Package: src:linux Version: 3.11.8-1 Severity: normal Dear Maintainer,
due to the changed kernel configuration to disable the ext2 module and to enable CONFIG_EXT4_USE_FOR_EXT23=y the support for small ext2 file systems has been (accidently?) removed. Small file systems here are file systems with less than 1024 blocks, i.e. less than 1 to 4 MeBi depending on the block size. The change has been introduced between 3.10 and 3.11 in Debian. When trying to mount such a file system, the following error is printed: > mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0, > missing codepage or helper program, or other error > In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try > dmesg | tail or so The syslog contains the following line > EXT4-fs (loop0): bad geometry: block count 1440 exceeds size of device (1048 > blocks) This information is not helpful. While the loss of support for small file systems is unfortunate, I think the lack of information here is unacceptable. Such small file systems are still being used, e.g. on removable media or in the embedded world, thus the bug's severity can be critical for some users. I do not exactly know what the best fix of this bug is (and thus where to assign this bug), but some solutions are: - Revert the kernel configuration to support the ext2 module again - Print a warning during kernel upgrade - Print a precise error when mounting fails - Support such small file systems with the ext4-for-ext2 config For everyone else who is hit by this problem: As a workaround, an old Debian kernel (3.10 or older) or a self-compiled kernel with separate ext2 support can be used to recover the data on such file systems. > mkfs.ext4 -b 1024 DEVICE can be used to create an ext4 file system with a minimum size of 1 MeBi as an alternative. Cheers Patrick -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-kernel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20131201163633.4883.49415.reportbug@mmm.localdomain
