# primary superblock features message and forced ext3 check?

## tld

I just recompiled my kernel (4.4.6-gentoo) as I was trying the nouveau driver in place of the proprietary nVidia driver.

When I rebooted I got this on /dev/sda3 which is the ext3 partition containing my root / file system:

```
 * Checking local filesystems  ...

/dev/sda3 primary superblock features different from backup, check forced.
```

It finished OK, but WTF??? Scared the crap out of me. What on earth would cause that?

Tom

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## Syl20

Maybe a too brutal unmount when rebooting ? That sometimes happens, and fsck precisely exists because of this kind of errors. Unless you encounter more FS consistency errors in the next days/reboots, no matter.

But if these errors persist, perhaps your HDD is about to die... If you don't already make regular backups, it's time to solve this awful negligence.

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## tld

 *Syl20 wrote:*   

> Maybe a too brutal unmount when rebooting ? That sometimes happens, and fsck precisely exists because of this kind of errors.

 I wasn't aware that could happen. That must have been what it was. I do in fact back up everything of importance on the system, but yea, all subsequent reboots have been fine, the smartclt stuff all looks fine. All indications seem to indicate a random fluke like that.

Thanks!

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## khayyam

tld ...

it's not a problem ... see Theodore Tso's explanation here

best ... khay

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## tld

Thanks khay! Good to know.

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## tld

Interestingly, I had this same thing happen when I rebooted by MythTV backend today...also on the / file system, which in my case is /dev/sda3. My guess is that will also be a one time occurrence.

There's one thing I don't understand on this one, even after reading the explanation in that link: I haven't expressly changed any file system properties on either of these systems, so what else would cause anything to have been changed?

In both cases this is an ext3 file system, with no options in /etc/fstab except "noatime". Also in both cases, this happened shortly after (those not the first reboot) my kernel upgrade from 4.1.15 to 4.4.6. Was there possibly an ext3 default changed or something?

Tom

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