Checking disk drives for errors at every boot

[Pascalio]

Ubuntu 12.04

util-linux 2.20.1-1ubuntu3

At absolutely every boot, fsck starts a disk drive check, causing a long wait with the message checking disk drives for errors. No error is found though, and the preceding shutdown is done regularly. Whether you let the check finish or cancel it, it will invariably keep coming up in the next boot.
I've tried tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 [My boot drive], no difference. However, if I check with tune2fs -l , I see the command has worked fine though.
I checked my boot partition from a live boot session with tune2fs -l, without mounting the partition of course, and saw that the filesystem state was set "not clean", whereas it wasn't mounted, which I guess is not normal and may be the cause for the needless systematic disk drive check. So, could the problem be when 12.04 unmounts the boot partition at shutdown?
Many have the same issue and you can have a look at this forum thread : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1973178

This seems hugely obvious however I can't see it's been reported...

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[Pascalio (pascalio432)]

Well, I've tried mounting and then unmounting my filesystem from an earlier Ubuntu, and it stays "not clean" even unmounted. So, you can forget my attempt to diagnose the problem. I'll guess the concerned package is util-linux where we find fsck.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Luca (edmund-1)]

I see a similar problem running 32 bit ubuntu 12.04. I am using a 4GB compact flash card as my root drive. When I do a dumpe2fs /dev/sda1 I see FIlesystem state: not clean. The motherboard is zotac itx. I can provide more details if needed.

[Natalie Roque (nathalieroque)]

I have the same issue in 32 bit ubuntu 12.04, it keeps checking for disk errors every time it boots.

[JoeGreen (hrb)]

Made installations on 2 different systems and both are affected by this problem: On Intel i3-2120 Sandy Bridge a dual boot Precise / Win7 (64 bit) and on an older Intel Pentium IV Northwood a dual boot Precise /WinXP (32 bit). Both keep checking for disk errors every time they boot.

[Vince O'Farrell (vof)]

After upgrading from 11.10 to 12.04 Precise, I too suffered from the unclean-shutdown->disk-check-on-every-startup problem. I found the cause of my problem last week thanks to info from the various posts below. I am reporting it here in case it is relevant.

At first, I guessed that Network Manager was to blame, especially since I am also having problems with a hang at shutdown which I suspect is to do with unmounting some CIFS shares. NM however was not the cause but in following the advice in this bug report
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/963106
I added some diagnostic logging to the /etc/init.d/umountroot script as described in message #5.

This showed that plymouthd was still running at the time it should have terminated and this led me to this posting
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2008576
which in turn led me to
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+bug/1019347

I followed the suggestion in comment #7 of bug 1019347 and added the line
/bin/plymouth quit
to the /etc/init.d/umountroot script just before root is remounted read-only. (This is the same point that the diagnostic logging described in 963106 had been inserted.)

Result: clean shutdowns and no more disk checks on each and every start.

Now, it must be said that there are other candidates for the cause of this problem and it is worth looking at these too if you find that plymouthd is behaving itself on your system. One that was relevant to me is ensuring you use the latest Nvidia driver if you use proprietary Nvidia graphics in your system. Google for
12.04 nvidia shutdown
to find lots of reports. I upgraded to the latest Nvidia driver but the unclean shutdown continued until I fixed the plymouthd problem.

[JoeGreen (hrb)]

Updated both of my systems today and it looks as if the problem is gone now: thank you Vince, I think it must have been your input that made this happen.

Regards, Joe

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Is anyone else still having this problem?

[Francisco (editoria-francisco)]

Like Natalie (#5), I have the same issue in 32 bit ubuntu 13.10, it keeps checking for disk errors every time it boots.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Can you post the output of tune2fs -l on the volume?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for util-linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]