Re: ReiserFS / 2.4.6 / Data Corruption

[Hans Reiser <reiser@namesys.com>]

It is very understandable that users should be less confident in the stability of our code than we
are.  At this time, hardware bugs that look very much like software bugs greatly outnumber software
bugs.  We find that if a bug is easy for the user to hit by doing something not especially unusual,
and it doesn't seem like recent VFS changes have caused it, it is almost surely a hardware bug
masquerading as a software bug.

Hans

Sam Thompson wrote:
> 
> I should have checked this first, but you were right. Memtest86 revealed I had a bad memory module. When I replaced it, everything began running flawlessly. I've been running for several hours with no problems.
> 
> Thank you very much,
> Sam
> 
> * Vladimir V. Saveliev (monstr@namesys.com) wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > If you are able to get a problem easily - would you mind to start with
> > simple hardware checking (just to ):
> > does your CPU's cooler rotate?
> > is CPU temperature ok?
> > check memory with some tool
> >
> > Thanks,
> > vs
> >
> >
> > >
> > > Sam Thompson wrote:
> > >
> > >> First, please CC all replies to samuelt@caltech.edu, as I am not on the mailing list.
> > >>
> > >> The other day a computer of mine lost power and the ext2 fs was severely damaged
> > >> . I decided to reinstall debian using reiserfs to prevent this. I had no problems with installation, (I've done this same install on other computers) but as I started to untar backup tarballs I had made, I started noticing problems with what I believe is the filesystem.
> > >>
> > >> Tar/gzip will complain about crc errors in files: for example in a certain 40 mb file I can decompress fine on other computers. If I try to uncompress the same file immediately, it will fail at a different point, seemingly at random. Sometimes it works fine. Random debian packages I apt-get have the same problem. Sometimes they won't unpack properly, sometimes they will.
> > >>
> > >> I tried reinstall gzip several times, but I don't think the problems are limited to compressed files, just very obvious in critical situations like that.
> > >>
> > >> I can get complex software to run: xfree86 4.1, mozilla, etc, fine, although som
> > >> e files apparently go missing in some programs.
> > >>
> > >> Just now I got the following error message when deleting a tarball:
> > >>
> > >> vs-4080: reiserfs_free_block: free_block (0301:672040)[dev:blocknr]: bit already
> > >>  cleared
> > >>
> > >> Next, I took the hard drive to my other, stable computer and ran reiserfsck --rebuild-tree on it, under the hopes that this would fix it. It did appear to fix it, but about 10 minutes later the symptoms came back.
> > >>
> > >> Here is 'debugreiserfs /dev/hda1' output:
> > >>
> > >> Super block of format 3.5 found on the 0x3 in block 16
> > >> Block count 4233112
> > >> Blocksize 4096
> > >> Free blocks 3900694
> > >> Busy blocks (skipped 16, bitmaps - 130, journal blocks - 8193
> > >> 1 super blocks, 324078 data blocks
> > >> Root block 8529
> > >> Journal block (first) 18
> > >> Journal dev 0
> > >> Journal orig size 8192
> > >> Filesystem state ERROR
> > >> Tree height 4
> > >> Hash function used to sort names: "tea"
> > >> Objectid map size 62, max 1004
> > >> Version 0
> > >>
> > >> Here is my relevant hardware:
> > >>
> > >> Motherboard: Asus A7V KT133 with 686A southbridge (NOT the 686B).
> > >> Harddrive: 30 gig ide maxtor/generic.
> > >>
> > >> I installed 2.4.6 to try and fix the problem, it didn't seem to help, although I do not clearly remember the difference between 2.2.17-patched and 2.4.6 in terms of the symptoms.
> > >>
> > >> I tried reinstalling once, but that did not help.
> > >>
> > >> I'm at a loss as to how to proceed. Any ideas?
> > >>
> > >> Thank you for your time,
> > >>
> > >> Sam
> > >> ---
> > >> samuelt@caltech.edu
> > >> -
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> > >
> >
> >
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