operation not permitted on entropy file

[RW]

On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 12:44:33 +0200
Polytropon wrote:

> Allow me a small additional statement:
> 
> On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 12:31:19 +0200, Roland Smith wrote:
> > If a filesystem isn't dismounted properly (e.g. because of a
> > crash), you should get a warning during the next boot. And the
> > system would run a filesystem check in "preen" mode (see fsck(8)).
> > If it finds serious errors that cannot be repaired in preen mode,
> > you should get an error message.
> 
> The problem is: When you do _not_ have
> 
> 	background_fsck="NO"
> 
> in /etc/rc.conf, all this happens in background, and soon you're
> in XDM and your X session, so you don't get the error message.
> Still the system continues booting and working "normally" for
> the price of "silent" file system corruption.
> 
> In my opinion, this setting should be the default. It's better
> to have a delay in the boot process, or a _stop_ of the boot
> process in case a severe file system damage has been detected.
> I also think it's more important to know about this fact than
> it is to quickly be guided into a "comfortable environment"
> that makes you believe everything is okay, while in fact it
> isn't.
> 
> This kind of operation also makes sure that you can get aware
> of the "please re-run fsck" message in case a second pass is
> required. In the end, you get "file system marked clean", and
> only _now_ you know that things are okay.

It's not quite as bad as that. The background fsck is only intended to
recover lost space. If it encounters an actual error, it marks the
filesystem with a flag that causes a foreground check on the next boot.