From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Sep 19 02:26:58 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id CAA28125 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 02:26:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (gregl1.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.136.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id CAA28117 for ; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 02:26:54 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) id SAA01120; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 18:56:47 +0930 (CST) Message-ID: <19970919185647.10855@lemis.com> Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 18:56:47 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: Sue Blake Cc: jfielden@geocities.com, FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Warning message, what does it mean? References: <19970919173130.36808@lemis.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.81e In-Reply-To: ; from Sue Blake on Fri, Sep 19, 1997 at 07:17:29PM +1000 Organisation: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8250 Fax: +61-8-8388-8250 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Fight-Spam-Now: http://www.cauce.org Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Fri, Sep 19, 1997 at 07:17:29PM +1000, Sue Blake wrote: > > On Fri, 19 Sep 1997, Greg Lehey wrote: > >>>>> mountmsdosfs(): Warning: root directory is not a multiple of the >>>>> clustersize in length. > >> This is exactly the situation I was referring to. If I were you, I'd >> worry. FIPS doesn't do a perfect job, and it leaves pointers outside >> the slice. If you're unlucky, msdosfs will use one of these pointers >> and place random garbage in other slices. > > I've watched this thread occur twice before, and used the web site to search > the archives, hoping to find answers. There's always some who say don't > worry, some who say expect doom and destruction. Is the real situation that > it doesn't hurt at all if you mount read-only but might crash everything > otherwise? Or what? Recall my disclaimer at the beginning of the thread. I don't use msdosfs, and I haven't looked at the code. But my recollection of the last discussion is that: 1. msdosfs is so buggy that it needs a complete rewrite. The possibility exists that it has happened and passed me by. 2. FIPS is buggy and doesn't resize everything in the file system. In particular, some block pointers can point outside the resultant file system. 3. This combination can cause msdosfs to write outside its partition. 4. If you don't allow msdosfs to write, it probably won't write outside its partition. > I partitioned my first SCSI, a 2 gig disk, with Partition Magic. > small primary DOS > extended partition with two small logical drives > two teensy empty NTFS to assist drive letter assignment > One large NTFS with yucky stuff on it > a little over 1 gig FreeBSD > > I get this error when attempting to mount any of the dos partitions. > > So, if I simply use Partition Magic again and have it resize the partitions > to kosher sizes, and/or change the cluster size, will that stop FreeBSD from > complaining or not? If so, what figures are appropriate for drives about > 125mb and 250mb? Sorry, I can't comment on this. Greg