Home / server / Questions / 296112
Accepted
Clark
Asked: 2011-08-01 15:42:07 +0800 CST

System crashes after ext3_block_to_path

  • 772

I have some soft which runs by cron. But once per day system crashes and only reboot helps. This is the latest log (/var/log/syslog) before crashing:

Jul 31 05:00:01 T217 /USR/SBIN/CRON[22629]: (root) CMD (/root/TorrentStealer/cron.sh)
Jul 31 05:01:32 T217 /USR/SBIN/CRON[20743]: (CRON) error (grandchild #20745 failed with exit status 127)
Jul 31 05:04:17 T217 kernel: [30414.252246] EXT3-fs warning (device sda1): ext3_block_to_path: block < 0
Jul 31 05:04:17 T217 kernel: [30414.252246] EXT3-fs warning (device sda1): ext3_block_to_path: block < 0

And this is the latest log in /var/log/messages

Jul 31 05:04:17 T217 kernel: [30414.252246] EXT3-fs warning (device sda1): ext3_block_to_path: block < 0
Jul 31 05:04:17 T217 kernel: [30414.252246] EXT3-fs warning (device sda1): ext3_block_to_path: block < 0

So what does it mean? This is uname -a:

Linux T217 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Wed Jan 12 03:40:32 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

This issue started ~month ago. The soft running by cron is something like torrent client.

ext3

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    As @poige and @Pawel said, you most likely have a corrupted filesystem and you need to somehow fix it.

    HOWEVER, if you have anything important stored on your disk, DO NOT just blindly run fsck. Before proceeding make sure you have decent backups and copy all the data from your disk to a brand new hard drive.

    Such errors causing freezes do not just appear out of the blue; it might very well be your HD is dying and fsck would make more harm than good.

    • 3

  2. I see two possibilities:

    1. You have corrupted filesystem. Unmount it and run fsck on it.
    2. You have hit a bug in ext3.

    Of the two the first is much more probable.

    • 1