[SOLVED] Need to reformat ext3 to ext4

chicagocoyote · 07-14-2012, 01:38 PM

Due to the issues listed in my post
"useradd and ext4 issue", I need to reformat
a ext3 partition to ext4. I have multiple backups.

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5 203096536 51573880 141036232 27% /u1

What is the best way to do this? Something like:

umount /u1
/sbin/mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5
/sbin/e2label /dev/sda5 u1

though once I execute the above, do I still need to
edit /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab, and if so, how?
====

I tried gparted (Genome Partition Editor) which I assume
would take care of all the /etc/ files automatically,
but received the message:

= "An error occurred while applying the operations"
=
= Format /dev/sda5 as ext4 00:00:02 ( ERROR )
=
= calibrate /dev/sda5 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )
=
= path: /dev/sda5
= start: 275,723,658
= end: 695,180,744
= size: 419,457,087 (200.01 GiB)
= set partition type on /dev/sda5 00:00:01 ( SUCCESS )
=
= new partition type: ext4
= create new ext4 file system 00:00:01 ( ERROR )
=
= mkfs.ext4 -j -O extent -L "" /dev/sda5
=
= mke2fs 1.42.3 (14-May-2012)
= /dev/sda5 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a
= filesystem here!

Though I don't understand how the filesystem is still in use
as it was unmounted.

Thank you for your help;

whizzit · 07-14-2012, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chicagocoyote

What is the best way to do this? Something like:

Code:

   umount /u1
   /sbin/mkfs.ext4  /dev/sda5
   /sbin/e2label   /dev/sda5  u1

though once I execute the above, do I still need to
edit /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab, and if so, how?

Your commands look fine. Don't worry about /etc/mtab (see the man page for mount to understand why). The file /etc/fstab is a text file - all you should need to do is edit the /dev/sda5 or LABEL=u1 entry, with your favourite text editor, to specify ext4 rather than ext3 as the filesystem.

chicagocoyote · 07-14-2012, 09:33 PM

> Your commands look fine. Don't worry about /etc/mtab (see the man page for
> mount to understand why). The file /etc/fstab is a text file - all you should
> need to do is edit the /dev/sda5 or LABEL=u1 entry, with your favourite text
> editor, to specify ext4 rather than ext3 as the filesystem.

Thanks. Actually, when I execute "/sbin/mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5"
(after unmounting /dev/sda5), I get the message:

/dev/sda5 is apparently in use by the system; will not make
a filesystem here!

What is the issue here?

Do I need to boot off the live CD in order to format a
partition, rather than boot off the OS on the actually
hard disk?

Thanks again;

whizzit · 07-14-2012, 09:53 PM

The error means that the unmount of /u1 didn't complete or /dev/sda5 is not the partition being mounted on /u1. Are you sure sda5 is correct?

Within code blocks, so it gets properly formatted, can you post the outputs of 'mount' and your /etc/fstab file?

chicagocoyote · 07-14-2012, 10:06 PM

> The error means that the unmount of /u1 didn't complete or /dev/sda5 is not the
> partition being mounted on /u1. Are you sure sda5 is correct?

Yes, here is the output of "df":

Code:

Filesystem     1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs          98953540  6095604  91867468   7% /
/dev/sda3       98953540  6095604  91867468   7% /
/dev/sda1        5220716   269912   4688948   6% /boot
/dev/sda5      203096536 51573880 141036232  27% /u1
/dev/sda6      203096536 14710508 177899604   8% /u2
/dev/sda7      203084576 43868332 148730624  23% /u3
/dev/sda8      203096536 10779144 181830968   6% /u4
devtmpfs         1014540        0   1014540   0% /dev
tmpfs            1025436      100   1025336   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs            1025436     1296   1024140   1% /run
tmpfs            1025436        0   1025436   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs            1025436        0   1025436   0% /media

> Within code blocks, so it gets properly formatted, can you post
> the outputs of 'mount'

Code:

proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,seclabel,size=1014540k,nr_inodes=253635,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,seclabel,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel,mode=755)
/dev/sda3 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
selinuxfs on /sys/fs/selinux type selinuxfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,seclabel,mode=755)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,release_agent=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuacct,cpu)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=29,pgrp=1,timeout=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /media type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel,mode=755)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,seclabel)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime,seclabel)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,relatime)
/dev/sda8 on /u4 type ext3 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
/dev/sda6 on /u2 type ext3 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext4 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
/dev/sda7 on /u3 type ext3 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /run/user/generic/gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
/dev/sda5 on /u1 type ext3 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)

> and your /etc/fstab file?

Code:

#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Fri Jul 13 15:42:02 2012
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
#
UUID=b171f170-086f-4b5d-b5ac-f132a6c6bed9 /             ext4    defaults        1 1
UUID=d0b422d3-48ce-4989-9b3e-bc4262b989d1 /boot         ext4    defaults        1 2
UUID=d3374b32-0a42-4d9e-859d-2ce24166e4e6 /u1           ext3    defaults        1 2
UUID=f88caee0-6516-4171-a1c9-551f18613e35 /u2           ext3    defaults        1 2
UUID=4032c16b-9709-4bc7-945d-71882572e3e8 /u3           ext3    defaults        1 2
UUID=4eb59a23-453a-4bc1-9ee2-41f853f593e1 /u4           ext3    defaults        1 2
UUID=76b37a42-2c6b-40fa-9126-80c9841998e3 swap          swap    defaults        0 0

Thank you very much for taking a look.

whizzit · 07-14-2012, 10:16 PM

Thanks.

So /dev/sda5 is still mounted. Maybe a process has open files on /u1 preventing it from being unmounted. You can check with fuser:

Code:

fuser -vm /u1

Anything listed represent processes that need to be stopped before it can be unmounted.

You don't happen to have an Oracle database running at the moment do you?

chicagocoyote · 07-14-2012, 10:32 PM

Oh, those outputs were all with /u1 mounted again. When I execute
"umount /u1", here is the output of "df":

Code:

Filesystem     1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs          98953540  8336020  89627052   9% /
devtmpfs         1014540        0   1014540   0% /dev
/dev/sda1        5220716   269912   4688948   6% /boot
/dev/sda3       98953540  8336020  89627052   9% /
/dev/sda6      203096536 14710508 177899604   8% /u2
/dev/sda7      203084576 43868332 148730624  23% /u3
/dev/sda8      203096536 65735480 126874632  35% /u4
tmpfs            1025436       96   1025340   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs            1025436     1736   1023700   1% /run
tmpfs            1025436        0   1025436   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs            1025436        0   1025436   0% /media

and "mount":

Code:

proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,seclabel,size=1014540k,nr_inodes=253635,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,seclabel,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel,mode=755)
/dev/sda3 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
selinuxfs on /sys/fs/selinux type selinuxfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,seclabel,mode=755)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,release_agent=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuacct,cpu)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=29,pgrp=1,timeout=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /media type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel,mode=755)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,seclabel)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime,seclabel)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,relatime)
/dev/sda8 on /u4 type ext3 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
/dev/sda6 on /u2 type ext3 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext4 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
/dev/sda7 on /u3 type ext3 (rw,relatime,seclabel,data=ordered)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /run/user/generic/gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)

yet still, "/sbin/mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5" yields the message:

Code:

dev/sda5 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!

The output of "fuser -vm /u1" is 158 lines long. Would you
like to see it?

No, I am not running an Oracle database.

Thanks again.

whizzit · 07-15-2012, 06:35 AM

The output of the fuser command would only be useful if it was executed after unmounting /u1.

I am thinking that there will be more success by trying the mkfs in single user mode or from a LiveCD. It would help ensure that nothing is using /dev/sda5.

chicagocoyote · 07-15-2012, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whizzit

The output of the fuser command would only be useful if it was executed after unmounting /u1.

Actually, those 158 lines of output from "fuser -vm /u1"
were with /u1 unmounted. /u1 was no longer in the output
of "df" or "mount".

Quote:

I am thinking that there will be more success by trying the mkfs in single user mode or from a LiveCD. It would help ensure that nothing is using /dev/sda5.

And that is exactly what I did. On to new problems.

My system now boots up in emergency mode:

Code:

Cannot open font file True
Welcome to emergency mode.  Use "systemctl default" or ^D to enter default mode.

Give root password for maintenance (or type Control-D to continue_

When I type root password, all partitions are available except
for /u1 though i _can_ mount /u1 with the command:

Code:

mount -t ext4 /dev/sda5 /mnt/u1_tmp

What do I do now? Is this a grub issue?

The system does not behave as though any partitions were
damaged, all are readable by me.

Thanks again !

P.S. I did edit the /etc/fstab file changing /u1 from
ext3 to ext4:

Code:

# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Fri Jul 13 15:42:02 2012
# 
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
# 
UUID=b171f170-086f-4b5d-b5ac-f132a6c6bed9 /        ext4    defaults        1 1
UUID=d0b422d3-48ce-4989-9b3e-bc4262b989d1 /boot    ext4    defaults        1 2
UUID=d3374b32-0a42-4d9e-859d-2ce24166e4e6 /u1      ext4    defaults        1 2
UUID=f88caee0-6516-4171-a1c9-551f18613e35 /u2      ext3    defaults        1 2
UUID=4032c16b-9709-4bc7-945d-71882572e3e8 /u3      ext3    defaults        1 2
UUID=4eb59a23-453a-4bc1-9ee2-41f853f593e1 /u4      ext3    defaults        1 2
UUID=76b37a42-2c6b-40fa-9126-80c9841998e3 swap     swap    defaults        0 0

What is with those UUID numbers in /etc/fstab? That must be new
as I have never seen
those before.

whizzit · 07-15-2012, 02:34 PM

It's possible the UUID for that partition has now changed but can you post the output before the maintenance mode prompt (?) as there should be some error or indication of why the system entered maintenance mode. Hopefully it's just because it couldn't find the old /u1 partition.

Does the system continue to boot OK when you exit maintenance mode?

The UUIDs can be helpful in situations where disks can be removed or added to a system. sda, sdb etc can get renamed but UUIDs remain the same. Personally I prefer to use LABEL= but it doesn't really matter.

The UUID for /dev/sda5 can be obtained with blkid:

Code:

blkid -s UUID /dev/sda5

chicagocoyote · 07-15-2012, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whizzit

It's possible the UUID for that partition has now
changed but can you post the output before the maintenance mode prompt (?) as
there should be some error or indication of why the system entered maintenance
mode.

The only message that was there long enough for me to read was:
"Cannot open font file True"

Quote:

Hopefully it's just because it couldn't find the old /u1 partition.

Does the system continue to boot OK when you exit maintenance mode?

It does not. The system just goes back into rescue mode.

Quote:

The UUIDs can be helpful in situations where disks can be removed or added to a
system. sda, sdb etc can get renamed but UUIDs remain the same. Personally I
prefer to use LABEL= but it doesn't really matter.

The UUID for /dev/sda5 can be obtained with blkid:

Code:

blkid -s UUID /dev/sda5

And that was the ticket. I used "blkid" to get the ID, edited
/etc/fstab with the new ID, and the system now boots fine!

Thanks !!

whizzit · 07-15-2012, 03:56 PM

Good stuff!

sundialsvcs · 07-16-2012, 10:09 AM

What the heck?!

"ext4" is simply "ext3" with journaling turned on. You don't have to reformat anything. You just turn-on journaling.

whizzit · 07-16-2012, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs

What the heck?!

"ext4" is simply "ext3" with journaling turned on. You don't have to reformat anything. You just turn-on journaling.

I don't think so. Are you thinking of ext2 -> ext3 ?