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Description of problem: After an improper shutdown in a server of a client of mine, /boot and / filesystems were not properly unmounted. On system boot we get: Your system appears to have shut down uncleanly Press Y within 1 seconds to force file system integrity check... Our client didn't press anything. The system didn't do an fsck. It tried to boot and failed. Our client pressed [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DEL]. The system performed a reboot and on that second boot, everything seemed OK. The server started operating again for some time. After a while the / filesystem became completely inconsist and we have to bring it back from a backup. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): RHEL6.1 How reproducible: The above situation happened due to a combination of a power failure and a malfunctioning UPS. Steps to Reproduce: 1. On a RHEL server, press the 'reset' (hardware) button. 2. During the reboot, DO NOT press 'Y'. 3. Make a second (proper) reboot. 4. All filesystems are now seem to be OK! 5. A filesystem inconsystency is possible to happen rigth ahead... Actual results: A filesystem inconsystency is possible to happen quite soon. Expected results: The OS should have started a filesystem check and ask user only for a modification. Additional info: We had come across exactly the same issue in RHEL4, some years ago. We believe that /etc/sysconfig/autofsck file with parameteres like AUTOFSCK_DEF_CHECK=yes and AUTOFSCK_TIMEOUT=<some_time> should be the default in RHEL installation.
We do not force a check on unclean shutdown - we let fsck replay the journal when necessary. This has been the default in RHEL 4/5/6, and is not going to change in a minor release. As you note, this can be done with configuration.