Seriously, I believe this is a big issue. Let me summarize:
a) there was a kernel update for FC5
b) this kernel has a known bug which could results in corrupting
ext3 filesystems with 1k block size under heavy load
c) ... nevertheless it has been pushed out with no special warning
d) pratically all /boot partitions are ext3 1k (anaconda generated)
e) many partitions on old machine upgraded from previous versions are
ext3 1k as well
f) experienced users could have much bigger partitions manually
generated with 1k block size for their own fun/reasons/optimization (I
personally have counted already 400 GBytes of 1k, ext3, partitions
just on my personal laptop, desktop and associated backup disks
excluding /boot ones). In my case, most of the 1k partitions are such
because they are subject to heavy loads with many small files
What was the rationale for releasing an official kernel update under such
dangerous conditions? Just "anaconda doesn't generate 1k partitions (not
true BTW)"? I still believe Linux is not (yet) Windows and if features are
in the system (like 1k blocksize partitions) people can use them if
they feel appropriate and they must work. Or perhaps there was a rush to
push this 2.6.18 kernel out to get some extra guinea pigs finding all
residual bugs? But this could be fair for the FC6 betas, not for FC5 where
people is expecting reasonable stability, anyway no life-threatening
issue like a (known) filesystem corruption bug.
Now how long do we have to wait before we have an update for FC5 fixing
this critical issue? Or do we have to manually rollback kernels on all
machines?
Alfredo
On Tue, 17 Oct 2006, Dave Jones wrote:
On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 09:18:02AM +0200, Till Maas wrote:
> On Tuesday 17 October 2006 05:12, Chris Adams wrote:
>
> > I just checked an FC5 system, and /boot (at 100M) has a 1K block size.
> > Looking at a rawhide install I did about a week ago, its /boot (100M)
> > also has a 1K block size. These are from anaconda.
>
> My FC5 /boot (100M) has also 1K block size from anaconda. But it is only ext2,
> do not know, whether or not this is relevant.
The problem only affected ext3 (well, jbd actually).
Dave
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