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Chris
Asked: 2009-11-10 01:50:56 +0800 CST

Filesystem has unsupported features: older fsck.ext3 vs newer mkfs.ext3

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For an embedded system I create a filesystem with mkfs.ext3 on a desktop computer. Currently I'm evaluating newer distros for the desktop while the embedded stays the same. When checking the filsystem created with the new distro on the embedded device with fsck.ext3 I get the error "Filesystem has unsupported feature(s)" or "fsck failed (status 0x8)".

How can I find out which features are causing the problem as the error message is not very helpful? Is there a chance to create a filesystem identically to the ones created earlier by using the right switches of mkfs or does it add features I can't turn off?

Thanks, Chris

linux

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can determine the features of an existing ext3 partition by using:

    tune2fs -l <device>

    In order to identify the differences between two filesystems created by your different kernel/e2fsprogs versions I'd suggest formatting a partition on each and comparing the tune2fs output.

    You may then be able to remove the offending features from existing partitions by using:

    debugfs -w <device> -R 'features ^<feature>'

    Alternatively you can disable a given feature at the point which you originally format the FS:

    mkfs.ext3 -O '^<feature>' <device>
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