Bug 81209 – fsck requires fsck.vfat to check ext3 file system.

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED INVALID

[Description Jakob Schiotz 2005-02-08 02:03:40 UTC]

Apparently, fsck wants to run fsck.vfat (which I do not have installed) when I ask it to check an ext3 filesystem (on a USB disk).

Here is the evidence: :-)

demokrit root # fsck -t ext3 /dev/sda1
fsck 1.35 (28-Feb-2004)
fsck: fsck.vfat: not found
fsck: Error 2 while executing fsck.vfat for /dev/sda1
demokrit root # fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 163.9 GB, 163928605184 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19929 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       15752   126527908+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2   *       15753       19929    33551752+   6  FAT16
demokrit root # mount /mnt/usb_backup/
demokrit root # mount
/dev/hda2 on / type jfs (rw,noatime)
none on /dev type devfs (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
/dev/hda5 on /usr/portage type reiserfs (rw,noatime)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
none on /var/tmp/portage type tmpfs (rw,size=1000000000)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
automount(pid7767) on /fysik type autofs (rw,fd=4,pgrp=7767,minproto=2,maxproto=4)
/dev/sda1 on /mnt/usb_backup type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)




Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. fsck -t ext3 /dev/sda1
2.
3.

Actual Results:  
It complains that fsck.vfat is not there.

Expected Results:  
run fsck.ext3


demokrit root # emerge info
Portage 2.0.51-r15 (default-linux/x86/2004.3, gcc-3.3.5,
glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r1, 2.6.10 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.10 i686 Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.00GHz
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16
Python:              dev-lang/python-2.3.4 [2.3.4 (#1, Oct 19 2004, 17:47:22)]
dev-lang/python:     2.3.4
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.4
sys-devel/binutils:  2.15.92.0.2-r1
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.10-r4
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.8.1-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env
/usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config
/usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config
/usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/
/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/
/usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
DISTDIR="/var/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/
ftp://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.rhnet.is/pub/gentoo/
ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/gentoo/"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/var/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 X Xaw3d acpi alsa arts atlas avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr crypt cups dga
dvd emacs encode fam flac font-server foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif gpm gtk
gtk2imagemagick imap imlib java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mad maildir mbox mikmod
mimemotif mozilla mpeg mule ncurses netcdf nls nptl oggvobis oggvorbis opengl
oss pam pcmcia pdflib perl png pnp ppds python qt quicktime readline scanner sdl
slang smime spell sse ssl svga tcltk tcpd tetex tiff truetype truetype-fonts
trustedtype1-fonts usb wxwindows xml2 xmms xv xvid zlib linguas_dk"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS

[Comment 1 Jakob Schiotz 2005-02-08 08:11:40 UTC]

*** Bug 81239 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Comment 2 SpanKY 2005-08-14 19:49:22 UTC]

does it work with e2fsprogs-1.38 ?

[Comment 3 Jakob Schiotz 2005-08-15 02:05:21 UTC]

Unfortunately, yes:

# fsck -t ext3 /dev/sda1
fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
fsck: fsck.vfat: not found
fsck: Error 2 while executing fsck.vfat for /dev/sda1

# e2fsck /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
LinuxBackup: clean, 1603786/15826944 files, 21780668/31631977 blocks


I just reread the man page of fsck[*], and the -t option does not specify the
type of the file system, but limits fsck to only check file systems of this
type.  fsck gets the file system type from /etc/fstab, if no line is found in
fstab it uses -t to guess the type of the filesystem.  In my case I have these
two lines in my /etc/fstab, the first for my USB memory stick, the second for
the external harddisk I use for backup:

/dev/sda1               /mnt/usb        vfat            noauto,user,sync        0 0
LABEL=LinuxBackup       /mnt/usb_backup ext3            noauto,user             0 0

But still, fsck should not call fsck.vfat, as the -t ext3 should prevent it from
testing a vfat file system.

/Jakob


[*] Quoting the man page:

   Normally,  the  filesystem  type  is  deduced  by searching for
   filesys in the /etc/fstab  file  and  using  the  corresponding
   entry.   If  the  type  can not be deduced, and there is only a
   single filesystem given as an argument to the -t  option,  fsck
   will  use  the  specified filesystem type.  If this type is not
   available, then the default file system type  (currently  ext2)
   is used.

[Comment 4 SpanKY 2005-08-15 19:54:38 UTC]

well the manpage actually indicates that the behavior you're seeing is correct ...

it says it will use the /etc/fstab value and *only* if nothing can be found in
/etc/fstab to match the request will -t be honored ...

[Comment 5 Jakob Schiotz 2005-08-16 02:00:46 UTC]

Yep, after rereading the man page, I am forced to agree.  It is broken as
designed.  :-)