Hello All,

Whenever my debian based server is rebooted 35 times it does an automatic disc check. When it does this and completes the disc check it doesn't properly establish network comms and I can't get in using SSH and I can't even ping the server.

If I reboot again, it operates as normal but the problem is that the server is remote to me and I need to travel to the site when this occurs.

Any help to turn this automatic feature off would be appreciated.

Thanks
Anubis.

Hi All,

I've been to the site and I've noticed that in the boot it shows:

SIOCSIFFLAGS Cannot allocate memory
Failed to bring up eth0

This only occurs when the server has rebooted with the automatic disc check, as soon as I rebooted it again, it proceeded normally and brought up eth0.

I've searched for SIOCSIFFLAGS but not found anything definitive.

Thanks
Anubis.

off hand I am not sure how to stop the process. It sounds like something is amiss and perhaps in addition to looking for a work-around, we could look at why this is happening. I did some searching on this problem and found this this on the ubuntu site, which may be relevant given that it is a debian variant: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/ReleaseNotes

Specifically, look at the part labeled Login screen presented before optional filesystems are mounted. It says that recent versions attempt to complete the core boot process before all the drives are mounted and if there is a problem that this can cause a failure to mount. Without additional details regarding what is happening when your system fails and needs to be rebooted, this sounds like a possibility.

In any case, when this happens, do you get any sort of error message or other piece of information that could explain why you can't login?

(edit: posted before I saw your first reply)

I'd guess, you are using an ext3 file system.

You could use a file system, not behaving that way,
e.g. JFS, ReiserFS.

..

I cannot recommend disabling the boot-time filesystem checks -- they're done for a reason. If you really want to do so, edit /etc/fstab and change the last (sixth) field on each line to "0". (Typically "1" for /, and "2" for other systems to be checked at boot.)

Hi Matir & All,

@Matir,
Thanks for the reply. I would like to keep the fs checking on, but while the network errors on boot, I can't afford it. Is there any reason you could think why I get the "SIOCSIFFLAGS Cannot allocate memory" after a disc check? It seems really strange as it doesn't occur on a normal boot.

@All,
Thanks for your replies and help in solving this issue. I think I'll go with Matir's solution until I find a solve for the nic issue.

Thanks
Anubis.

Run a check of your disks. You will probably need to unmount the drive first and may need to do so from a LiveCD. Rule out this as a potential problem. If there is a disk failure, it could be an indication of problems to come. You should also look at your logs, such as dmesg to see if you are having IO issues with your drive. As I mentioned in my previous post, in modern versions, volumes may not mount if the disk check fails which can cause things like your network interface to not come up. I read this while searching for "SIOCSIFFLAGS Cannot allocate memory".