2.4.20-rc3 ext3 fsck corruption -- tool update warning needed?

[Clemmitt Sigler]

(I'm not subscribed to lkml, please CC: [e-mail] -- Thanks :^)

Hi,

I'd been running 2.4.20-rc3 for two days.  While rebooting it tonight
fsck.ext3 corrupted my / partition during an automatic fsck of the
partition (caused by the maximal mount count being reached).  (I had
backups so I was able to recover :^)  The symptoms were that some files
like /etc/fstab and dirs like /etc/rc2.d disappeared -- not good.

My system is Debian Testing, with Debian e2fsprogs version
1.29+1.30-WIP-0930-1.  I use ext3 partitions with all options set to
the defaults (ordered data mode).  This is an SMP system, in case
that matters.  Please e-mail me for any other details that might help.

I'm wondering if this change between -rc1 and -rc2 might be a factor ->

   <[e-mail]>
           HTREE backwards compatibility patch.

Upon rebooting to 2.4.19 (SMP kernel also), the system did another
auto-fsck.ext3, this time on /usr.  I held my breath, but all went fine.
This seems to me to narrow it down to a kernel/e2fsprogs incompatibility
(but I'm not an expert).

If this is indeed the case, please put a LOUD WARNING in the kernel
notes that some versions of e2fsprogs are incompatible.  HTH.

					Clemmitt Sigler