Hi,

For some reason, my linuxbox config went bad and I got in trouble with linux kernel module ncpfs. Most amazingly, I never used that module before !!
Now, it is highly disturbing when I run 'depmod -a' or instance.
It seems I can't get modules vfat, ip_tables... loaded because ncpfs won't get loaded before.

I do not care about ncpfs, so I tried to remove that module. More amazingly, I can't, even as root in single user mode !! I started ksyms, and didn't see any log about ncpfs, nor is there any /proc/ncpfs running. Of course, no ncpfs in lsmod output either.

So my question is : how do I get rid of this !?!,! ncpfs socket ?

thanks
christophe27@gmx.net

-----

outputs :

christophe27@localhost /]$ /sbin/depmod -a
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/fs/ncpfs: Value too large for defined data type
depmod: Can't open /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/modules.dep for writing

christophe27@localhost /] /sbin/ksyms | grep ncpfs
(nothing)

[root@localhost fs]# rm ncpfs
rm: détruire socket `ncpfs'? y
rm: ne peut enlever `ncpfs': Opération non permise

[root@localhost fs]# ll ncpfs
s-wsrwsrwT 32767 60927 60415 3623878639 nov 28 00:01 ncpf

i think this has nothing to do with ncpfs itself, smells like a filesystem or kernel error (apparently stat bits are random). I would proceed this way:
1) make a backup of important data and config files
2) did you recently upgraded file-utils? maybe you got a versioning problem?
3) run a fsck --force on the filesystem (better if u can boot from a cd so that it's not mounted)
4) if this does not solve the problem, you may even want to export your current package list and config files and nuke the system. Imo you may have something worse than a corrupted file.
Let me know

Hi,

I did 1 and 3. I don't think I would need an update for file-utils. My system is based on a new RH9.
nothing special happened for fsck. Actually I got all ext3 flesystems monted and clean. Only that when modprobe analyses the accessible modules, it runs into an error (it can't analyse this socket file). So module vfat is not availabe and then the other file systems can't get mounted.

Before cloning my system, I tried a last chance operation. I used a windows based prog to acces my ext3 filesystem and deleted the socket. And it worked...
(was I very lucky in your opinion ?:-)

I have no opinion what has happened and why this ncpfs socket was created. I never used ncp...

Christophe27

Don't know what to say... I still think that looked more like a filesystem anomaly than like a real socket. Imho those permissions and owners made no sense. Here's how my looks like:
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2003-10-05 22:24 /lib/modules/2.4.22-1-686/kernel/fs/ncpfs

Now to the point: what shall you do? If you use it for business, or have important data, I would reinstall RH nonetheless, there may have been a random memory error (rare, but possible) during install, so you might find yourself in trouble without knowing why.
If you only use it for browsing, home mail, and similar stuff, simply remember your regular data backups
best wishes
Alessandro