From trilug at trilug.org  Tue Nov 11 17:34:55 2025
From: trilug at trilug.org (Brian via TriLUG)
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2025 17:34:55 -0500
Subject: [TriLUG] fsck.ext4 vs e2fsck
Message-ID: <71fd49b7-3cf0-479e-8e76-7a684fb3c459@undecidedgames.com>

Here's one I have run out of patience for googling.

I've been working with writing some images to microSD cards. 
Invariably, after data is written, an unqualified "sudo fsck -fy 
/dev/sda1" (not mounted!) spews lots of errors that it claims to fix, 
and then spews and claims to fix the same exact errors when I run it again.

Compare that to running "sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/sda1" which finds no 
errors at all.

Why do they disagree?

I do notice that the two report very different versions:

$ fsck --version
fsck from util-linux 2.33.1
$ sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/sda1   # (e2fsck does not recognize --version)
e2fsck 1.44.5 (15-Dec-2018)


Yeah, very old I know, it's an SBC that doesn't have support with the 
latest and greatest (I tried!).

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has some knowledge they can pass along 
to me.

Thanks!
-Brian

From trilug at trilug.org  Tue Nov 11 17:47:58 2025
From: trilug at trilug.org (Stephen Bryant via TriLUG)
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2025 17:47:58 -0500
Subject: [TriLUG] fsck.ext4 vs e2fsck
In-Reply-To: <71fd49b7-3cf0-479e-8e76-7a684fb3c459@undecidedgames.com>
References: <71fd49b7-3cf0-479e-8e76-7a684fb3c459@undecidedgames.com>
Message-ID: <CAOg=rh_XUNpTX=w6rnbSFk2vvpGjFDV9wvYm7mS+i53ew2BZwQ@mail.gmail.com>

Hey Brian!

If I remember right, `fsck` is just a wrapper than calls the right
filesystem-specific variant (eg. `fsck.ext4`); do you get the same result
when calling the specific variant directly? Also, I imagine you've already
checked this, but - /dev/sda1 on SBCs is usually a vfat boot partition in
my experience, so are you sure it's calling `fsck.ext4`/`e2fsck` and not
`fsck.vfat`?

Hope this is helpful, and good luck!
Stephen
--
Stephen Bryant


On Tue, Nov 11, 2025 at 5:35 PM Brian via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:

> Here's one I have run out of patience for googling.
>
> I've been working with writing some images to microSD cards.
> Invariably, after data is written, an unqualified "sudo fsck -fy
> /dev/sda1" (not mounted!) spews lots of errors that it claims to fix,
> and then spews and claims to fix the same exact errors when I run it again.
>
> Compare that to running "sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/sda1" which finds no
> errors at all.
>
> Why do they disagree?
>
> I do notice that the two report very different versions:
>
> $ fsck --version
> fsck from util-linux 2.33.1
> $ sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/sda1   # (e2fsck does not recognize --version)
> e2fsck 1.44.5 (15-Dec-2018)
>
>
> Yeah, very old I know, it's an SBC that doesn't have support with the
> latest and greatest (I tried!).
>
> Anyway, just wondering if anyone has some knowledge they can pass along
> to me.
>
> Thanks!
> -Brian
> --
> This message was sent to: Stephen Bryant <stephen at stephenbryant.net>
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