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List: ilugc
Subject: [Ilugc] Why GNU/Linux is a Must
From: "Vishnu Vijayaraghavan" <vishnu.vijayaraghavan () gmail ! com>
Date: 2007-07-28 5:11:56
Message-ID: 809586140707272159g154ed1aaie86e6aa2a902c371 () mail ! gmail ! com
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Hi Luggies,
This is one of my experience I had with GNU/Linux. I have a quad boot
Sempron system running FC3, Ubuntu, Windows XP and Windows ME (all OSs
installed on a single 120 GB IDE HDD). The system was working fine for
the past 3 years when XP has started giving trouble. The said XP is
installed on a 20GB NTFS partition. The trouble began 2 months back
when there was a power surge while running XP crashing the NTFS
partition. After that the NTFS partiton became unreadable (according
to Windows). The XP installer is not even recognizing that partition
and am unable to even repair that dead OS (or go for a clean install).
All my files were locked in NTFS partition. The rescue came from FC3
which is setup to read the NTFS partition. FC3 was able to read that
partition like a charm recovering all the files. Luckily I was able to
backup the files. But, I don't understand when XP installer has
trouble in examining my disk, how can the FC3's NTFS driver able to
make it.
Even I tried installing Windows 2000, even that died. It is already 2
months without XP, while the other OS's (FC3, Ubuntu and Windows ME)
works without any problem. I suspect some change in my partition
table. But not sure of it. When I started the system from the scratch
it had 8 partitions (7 FAT32(1 for Windows ME which was active), 1
NTFS (XP Partition)). When I installed FC3 I made 1 /boot (primary
partition) and / partition (ext 3 logical). When I installed Ubuntu I
added 2 more ext3 partitions (1 for ubuntu / and other for general
purpose, both logical partition). Before the installation of FC3 the
Win ME FAT32 partition was made as active boot partition. After FC3
installation /boot has became the 1st partition on the disk making it
as a active boot partition. So, I have a doubt here that XP installer
is trying to search for a active Windows partition as the first
partition or else it dies. But, I am not sure about this. This
clearly indicates that the XP installer is a real crap. My disk is
nearly 98% full may be this also confuses XP installer I think. But
why can't it give a clear information instead of saying "Examining
Disk................" for a longer time.
Here is my disks listing from fdisk
[root@localhost sbin]# ./fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120060444672 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14596 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
(/boot)
/dev/hda2 14 1971 15727635 c W95 FAT32
(LBA) (Win ME)
/dev/hda3 1972 3929 15727635 7 HPFS/NTFS
(Dead XP)
/dev/hda4 3930 14596 85682677+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 3930 5887 15727603+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda6 5888 7845 15727603+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda7 7846 9803 15727603+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda8 9804 11761 15727603+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda9 11762 13066 10482381 83 Linux
(FC3 /)
/dev/hda10 13067 13431 2931831 83 Linux
(Ubuntu /)
/dev/hda11 13432 13719 2313328+ 83 Linux
(ext 3)
/dev/hda12 13720 13784 522081 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda13 13785 14596 6522358+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
[root@localhost sbin]#
Here is my df listing
[root@localhost sbin]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda9 9.9G 9.3G 112M 99% /
/dev/hda1 99M 11M 83M 12% /boot
none 110M 0 110M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda2 15G 14G 1.4G 92% /mnt/C: (Windows ME)
/dev/hda5 15G 15G 237M 99% /mnt/D:
/dev/hda6 15G 15G 202M 99% /mnt/E:
/dev/hda7 15G 15G 273M 99% /mnt/F:
/dev/hda8 15G 15G 290M 99% /mnt/G:
/dev/hda13 6.3G 6.1G 189M 98% /mnt/H:
/dev/hda3 15G 14G 1.4G 92% /mnt/I: (Dead NTFS)
/dev/hda11 2.2G 2.1G 51M 98% /mnt/ext3
Thus having a GNU/Linux in one of the partiton will be very useful. I
am able to carry my day to day activities with GNU/Linux, but I am
missing my Firewire card and my Handycam a lot.
SMART readings says that my disk is OK (Summary). But, I see some 4 to
5 unrecoverable sectors in my log. Does it mean that my disk is dying.
Here is my smartctl output
[root@localhost sbin]# ./smartctl -a /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.33 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: SAMSUNG SP1203N
Serial Number: S00QJ10XA86452
Firmware Version: TL100-24
User Capacity: 120,060,444,672 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 7
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 0
Local Time is: Sat Jul 28 10:35:56 2007 IST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x05) Offline data collection activity
was aborted by an interrupting
command from host.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine
completed without error or no
self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (4320) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x1b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection
on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
No Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
No General Purpose Logging support.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 72) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE
UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 051 Pre-fail
Always - 4
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 065 034 000 Pre-fail
Always - 5952
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 097 097 000 Old_age
Always - 3229
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 253 253 010 Pre-fail
Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000b 253 253 051 Pre-fail
Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0024 090 090 000 Old_age
Offline - 9672
9 Power_On_Half_Minutes 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age
Always - 3149h+46m
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 253 253 049 Pre-fail
Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age
Always - 1728
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 130 085 000 Old_age
Always - 36
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age
Always - 284540046
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0012 099 099 000 Old_age
Always - 4
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0033 253 253 010 Pre-fail
Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0031 099 099 010 Pre-fail
Offline - 4
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x000b 100 100 051 Pre-fail
Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 051 Pre-fail
Always - 0
201 Soft_Read_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 051 Pre-fail
Always - 4
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 8 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 8 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3085 hours (128 days + 13 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was
active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 51 45 01 00 00 10 Error: ABRT
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
ef 00 45 01 00 00 10 00 00:00:02.375 SET FEATURES [Reserved subcommand]
Error 7 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3085 hours (128 days + 13 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was
active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 51 01 01 00 00 10 Error: ABRT
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
ef 00 01 01 00 00 10 00 00:00:02.313 SET FEATURES [Reserved subcommand]
Error 6 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3030 hours (126 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was
active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
10 51 01 c4 32 fa ed Error: IDNF 1 sectors at LBA = 0x0dfa32c4 = 234500804
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 01 c4 32 fa ed 00 00:24:06.438 READ DMA
ca 00 01 00 00 00 e0 00 00:24:05.063 WRITE DMA
c8 00 01 17 e8 32 ed 00 00:24:05.000 READ DMA
c8 00 01 ca 08 63 e9 00 00:24:05.000 READ DMA
c8 00 01 a4 10 83 e7 00 00:24:05.000 READ DMA
Error 5 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3030 hours (126 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was
active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
10 51 01 c4 32 fa ed Error: IDNF 1 sectors at LBA = 0x0dfa32c4 = 234500804
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 01 c4 32 fa ed 00 00:24:04.875 READ DMA
ca 00 01 00 00 00 e0 00 00:23:59.938 WRITE DMA
c8 00 01 17 e8 32 ed 00 00:23:59.938 READ DMA
c8 00 01 ca 08 63 e9 00 00:23:59.938 READ DMA
c8 00 01 a4 10 83 e7 00 00:23:59.938 READ DMA
Error 4 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 3030 hours (126 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was
active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
10 51 01 c4 32 fa ed Error: IDNF 1 sectors at LBA = 0x0dfa32c4 = 234500804
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 01 c4 32 fa ed 00 00:23:59.750 READ DMA
c8 00 01 3d 11 ec ed 00 00:23:05.688 READ DMA
c8 00 01 68 16 33 ed 00 00:23:05.688 READ DMA
ca 00 01 8d 4b 33 ed 00 00:23:05.688 WRITE DMA
ca 00 01 ca 80 63 e9 00 00:23:05.625 WRITE DMA
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining
LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 2986 -
Device does not support Selective Self Tests/Logging
Can some one tell me the mystery surrounding the partitions. I know
that this is not the list to ask.But, Please. Also, can some one tell
me the best practices in hard disk partitioning (120 GB). Which is the
best file systems to be used? The back up strategy to be followed? (I
don't have a DVD) . I have already googled a lot about this. How
reliable is ZFS on linux? Can I have ZFS as a partition alongwith
ext3,FAT32 etc.
Please suggest your opinions.
Thanks,
--
V.Vishnu,
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