[NTLUG:Discuss] sudden file system errors on boot

[Rev. wRy]

Fred James wrote:

> File system: ext2 in all cases.
> Intel Pentium III (Coppermine), CPU family 6, model 8, stepping 6, 256 
> KB cache (or isn't that what you meant?)

I was talking about ALi Northbridge - at least that's where the problem 
was for me.  Googlegroups turns up quite a few hits about this.

> The suggestion is then that the chip/kernel combination could corrupt 
> the disk over time - is that it?  

Exactly.  Over time it corrupted as it wrote to the disk by just laying 
down garbage.

> Corrupt the file system, or the disk 
> surface, or both?  

In my case it was the file system.

> I am experiencing the same "errors in file system" on 
> the first boot (immediately after install) on 7.2, and 7.3, but not 7.1

My experience was with 7.2 & ext3 - upgrading to the latest kernel 
available at that time fixed the problem.  I wish I could remember the 
particular kernel, but I've since chucked the machine and moved on.

You might try upgrading to the latest kernel from RH if you get it 
installed.  Up2date makes this particularly easy.

As someone else said, it might be that you actually have bad sectors on 
the disk.

Ry