# failed to create stopping dir

## jpl888

Guys,

I updated today and when I rebooted I get the subject message along with stuff about everything being read only.

I tried to use an Ubuntu CD to chroot into my ext4 environment (which has worked before) but I just get a floating point exception and dump when I do.

I can mount the partitions but I'm not sure what to do next.

I read on another post that it could be a module problem so I just deleted any modules and rebooted again. That didn't work.

I also tried using 2.6.29 r1 and r2 (which worked yesterday) to no avail.

I am using the unstable branch I can see OpenRC hasn't been updated since the 21st of April, I'm wonder where else to go poking.

Many Thanks in advance.

----------

## noisebleed

Hi jpl888.

Does the command 

```
# mount -o remount,rw  /
```

 helps?

----------

## jpl888

No.

I can't log in to type the command.

I have recompiled the kernel under Ubuntu (not in a chroot though obviously) enabling large block device support so I can mount the filesystem rw from the get go.

Now it says "caching service dependancies" and dumps me very quickly to a log in prompt. It lets me type the username and password and lets me know the last login time but doesn't actually give a prompt. 

Looks as though something has happened to inittab or something else to do with init.

Any suggestions greatly received?

----------

## noisebleed

If you are using Grub try booting into single-user mode. To do so, at the grub boot menu, add either a '1' or 'single' to the end of the kernel parameters. You won't be requested to login and a root shell should appear (I hope  :Smile: ). Then type the command I've posted before. Hope this helps.

----------

## jpl888

Thank you noisebleed.

"single" doesn't seem to work I added emergency instead and at least I am at the bash prompt albeit with "cannot set terminal process group" error.

mount reveals the filesystem is already mounted read write.

----------

## jpl888

Tried typing "rc default" and nothing really happens.

----------

## jpl888

If I try to emerge anything I get "out of pty devices" and it fails.

----------

## noisebleed

Not sure why "single" is not working  :Sad: . Anyway, can you emerge packages while at a LiveCD environment?

----------

## jpl888

No I can't chroot (that was the original reason for the post).

I can compile manually under the Live CD though.

----------

## noisebleed

 *Quote:*   

> No I can't chroot (that was the original reason for the post).

 

Sorry  :Embarassed: , I've forgot that you already tried that.

----------

## jpl888

Looks like util-linux was updated yesterday. Maybe that has something to do with the problems?

----------

## noisebleed

It could. 

I'm using the latest stable x86 version of util-linux which is 2.14.1. Which one have you merged?

----------

## jpl888

2.15 but I still have the distfile for 2.14.2  so I will compile and install manually and see does that make things any better.

----------

## jpl888

No it didn't make a jot of difference. 

I tried to run revdep-rebuild for the craic and it complained of an unexpected EOF, I reckon something has gone wrong with ext4 on my system.

Looks like I am going to have to download a weekly stage file and recompile the lot.

Apart from /etc/make.conf /var/lib/portage/world (and any other files in /var/lib/portage what other config files would be overwritten if I extract a stage tarball?

----------

## noisebleed

Can't you run a file system check app like e2fsck for your ext4 partition? Maybe that could solve the problems you mentioned.

----------

## jpl888

I have fscked until I am blue in the face and it doesn't find anything wrong.

I have started reinstalling under ext2 instead using a 128k alignment (it's an SSD).

After reading some of the corruption issues people have had with ext4, I feel safer that way. At least if I'm going to use the testing branch (which I need to for the best features) and I have a rock solid file system underneath, I've less chance of this weirdness happening again.

If for some strange and completely fscked reason I have the same issue after the reinstall you can be sure I will post here, otherwise assume that it worked, thanks for your suggestions and help at least having someone to bounce ideas off is better than peeing in the wind.

I was starting to get worried when I didn't get a reply for 24 hours, thought I had phrased the post strangely or something, or it was that blindingly obvious that no one would answer.

----------

## jpl888

I can confirm it was definitely something to do with ext4, my system is a lot happier running on ext2. Lesson learned but I feel ext4 should still be marked experimental in the kernel.

----------

## noisebleed

 *jpl888 wrote:*   

> (...) I feel ext4 should still be marked experimental in the kernel.

 

Maybe you could file a bug?

----------

## jpl888

In bugzilla or upstream?

Seeing as the ext4 file system is now no longer on my machine I don't think I would be able to give them much information beyond the mount options I used. It seemed to work more or less for a few months, I think it would be hard to track down. All I will say is I was using the new nojournal option in 2.6.29 and a high commit time. However being a laptop the power never went abruptly and I was very careful about emergency syncing if needed. Indeed there was no crash prior to the reboot with the problems only an emerge that appeared to go correctly.

----------

## noisebleed

 *jpl888 wrote:*   

> In bugzilla or upstream?

 

In bugzilla.

If you're willing to report this issue be kind to leave the link to the bug here. Also make sure you gather all the relevant info so the devs can track this down.

Take care  :Wink: 

----------

