Comment 34 for bug 1215513

Hello Dan,

Thank you for your response. I find it somewhat amusing, since I do not use zram0, or the zram system AT ALL on my server. I manually partition the drive, (pretty much since I first started using Linux in the early to mid 1990's), and manually configure a SWAP partition on it (using file type 82). There never was a swap partition on zram0. My concern was finding the buffer I/O errors on my console for the first time (and then seeing them repeated on my text root console (the only thing I trusted, running on what appeared to be a badly broken Server).

In my first comment, I responded to the error message by entering "fdisk /dev/ram0", followed by "p", which showed it to never being partitioned, or anything (like a SWAP partition) being defined. So it LOOKS like I was never in danger of bug #1215513, but only experiencing the messages, noted in But #1217189. I'll add a message on that Bug, saying that, some way or another, the error messages still appear after "fix" of #1215513, which can CERTAINLY alarm production Linux administrators anywhere, and cause loss of money in any case where the Server is anything but something assisting non-profit volunteer work, where they can be told they need to be patient and wait for their services. (Actually, due to an early message by dac922, I was able to disable zram services on a system that has no intention of using them).

Obviously, what happened was that the Kernel 3.8 work, IMPLEMENTING zram0 swap was "back-ported" to the 3.2 Kernel tree, somewhere <= vmlinuz-3.2.0-53-generic-pae!!! :-O

Remember, my system is Ubuntu 12.0.4 LTS Server, which, in my opinion is not in any condition for "stray zram swap" creation! Fortunately, somebody ported the package zram-config to 12.0.4, allowing me to get it, which, in effect PERMANENTLY DISABLES the zram0 processes, because they fail, during the install of zram-config, allowing "apt-get upgrade" to state that it was not successful in the "install" of this package.

So I suggest that somebody on this forum (again, I'm too busy administering Linux to normally submit fixes!) put some of this text in some "FAQ file" somewhere, IN CASE somebody ELSE with Ubuntu 12.0.4 complains about the Bug #1217189 Buffer I/O Error Message.

Forgive my dry humor in this post. As a Linux admin, I'm trained to "roll with the punches" and to consider the humor of life on Planet Earth (and, forgive me for adding) the political system in the USA!!! :-)

And this post will now be "cross posted" to Bug #1217189 with a STRONG suggestion that it NOT BE CLOSED as long as people are going to complain about the Buffer I/O Error messages.

Thank you and best regards,

Kenneth Parker, Seattle, WA

-- I'm a Troubleshooter. I look for Trouble and Shoot It! :-)