suspend Offline collection upon new
					command.
					Offline surface scan supported.
					Self-test supported.
					Conveyance Self-test supported.
					Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
					power-saving mode.
					Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
					General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 ( 221) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x303f)	SCT Status supported.
					SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
					SCT Feature Control supported.
					SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   253   253   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       6591
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       304
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       1480
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       302
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       54
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       304
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   115   095   000    Old_age   Always       -       35
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x0036   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       92911294
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

-RYknow

 

[HankB]

Here are a couple things I tease out of the results:

  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
...
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       1480
...
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   115   095   000    Old_age   Always       -       35

1480 hours - 2 months. New!
0 reallocated sectors. If this starts growing fast, you have trouble ahead.
35° C drive temp - typical.

Just for grins, here's what's on my boot drive:

  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       4
...
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   054   054   000    Old_age   Always       -       40310
...
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   032   066   000    Old_age   Always       -       32

40310 hours => 4.6 years.
4 reallocated sectors - been there for a while - no cause for alarm.
I also see error reports like:

Error 9 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4523 hours (188 days + 11 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 51 24 0f 11 ec e0  Error: UNC 36 sectors at LBA = 0x00ec110f = 15470863

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  25 00 ec eb 0e ec e0 00      01:04:39.547  READ DMA EXT
  25 00 ed ea 0e ec e0 00      01:04:39.538  READ DMA EXT
  25 00 ee e9 0e ec e0 00      01:04:39.512  READ DMA EXT
  25 00 ef e8 0e ec e0 00      01:04:39.506  READ DMA EXT
  25 00 f0 e7 0e ec e0 00      01:04:39.481  READ DMA EXT

I don't know what all of that means, but it happened when the drive was 188 days old. My guess is it resulted from a transient and does not indicate a real problem.

I don't see any indication of a problem in your SMART report.

Totally unrelated comment: your fstab file contains device references (e.g. /dev/sda) Because of the problems that result when drives are reordered, it is better to use the device block ID. Those don;t change if drives get reordered. I found that with 4 or 5 SATA drives in one box, the device names did not always come up the same. Here is my /etc/fstab:

hbarta@oak:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
/dev/sda1       /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /home was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=0b9c7ae2-6fbd-4d24-b900-a24053726397 /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=8ffe0de1-59e0-404b-8797-f5499060e8b0 none            swap    sw              0       0

UUID=8b387e69-3a6a-4a6f-a604-6bc1499d7eeb /mnt/md1	ext4	auto 0 0
# /dev/md1: UUID="8b387e69-3a6a-4a6f-a604-6bc1499d7eeb" TYPE="ext4"

You can use 'blkid' to determine block IDs:

hbarta@oak:~$ sudo blkid /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: UUID="c613257c-3cea-48ed-a129-abb35b2442c4" TYPE="ext4" 
hbarta@oak:~$

(Guess I should stuff that into my /etc/fstab too. )

-hank