fsck.jfs error due to obsolete jfsutils package: Unrecoverable error writing M to /dev/sdf1. CANNOT CONTINUE.

[Ben]

Binary package hint: jfsutils

Version 1.1.12-2 of fsck.jfs aborted with the message:

  Unrecoverable error writing M to /dev/sdf1. CANNOT CONTINUE.

It was however possible to mount the file system read-only ("mount -oro /dev/sdf1 /mnt/misc").

After investigating, I downloaded and built version 1.1.14 manually, ran jfs_fsck and it finished perfectly, restoring full access to the file system.

Therefore I strongly suggest to take up the latest version of jfsutils in the mainstream Ubuntu versions. Version 1.1.12 is about two years old and various bugs are fixed that people may run into.

Details:

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.04
Release: 9.04
--
$ uname -srvmpio
Linux 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 x86_64 unknown unknown GNU/Linux
--
$ dpkg-query -s jfsutils
Package: jfsutils
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: admin
Installed-Size: 1112
Maintainer: Ubuntu Core Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 1.1.12-2
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4), libuuid1 (>= 1.15)
Description: utilities for managing the JFS filesystem
 Utilities for managing IBM's Journaled File System (JFS) under Linux.
 .
 IBM's journaled file system technology, currently used in IBM
 enterprise servers, is designed for high-throughput server
 environments, key to running intranet and other high-performance
 e-business file servers.
 .
 The following utilities are available:
 fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the JFS transaction log, and check and repair a
 JFS formatted device.
 logdump - dump a JFS formatted device's journal log.
 logredo - "replay" a JFS formatted device's journal log.
 mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition.
 xchkdmp - dump the contents of a JFS fsck log file created with xchklog.
 xchklog - extract a log from the JFS fsck workspace into a file.
 xpeek - shell-type JFS file system editor.
Original-Maintainer: Stefan Hornburg (Racke) <email address hidden>
Homepage: http://jfs.sourceforge.net/

[JasonPorter (jasonporter)]

This bug was marked "Fix Committed" in 2009 but the current repo packages in all current Ubuntu repos are still 1.1.12, which was last updated in August of 2007.

When will 1.1.14 be published to the repos?

The upstream changelog ( http://jfs.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout*/jfs/jfsutils/NEWS ) shows the following changes:
----------
New in 1.1.14 - 2009-04-06
* Fix journal replay to handle records that span 3 pages
* Increase the maximum inline journal size from 32 MB to 128 MB
* Don't call ioctl(BLKFLSBUF) on a ramdisk. It wipes out everything.
* Fix fsck abort

New in 1.1.13 - 2008-07-17
* Rewrite a confusing error messages
* Improve sanity checking when replaying the journal
* Work around _LARGEFILE_SOURCE not getting defined by autoconf
* Remove unhelpful allocation debug messages
----------