# emerge sync fails, is it ext3 or is my drive dying? [solved]

## nick_already_taken

[Part Two]

Here is a bit more information:

I have verified my drive with HUTIL 2.10 (the harddrive diagnostics software) from Samsung.  The diagnostic data shows no errors. Meanwhile I have

set my ext3 partition to get verified after each mount. In one of three system boots the filesystemcheck detects an error, that has to be corrected

with fschk.ext3 manually.

I have upgraded my motherboard to the lastest ASROCK BIOS version. It made no difference. I have run memtest to assure that my memory

isn't dying with no effect.

Has anyone an idea what else I could do? I am quite desperate as I have absolutely no idea what is going on here.

Thanks for reading.

[Parte One]

Hi,

I am experiencing repeated problems https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-708985-highlight-.html  after running "emerge sync".

This time I receive:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> System Info: AMD Athlon 64 3700+, 2048 MB DDR-RAM, 2*160 GB HDD, Gentoo Linux, Xen
> 
> Connection: 100 MBit/s, rsync limited to 20 connections
> ...

 

The damaged file looks like after running "ls -l":   

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> -????????? ? ?    ?       ?             ? ChangeLog
> 
> 

 

After I run fsck.ext3 everything is fine. But only a few days later the problem shows up again.

I use a 2.6.24-gentoo-r8 kernel together with an ext3 filesystem

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Filesystem volume name:   <none>
> 
> Last mounted on:          <not available>
> ...

 

I use the following brand new drive:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> /dev/sda:
> 
> ATA device, with non-removable media
> ...

 

Here is the smartctl output

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
> 
> Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
> ...

 

smartctl -H /dev/sda

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
> 
> Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
> ...

 

Besides this problem I have no problems, no lock-ups, nothing. Until a few months ago I had used

reiserfs for 4 years on another drive with no problems. 

Is it ext3 or is my drive starting to fail?Last edited by nick_already_taken on Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## chtof

According to http://lists.samba.org/archive/rsync/2006-December/016888.html, it can be due from a problematic file. Can you try to delete /usr/portage 

```
rm -rf /usr/portage/*
```

 and restart 

```
emerge --sync
```

 ?

In a second time, if you continue to have this problem, try to launch the "samsung disgnostic" when your disk is "hot".

----------

## jcat

 *nick_already_taken wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Until a few months ago I had used
> 
> reiserfs for 4 years on another drive with no problems. 
> ...

 

Err, without wishing to start a flame war, Reiser is far less mature than Ext!  I seriously doubt you have found some bug in Ext3, this is much more likely to be your drive, even if it's new, and even if it passes the manufacturers diagnostic tests.  I'm not saying it's definitely the drive, but it's the most likely option IMHO.

You could try backing up and reformatting that problem partition, it's worth a shot.  It's also worth re-seating all cables to the drive (at both ends).

Cheers,

jcat

----------

## nick_already_taken

Thanks for your advice. I have moved my portage directory now to a different partition. 

After every system boot I have to run fsck manually. The funny thing is that everytime the same file is reported as corrupt.

It is "Xorg.0.log.old". So it seems that the problem has nothing to do with rsync and the portage tree.

If I have the time I will reformat my whole root partition and see what happens.

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## nick_already_taken

After I reformated my root partition and restored everything the problem seems to have vanished. I still do not know, what the problem was. But of course I don't have to understand everything.

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