/c: unmount pending error: blocks -68512 files 0

[Craig Boston]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2006 at 07:39:55PM -0600, Matthew D. Fuller wrote:
> I have most of my fs's mounted read-only (including things like / and
> /usr/ports and such) which I'm often mount -u'ing to r/w and back.  I
> see a similar error often ("kernel: /: update error: blocks 20 files
> 1" is the most recent I see in messages)if I don't take special care
> to sync sync sync and/or wait a while after using it before mount
> -u'ing it.  It's been happening for a while, back to even before mount
> -u started blowing up with EFAULT.

I've been seeing this as well -- on a system with flash memory for its
configuration (/config).  /etc is a malloc-backed md.  Periodically a
script runs that compares /etc to /config; if any changes are detected
/config is remounted read-write and the changes sycned over, then it is
remounted read-only (all done with mount -u).  This way power can be cut
at any time with a very low risk of the filesystems being dirty.

When I moved it from 5.x to 6.x I started seeing the "update error"
messages when it was remounted read-only, and if I ran fsck it would
find problems.  I ended up having to modify the script to unmount
/config completely and then mount it read-only...

I don't think it's quite the same as Kris's problem though as I've never
seen it with a negative number.

Craig