operation not permitted on entropy file

[Polytropon]

On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 13:30:30 +0100, RW wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 12:44:33 +0200
> Polytropon wrote:
> 
> > Allow me a small additional statement:
> > 
> > On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 12:31:19 +0200, Roland Smith wrote:
> > > If a filesystem isn't dismounted properly (e.g. because of a
> > > crash), you should get a warning during the next boot. And the
> > > system would run a filesystem check in "preen" mode (see fsck(8)).
> > > If it finds serious errors that cannot be repaired in preen mode,
> > > you should get an error message.
> > 
> > The problem is: When you do _not_ have
> > 
> > 	background_fsck="NO"
> > 
> > in /etc/rc.conf, all this happens in background, and soon you're
> > in XDM and your X session, so you don't get the error message.
> > Still the system continues booting and working "normally" for
> > the price of "silent" file system corruption.
> > 
> > In my opinion, this setting should be the default. It's better
> > to have a delay in the boot process, or a _stop_ of the boot
> > process in case a severe file system damage has been detected.
> > I also think it's more important to know about this fact than
> > it is to quickly be guided into a "comfortable environment"
> > that makes you believe everything is okay, while in fact it
> > isn't.
> > 
> > This kind of operation also makes sure that you can get aware
> > of the "please re-run fsck" message in case a second pass is
> > required. In the end, you get "file system marked clean", and
> > only _now_ you know that things are okay.
> 
> It's not quite as bad as that. The background fsck is only intended to
> recover lost space. If it encounters an actual error, it marks the
> filesystem with a flag that causes a foreground check on the next boot.

Yes - at _next_ boot. And for performing file system checks,
it first creates a snapshot. I think I'm the 0.000001% person
who got his foot shot because of strange side effects. :-)

(And I also lost files due to "too much automatism", but could
regain the data; "fsck -yf" isn't always fist choice: "inode
corrected" - file present, size 0, data gone.)

As much as I like the fast booting process of FreeBSD: In case
of something being wrong with the file system, I rather have
the time to wait for a full fsck run (can require several
minutes on bigger disks) than booting into a "halfway somehow
snapshotted partially clean but good-looking" environment. :-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...