Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: Unexpected shutdowns | Date | Wed, 25 Feb 1998 08:14:17 -0800 | From | Jim Dennis <> |
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> From: "Adam D. Bradley" <artdodge@cs.bu.edu> >> The system files are installed on a flash device, and the majority of >> the data files are read-only. So far, the only file system errors >> resulting from improper shutdown have been on the partition where >> system logs are stored.
I'd like to know more about the flash device(s) that you're using. I've just ordered a couple of ROMDisk and PCMCIA adapters (for desktop machines) to experiment with these configurations myself.
>> Is there any way to completely disable the system logs? > > The log files are kept by the syslogd/klogd processes. Pull the > appropriate symlinks out of the /etc/rc?.d directories (or edit the > etc/rc.d/rc.? scripts, depending on your distribution) and they won't > be started. > >> Is there any way to log to ramdisk, so that corruption does not exist on >> restart? > > Yes, just make sure the ramdisk partition is mkfs'd and mounted before > syslogd/klogd are started. > >> Better yet, is there some recovery scheme that does not require console >> intervention? >> (apparently the file system check will not run unattended) > > You can hack e2fsck... throw in some failure case handlers (like > automatically trying backup superblocks if the primary is invalid, > etc) and throw out any checks to make sure "the user is really > there"... but remember, that stuff is probably there for a reason.
Yuck! Why hack the fsck binary -- you can just run it under 'expect' to do the unattended stuff. (In addition to being trivial to script -- even for non-programmers -- your 'expect' script can have conditionals to respond to specific error messages with specific responses).
Another option -- better for this embedded system situation -- is to run e2fsck -n || restorefs
(Where restorefs is a script that does the appropriate mkfs and whatever other restore procedures you want).
In other words -- if there is any error have the fs re-created automatically. From what I recall this is the strategy taken by McAfee's "WebScan" -- which is a package that uses Linux as an "embedded/turn-key" system.
> I realize this is an embedded system, but if its networked or has > serial outut it may be a better option to just have syslogd direct all > logging data over the network/serial port/etc. This way you can have > persistent storage of the logs on the far end and won't have to worry > about doing a "proper" shutdown... (man syslogd.conf) > Adam
-- Jim Dennis (800) 938-4078 consulting@starshine.org Proprietor, Starshine Technical Services: http://www.starshine.org PGP 1024/2ABF03B1 Jim Dennis <jim@starshine.org> Key fingerprint = 2524E3FEF0922A84 A27BDEDB38EBB95A
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