How to fsck /live/changes.dat savefile?

[ocpaul20]

Can someone please just remind me how to do a fsck of a save file /live/changes.dat on my DebianDog Jessie?
I know it has to be unmounted first.

I am doing a fsck in the normal boot process but I have still got some corruption in the /root directory, so I guess I need to do a manual one and fix these errors. Hopefully it will be a simple matter.

[bigpup]

Try this:

Use e2fsck

The save file can not be in use.

Mount the partition the save is on.

Open a terminal, and enter:

Code: Select all

e2fsck /path to savefile

example:
save file is on partition sda1 and named pupsave.2fs.

Code: Select all

e2fsck -p /mnt/sda1/pupsave.2fs

The -p option says to auto repair anything found.

To see other options for e2fsck,
enter e2fsck in a terminal

[ocpaul20]

Thanks, I will try that.

[ocpaul20]

OK, so I have done that and all drives and the savefile came up clean. Nothing has changed in the root directory.

What might be the problem shown in these images of my root directory. It is obviously some kind of corruption but how do I find where it is coming from (memory failure?) and how do I fix it? I suppose I just have to delete these entries and then keep an eye out for other bad entries appearing and see what has just been running?

[bigpup]

Those files look like information files for different programs.
Can you click on them to open in a text editor, to see what is in them?
That may tell you what uses the file.

[ocpaul20]

They are all zero length.

Maybe I just delete them using their inode numbers and then see what re-appears - if anything.
Thanks for your help.

I have tried deleting a few of the files by using their inodes. Now it seems like there is something more serious going on.

[bigpup]

That image showing the messed up file names.
Is that what the file manager shows?
If yes.
What file manager?
Have you maybe changed the font used by the file manager?
A bad font selection can cause this name issue.

[ocpaul20]

I use Rox filer and yes, thats what it shows. I have not changed the fonts (not sure where to do that).
When trying to delete using the inode, it seems as if there are hard links to other files so after deleting the first link, it offers me the next file name.

Could it be a memory problem? How do I check the memory?

[williams2]

Did you use the force e2fsck option? Like

e2fsck -pvf /mnt/sda1/pupsave.2fs and e2fsck -yvf /mnt/sda1/pupsave.2fs

I would try both the p and the y options.

You can try debugfs on the unmounted file, like this: debugfs -w /mnt/sda1/pupsave.2fs
Type ? for help.
Manual: https://linux.die.net/man/8/debugfs
It would be good to backup the save file before using debugfs.
If you succeed in removing/clearing/unlinking the file names and or inodes, you should probably do a fsck again to get back space used by orphan inodes (inodes not linked to a file name.)

Some webpages found by searching for using debugfs :
https://www.cs.montana.edu/courses/309/ ... ample.html
https://ngelinux.com/what-is-debugfs-in ... s-command/
https://www.howtogeek.com/465350/everyt ... -on-linux/

You can try a memory tester like https://www.memtest.org/

[ocpaul20]

Thanks for all the help. I will try all these things and then if I continue to get corruptions, then the only thing is to start a new save file - which I have had to do occasionally. Anyway...