Mailing List Archive: Gentoo: User

"deleted inode referenced"

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purslow at ca

Nov 7, 2009, 9:05 AM

Post #1 of 10 (361 views)
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"deleted inode referenced"

In the course of trying to get X to work on my ASUS 1005HA netbook,
I had to power the machine off several times. In the course of this,
some damage seems to have occurred to the file system.
There are files in /var /tmp which I can't remove:
the msg is "EXT2-fs error: ext2_lookup: deleted inode referenced: 16388".

I got round the problem by creating new dirs, copying everything else
& renaming the dirs, but that leaves me with /bad1 , which I can't remove
as it contains a reference to an inode which no longer exists.
NB this is not the more common problem of a bad file name,
which cb dealt with simply by removing the inode (which still exists).

Can anyone help ?

BTW is Ext2 the best fs for this machine ? Might Ext3 or Ext4 be better ?
-- I use Reiserfs on my desktop machines.

--
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

stroller at stellar

Nov 7, 2009, 4:26 PM

Post #2 of 10 (350 views)
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Re: "deleted inode referenced" [In reply to]

On 7 Nov 2009, at 17:05, Philip Webb wrote:
> ...
> There are files in /var /tmp which I can't remove:
> the msg is "EXT2-fs error: ext2_lookup: deleted inode referenced:
> 16388".
>
> I got round the problem by creating new dirs, copying everything else
> & renaming the dirs, but that leaves me with /bad1 , which I can't
> remove
> as it contains a reference to an inode which no longer exists. ...

Have you tried running fsck on the filesystem?

Stroller.

billk at iinet

Nov 7, 2009, 6:46 PM

Post #3 of 10 (334 views)
Permalink

Re: "deleted inode referenced" [In reply to]

On Sat, 2009-11-07 at 12:05 -0500, Philip Webb wrote:
> In the course of trying to get X to work on my ASUS 1005HA netbook,
> I had to power the machine off several times. In the course of this,
> some damage seems to have occurred to the file system.
> There are files in /var /tmp which I can't remove:
> the msg is "EXT2-fs error: ext2_lookup: deleted inode referenced: 16388".
>
> I got round the problem by creating new dirs, copying everything else
> & renaming the dirs, but that leaves me with /bad1 , which I can't remove
> as it contains a reference to an inode which no longer exists.
> NB this is not the more common problem of a bad file name,
> which cb dealt with simply by removing the inode (which still exists).
>
> Can anyone help ?
>
> BTW is Ext2 the best fs for this machine ? Might Ext3 or Ext4 be better ?
> -- I use Reiserfs on my desktop machines.
>

Have you tried fsk on it? - "man e2fsck"

The last question is a bit of a "how long is a piece of string"
question.

My personal experience is ext2 is only for those occasions you dont
value the data at all :)

ext3 isnt much better unless you use "data=journal" to get some basic
protection.

But instead of fiddling with such (deleted disparaging comment) file
systems, use reiserfs though this may need a complete reinstall .
Updates are still occuring to the reiserfs code in the kernel, so
reiserfs is not abandoned by any means.

ext4, reiserfs4, btfs and the like are too new for me, though I like the
look of btfs.

I have read some interesting articles in the past about the ext
filesystem devs and their inside track on rieserfs in the kernel and the
war of words that surrounds it. My personal experience with ext2/3
supports the view that the ext filesystems didn't fairly win the
argument based on performance and data protection. Enough said.

Unfortunately, filesystems are a very complex and emotive subject with
no one choice fits all solution. My suggestion is you have lost data
and have problems with what you are using ... time to move on, try ext3
(with "data=journal") next - because you can fix ext2 with e2fsck
(though probably lose some data in the process, but ...), convert to
ext3 then mount with "data=journal" without having to reinstall. Google
for the commands needed ... worked for me.

Have fun :)
BillK

alan.mckinnon at gmail

Nov 7, 2009, 10:35 PM

Post #4 of 10 (325 views)
Permalink

Re: "deleted inode referenced" [In reply to]

On Sunday 08 November 2009 04:46:50 William Kenworthy wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-11-07 at 12:05 -0500, Philip Webb wrote:

> > BTW is Ext2 the best fs for this machine ? Might Ext3 or Ext4 be better
> > ? -- I use Reiserfs on my desktop machines.
>
> Have you tried fsk on it? - "man e2fsck"
>
> The last question is a bit of a "how long is a piece of string"
> question.
>
> My personal experience is ext2 is only for those occasions you dont
> value the data at all :)
>
> ext3 isnt much better unless you use "data=journal" to get some basic
> protection.

That turns on the journal which will wear out an SSD in short order, so ext2
is indeed the better file system

> But instead of fiddling with such (deleted disparaging comment) file
> systems, use reiserfs though this may need a complete reinstall .
> Updates are still occuring to the reiserfs code in the kernel, so
> reiserfs is not abandoned by any means.

I use reiser everywhere else but not on my netbook. Have you used it on an SSD
and if so, what results did you get

> ext4, reiserfs4, btfs and the like are too new for me, though I like the
> look of btfs.

All conventional filesystems are built in such a way as to suit rotating disk
media. Not surprising, as those were the only disks available for many a year.

SSDs however, are very different, especially the cheap nasty controllers that
go into netbooks. I think one should be willing to experiment with those, see
what comes up.

--
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

purslow at ca

Nov 8, 2009, 2:25 AM

Post #5 of 10 (316 views)
Permalink

Re: "deleted inode referenced" [In reply to]

091108 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-11-07 at 12:05 -0500, Philip Webb wrote:
>> is Ext2 the best fs for this machine ? Might Ext3 or Ext4 be better ?
>> -- I use Reiserfs on my desktop machines.
> the journal will wear out an SSD in short order,
> so ext2 is indeed the better file system
> All conventional filesystems are built to suit rotating disk media.
> SSDs are very different, esp the cheap nasty controllers in netbooks.

Sensible advice, no doubt, for those using SSDs in their netbooks,
but as I said in my OP, my ASUS 1005HA has a 160 GB hard disk (HDD),
whence the letter 'H' in its name.

--
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

daidxor at gmail

Nov 8, 2009, 2:49 AM

Post #6 of 10 (618 views)
Permalink

Re: "deleted inode referenced" [In reply to]

> There are files in �/var �/tmp �which I can't remove:
> the msg is "EXT2-fs error: ext2_lookup: deleted inode referenced: 16388".
>
> Can anyone help ?
>

Did you try removing it from a live Linux distro (ie: on a USB stick)?

Or if it lets you move it, maybe you can move it to the temporary file
system created in the RAM by a live install, and then when you reboot
into your normal system the RAM is cleared.

~daid

peterk2 at coolmail

Nov 8, 2009, 4:14 AM

Post #7 of 10 (307 views)
Permalink

Re: "deleted inode referenced" [In reply to]

Alan McKinnon wrote:

> That turns on the journal which will wear out an SSD in short order, so ext2
> is indeed the better file system

http://thunk.org/tytso/blog/2009/03/01/ssds-journaling-and-noatimerelatime/

Best regards

Peter K

purslow at ca

Nov 8, 2009, 7:12 AM

Post #8 of 10 (382 views)
Permalink

Re: "deleted inode referenced" [SOLVED] [In reply to]

091108 William Kenworthy wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-11-07 at 12:05 -0500, Philip Webb wrote:
>> In the course of trying to get X to work on my ASUS 1005HA netbook,
>> I had to power the machine off several times. In the course of this,
>> some damage seems to have occurred to the file system.
>> There are files in /var /tmp which I can't remove:
>> the msg is "EXT2-fs error: ext2_lookup: deleted inode referenced: 16388".
>> I got round the problem by creating new dirs, copying everything else
>> & renaming the dirs, but that leaves me with /bad1 , which I can't remove
>> as it contains a reference to an inode which no longer exists.
>> BTW is Ext2 the best fs for this machine ? Might Ext3 or Ext4 be better ?
>> -- I use Reiserfs on my desktop machines.
> Have you tried fsk on it? - "man e2fsck"

Sorry to those who suggested this: I didn't think of it,
as I haven't used Ext2 (except for /boot ) since 2003.

> My personal experience is
> ext2 is only for those occasions you dont value the data at all

That's my impression from yesterday's potential disaster (wry smile).

> ext3 isnt much better
> unless you use "data=journal" to get some basic protection.

It seemed behind Reiserfs back in 2003, when I built ANB2,
& I kept it for ANB3 in 2007; there's never been a problem with it.

> use Reiserfs though this may need a complete reinstall.
> Updates are still occuring to the Reiserfs code in the kernel,
> so Reiserfs is not abandoned by any means.

I haven't updated R-fsprogs since 071222, tho' there's a minor revision.
Of course, that doesn't mean the stuff in the kernel is that old.
It wb a pity if it's not maintained at least till Btree-fs is reliable.

Anyway, I've reformatted my partitions to Reiserfs without re-installing
(clever, aren't I ? -- big grin). Besides / + /home ,
I have a big hangar-openspace partition I call /z ( 60 GB ),
which is useful for unpacking stuff & has /z/tmp for Emerge to use.
I created a dir /z/store3 , then did 'cp -a bin /z/store3' etc
for all the dirs in / ; next I used SystemRescue to reformat /dev/hda3 ,
which is mounted as / , then 'cp -a' everything back again.
And it worked !! Similarly for /home & for /z itself (using /store6 ).
NB WARNING : if anyone else wants to do this, 'cp -a' is your friend,
but be very careful to proof-read all your commands as you do it
& use 'du' etc to check that the data really is being copied;
some of the copies take a few minutes, but they do get there.

So far, I'm very impressed with the ASUS 1005HA & even more with Gentoo,
which is perfectly fit for this kind of job. Try a binary distro,
run into any kind of problem & what can you do ? Gentoo makes it work !

Now I have to resume getting X to work properly.

--
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

alan.mckinnon at gmail

Nov 8, 2009, 7:27 AM

Post #9 of 10 (311 views)
Permalink

Re: "deleted inode referenced" [In reply to]

On Sunday 08 November 2009 12:25:19 Philip Webb wrote:
> 091108 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Sat, 2009-11-07 at 12:05 -0500, Philip Webb wrote:
> >> is Ext2 the best fs for this machine ? Might Ext3 or Ext4 be better ?
> >> -- I use Reiserfs on my desktop machines.
> >
> > the journal will wear out an SSD in short order,
> > so ext2 is indeed the better file system
> > All conventional filesystems are built to suit rotating disk media.
> > SSDs are very different, esp the cheap nasty controllers in netbooks.
>
> Sensible advice, no doubt, for those using SSDs in their netbooks,
> but as I said in my OP, my ASUS 1005HA has a 160 GB hard disk (HDD),
> whence the letter 'H' in its name.

Yes, I saw that in another post you made. I find it harder and harder to keep
track of what is shipped with what product these days...

:-)

--
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

rdalek1967 at gmail

Nov 8, 2009, 7:58 AM

Post #10 of 10 (326 views)
Permalink

Re: "deleted inode referenced" [SOLVED] [In reply to]

Philip Webb wrote:
> Anyway, I've reformatted my partitions to Reiserfs without re-installing
> (clever, aren't I ? -- big grin). Besides / + /home ,
> I have a big hangar-openspace partition I call /z ( 60 GB ),
> which is useful for unpacking stuff & has /z/tmp for Emerge to use.
> I created a dir /z/store3 , then did 'cp -a bin /z/store3' etc
> for all the dirs in / ; next I used SystemRescue to reformat /dev/hda3 ,
> which is mounted as / , then 'cp -a' everything back again.
> And it worked !! Similarly for /home & for /z itself (using /store6 ).
> NB WARNING : if anyone else wants to do this, 'cp -a' is your friend,
> but be very careful to proof-read all your commands as you do it
> & use 'du' etc to check that the data really is being copied;
> some of the copies take a few minutes, but they do get there.
>
> So far, I'm very impressed with the ASUS 1005HA & even more with Gentoo,
> which is perfectly fit for this kind of job. Try a binary distro,
> run into any kind of problem & what can you do ? Gentoo makes it work !
>
> Now I have to resume getting X to work properly.
>
>

cp -a is your friend. If you want to see the copy, just make it -av
instead. I have used cp -av for a long time to move my Gentoo install
from one drive to another. It's really simple to do with it.

Just don't forget to put the boot manager on the new drive if you are
moving a install.

Dale

:-) :-)

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