Ubuntu Wiki

http://musther.googlepages.com/autofsckhead.png

AutoFsck is a script which automate periodic disk checking in such a way that it no longer bothers the user at boot every 30-ish times, and is streamlined in a friendly graphical user interface.

AutoFsck ensures that the automatic disk check will no longer inconvenience you by making your boot times very long.

How Does it Work?

It's really quite simple, every time you shut down, AutoFsck finds information on your disks. Every linux partition has two important number associated with it, one is the number of times it has been mounted, the other is the number of times it is allowed to before being checked. AutoFsck looks at these, and if your drives are due for checking it asks if you want to check them. If you say yes, your drives are checked before your computer shuts down. If you say no, AutoFsck will ensure that the check will not run next time your computer boots. You will then be prompted again the next time you shut down.

http://musther.googlepages.com/AutoFsck25.png

Requirements:

At present, AutoFsck only works on Ubuntu, (not kubuntu and xubuntu). More specifically, AutoFsck requires you to be using GDM (the Gnome Display Manger) to log in. You can use any window manager or desktop environment (Gnome, KDE, Openbox, IceWM etc) so long as you are logging in through GDM. Consequently, AutoFsck will work on Ubuntu derivatives which use Gnome (or at least GDM) such as Edubuntu or Ubuntu Studio.

Download

[http://musther.googlepages.com/autofsck_2.5-1_all.deb Click here to download AutoFsck v2.5] - see below for installation instructions.

Installation

Installing AutoFsck V2.5 is easy - you can install over the top of AutoFsck 2.0 or later:

• Download the archive from the link above.
• Either select 'open' from the download dialogue, or save the file and then double click it.
• When gdebi (the graphical .deb install manager) opens, click the 'install' button to install the package.

• If you want to remove Autofsck at any time, use synaptic (System --> Administration --> Synaptic Package Manager) to remove the package 'autofsck'.

Please Note: - This package requires the installation of a small program called beep which is in the universe repository, so you'll need universe enabled to continue. If you're running 7.04 (feisty), go to System --> Administration --> Software Sources, enter your password, and make sure there's a tick in the box labelled 'Community-maintained Open Source software (universe)'. If you're not using 7.04, ask Google what to do, something like 'enable universe ubuntu 6.10'.

News:

3rd October 2007:

Autofsck v2.5 has been released. This version improves a couple of things:

• The disk checks now occur on shutdown - rebooting is no longer required!
• When the prompt appears on shutdown, there is an audio prompt - some people were turning off their monitor and not seeing the prompt.

This page has been updated so see below for further information and downloads.

31st August 2007:

Autofsck is now distributed as a .deb, which is very helpful! Even if you already have Autofsck installed, please download and install the .deb as it will mean that it's easier to upgrade or remove in the future.

Further Information About AutoFsck

AutoFsck was created by Jonathan Musther (jmusther@gmail.com), it is released under the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU General Public License], please use it and modify it as you want to.

It was designed specifically for Ubuntu, and has so far been tested on:

• Ubuntu 7.04 - The Feisty Fawn
• Ubuntu 7.10 Beta - The Gutsy Gibbon

If you know of other systems on which AutoFsck works, Ubuntu or otherwise, please add them here.

AutoFsck is likely to work on any GNU/Linux system which uses GDM (the Gnome Display Manager) for it's graphical login, but it will not currently work on Kubuntu, Xubuntu or other non-Gnome based systems. Support for KDE and other desktop environments is something I'm working on.

Inclusion in Ubuntu

From the activity on the forums regarding the annoyance of the forced disk checks, I feel that AutoFsck, or at least something with its functionality should be included in the main Ubuntu Distribution as a dependency of Ubuntu-Desktop (as it is of dubious use on the server etc).

If you (the users) agree, please help me promote AutoFsck and get it included in the next release - 8.04.

Feedback, Suggestions, Comments etc

If you have any feedback, suggestions or comments, please post them below or email me; jmusther@gmail.com

Feedback/Discussion

• PLEASE NOTE - I have removed all comments which have been addressed in version 2.0 or 2.5

Technical Details

For more technical info, and more info about inclusion in Ubuntu, including discussion, see AutoFsckspec.

AutoFsck is copied to /etc/X11/gdm/PostSession/AutoFsck and is called by Default, which is copied to /etc/X11/gdm/PostSession/Default.

Default is called (as root) by gdm after the user closes her session, the mount count and maximum mount count values from tune2fs -l are evaluated, and if disk checks are not imminent, the script exits. If disk checks are required, or will be at the next boot, the script uses zenity to ask the user if she wants to schedule disk checks to occur at shutdow At this point, as of v2.5, there is an audio prompt - a short musical scale (ascending C blues) - to make sure the user doesn't miss the prompt, say by turning off the monitor very soon after calling shutdown. The audio is provided through the PC speaker, courtesy of 'beep'.

If the user declines, the script issues the command: touch /fastboot which will prevent disk checks on the next boot, the script then exits.

If the user says yes, the script creates a new script /etc/rc0.d/S89autofsck. This script is called after all other shutdown scripts except S90halt. S89autofsck simply remounts / read only, and then runs fsck on all filesystems before remounting read write and removing itself, it then exits and allows shutdown to continue.

I made the decision to run fsck on all filesystems rather than treating them individually after much discussion with users as I came to the conclusion that it better suits the desktop user (as this is the group AutoFsck is aimed at).

There are some bits of tidying up which I haven't outlined here.

Comments

Is every piece of text translatable in PO files? (a must for Ubuntu inclusion)

Is there a log kept by fsck or autofsck in case the fsck failed & perhaps why it failed?

• A log is kept by fsck in /var/log/fsck/