Solved [UFS] How to get rid of journaling?

Chris_H

Chris_H

Greetings, all.

I just finished a fresh install on bare metal. I apparently missed the options on one of the slices, and now I find it is journaled. :(

This really sucks. Because as I understand it - having just now finished building, and installing world, and kernel - I can't use dump(8) to preserve a finely tuned, virgin install. What kind of bone-headed person would make journaling the default? Sure, I should have been more careful. Which makes my move bone-headed. But why should a user be put in a situation that barely leaves them any recourse if something goes wrong? That's just wrong. Is there any salvation? Am I really stuck starting this whole process over again?

Thank you for all your time, and consideration.

--Chris
 
Read the tunefs() man page for details on enabling/disabling journaling. Depending on which filesystem you have to edit, you may need to boot off an mfsBSD (or other bootable rescue disk) CD/USB stick. I don't think you can change that on a running/mounted filesystem.
 
Thanks phoenix.

I'm guessing (hoping) I can pull it off in single user mode. But no matter. Either way, I'll just be happy to remove it. :)

Thanks again, phoenix!

--Chris

UPDATE: For those who might be curious: the switch for tunefs(8) to fix this is the -J switch. It is also possible to perform this in single user mode provided you don't have to mount the slice that has gjournaling enabled. :)
 
Chris_H said:
What kind of bone-headed person would make journaling the default?
Click to expand...

People who are hoping their servers will not have a long delay before they come back up after a power failure. (Yes, that brings up several other questions.)

Is there any salvation?
Click to expand...

Sure. Boot in single user mode, or from another system like mfsBSD. Use tunefs(8) to disable it, delete the journal file, and it's done.
 
Well, whether booting to Live CD, or single user, the file .sujournal can't be deleted. I did use tunefs -J disable /dev/ada0p1. It indicated
Code: 
gjournal remains unchanged as disabled
But all attempts to delete the file fail. Even chflags noschg /.sujournal doesn't help. :(

--Chris
 
You need to disable soft update journaling -- note the abbreviation su in sujournal, it is not gjournal.

tunefs -j disable /dev/ada0p1
 
Thanks for the reply, obsigna.

But my bad. I had already specified the -J flag to tunefs(8). But when issuing the chflags(1) to /.sujournal, I neglected to use 0. In other words, I needed to do: chflage -v 0 /.sujournal. :p Really. I should know better, by now! Aak.

Thanks again, for the reply, obsigna
--Chris
 
Be careful, capital -J is for gjournal, you need to use the lowercase -j in said command.

If you managed to delete somehow /.sujournal and soft update journaling would be still active, then the system might respond undesirably.
 
Right you are, obsigna. I just discovered that. That's one for the logs. So is: 'never EVER use "guided partitioning". Always use "expert" mode.' :p

Thanks, obsigna, for the thoughtful (insightful?) reply. :)

--Chris
 
Chris_H said:
'never EVER use "guided partitioning". Always use "expert" mode.' :p
Click to expand...
Nah, for people who are new to FreeBSD the defaults are quite reasonable. Besides, if you really want to be in control of the installation, select "Live CD" and do everything manually from the prompt: gpart, newfs, glabel, GELI, what have you. That's how I usually do it anyway :rolleyes:
 
fonz said:
Nah, for people who are new to FreeBSD the defaults are quite reasonable. Besides, if you really want to be in control of the installation, select "Live CD" and do everything manually from the prompt: gpart, newfs, glabel, GELI, what have you. That's how I usually do it anyway :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Right you are, fonz!

And that is exactly what I do, when installing the dump(8)s to the production servers. But I made the bone-headed choice to use "Guided" partitioning, and paid the price. I deserved it, and it will (hopefully) keep me from doing it again. No promises. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the dart. I deserved it. :)

All the best, fonz.

--Chris
 
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