ext2fs cannot be umounted

[Radek Kozlowski]

On Tue, Oct 12, 2004 at 11:17:41AM +0200, Oliver Fuchs wrote:
> Hi,
> I am using FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE and have compiled my kernel with optinion:
> options		EXT2FS
> 
> In my /etc/fstab I have added:
> /dev/ad0s6		/mnt/debian	ext2fs	rw	0	0
> 
> to mount my debian box.
> 
> everything works fine except one thing:
> Shutting down via shutdown -p now ends up in the message:
> 
> syncing discs, buffer remaining 403938383838383838383
> .....giving up on 38
> 
> This means that FreeBSD is not able to umount/sync the mounted partition
> clearly.
> I have tried in /etc/fstab also the sync option but it ends up with the
> "syncing discs giving up" error message.
> Only if I umount the ext2fs partition gives me a clean shutdown.
> 
> What can be done or how can I force the system to umount ext2fs partition
> before shutting down?

It's a known bug: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=kern/56675

There's a workaround suggested in this thread, which you already seem to
know:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2004-August/035316.html

-Radek