Is there any command available to initiate an ext4 filesystem check on next boot?

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-force-fsck-on-the-next-reboot-or-boot-sequence/

Quote from prtigger1

raulfg3

Hi, that´s what i found with Google, too...

Did you every try this with OMV

yes, and woks as expected.

OMV is Debian based as O.S.

You'll get a message saying that /forcefsck is deprecated, but I've been seeing that for many years and it still works.

Try

dmesg | grep fsck

Quote from prtigger1

I´m thinking, i´m a little bit stupid!

I had done with root account:

touch /forcefsck

(no output from command)

reboot

I can´t see anything of a forced filecheck in bootlogs (journalctl)...

My boot device (sda1) is coming up 'clean' like every boot....

My intention was to force a check..

May be, it´s not working anymore....

Best regards

prtigger

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Still works for me. I see the checks being performed in the console and below is a snip of a few of them found in the journal:

Mar 18 16:17:33 omv systemd[1]: Starting systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-13aac774\x2d7c10\x2d4725\x2dae0a\x2d744f45aabf69.service - File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/13aac774-7c10-4725-ae0a-744f45aabf69...
Mar 18 16:17:33 omv systemd[1]: Started systemd-fsckd.service - File System Check Daemon to report status.
Mar 18 16:17:34 omv systemd[1]: Starting systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-dd8ff6bf\x2d6680\x2d470f\x2db67c\x2d26401b436fda.service - File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/dd8ff6bf-6680-470f-b67c-26401b436fda...
Mar 18 16:17:34 omv systemd[1]: Starting systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-b06f946f\x2d2818\x2d4cd7\x2da7f3\x2d1340b2b25fe0.service - File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/b06f946f-2818-4cd7-a7f3-1340b2b25fe0...

Quote from prtigger1

[ 11.905445] systemd[1]: systemd-fsck-root.service - File System Check on Root Device was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathExists=!/run/initramfs/fsck-root).

This is what copilot says:

Quote

This message indicates that the File System Check on Root Device was skipped because the condition ConditionPathExists=!/run/initramfs/fsck-root was not met. The ! symbol means "not," so the check is skipped if the file /run/initramfs/fsck-root exists.

This file is typically created during the boot process to indicate that the root filesystem has already been checked. If the file exists, it means the check has already been performed earlier in the boot sequence.

If you want to force a filesystem check on boot, you might need to modify your boot parameters or ensure that the file /run/initramfs/fsck-root does not exist before the check is supposed to run. You can try updating the initramfs or adjusting the boot configuration to achieve this.

It means the fsck was run before the systemd-fsck started and the system was clean.

If it's clean, why do you want to force a fsck?

If you really want to, just use the SystemRescueCD on the kernel plugin and run it while the disks are unmounted.

Quote from Soma

It means the fsck was run before the systemd-fsck started and the system was clean.

prtigger1

If you want to check the last fsck, just run:

sudo cat /run/initramfs/fsck.log

$ sudo ls -al /run/initramfs/
total 4
drwx------  2 root root   80 Feb 24 17:22 .
drwxr-xr-x 35 root root 1180 Mar 18 21:26 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    0 Feb 24 17:22 fsck-root
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  263 Feb 24 17:22 fsck.log


$ sudo cat /run/initramfs/fsck-root


$ sudo cat /run/initramfs/fsck.log
Log of fsck -C -a -V -t ext4 /dev/sdg2
Mon Feb 24 17:22:05 2025


fsck from util-linux 2.38.1
[/sbin/fsck.ext4 (1) -- /dev/sdg2] fsck.ext4 -a -C0 /dev/sdg2
/dev/sdg2: clean, 123097/1798720 files, 1709063/7194112 blocks
Mon Feb 24 17:22:06 2025

My last boot ---^^^^

Quote from prtigger1

I guess, deleting

/run/initramfs/fsck-root

and doing

touch /forcefsck

reboot

may work?!

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Don't think so.

That file is created as a sanity check IIRC.

You need to find info on how to configure initramfs to force the fsck before the sanity check.

I read somewhere this is a feature from Debian 12.

On Debian<=11, the touch /forcefsck always worked without issues