Everyone must be little annoyed seeing this disk check happening every 30 systems boots. There is a tool called AutoFsck which automates periodic disk checking, so that it no longer bothers the user after certain number of times. This has a graphical user interface, wherein you can set the no of boots, schedule disk check.
AutoFsck ensures that the automatic disk check will no longer inconvenience you by making your boot times very long.
How does AutoFsck work?
It’s really quite simple, every time you shut down, AutoFsck finds information on your disks. Every linux partition has two important number associated with it, one is the number of times it has been mounted, the other is the number of times it is allowed to before being checked. AutoFsck looks at these, and if your drives are due for checking it asks if you want to check them. If you say yes, your drives are checked before your computer shuts down. If you say no, AutoFsck will ensure that the check will not run next time your computer boots. You will then be prompted again the next time you shut down.
NOTE – AutoFsck is not dangerous, it does not stop fsck from running if the filesystem in question is flagged as unclean during boot.
Installing AutoFsck
Installing AutoFsck v3.2 is easy – you can install over the top of AutoFsck 2.0 or later:
- Download the archive from the link above.
- Either select ‘open’ from the download dialogue, or save the file and then double click it.
- When gdebi (the graphical .deb install manager) opens, click the ‘install’ button to install the package.
- Note that during the install, the terminal window in gdebi may ask whether you want to keep your version, or use the new version of the configuration file autofsckrc, it is recommended that you keep your version.
- If you want to remove Autofsck at any time, use synaptic (System –> Administration –> Synaptic Package Manager) to remove the package ‘autofsck’.
AutoFsck is located in system > administration > periodic disk checking
