[ubuntu-uk] Fsck forced on boot up due to date problems after update

[Rob Beard]

Farran Lee wrote:
> Hi Rob
> just had that happen with my laptop.
> Inside is a tiny battery that powers the BIOS memory (or something). My
> laptop is awfully old, and the battery has finally gone flat. This means
> that every time my laptop is disconnected from the mains, it forgets all
> the settings I have made in the BIOS. It complains at me a lot, but I
> have got round it.
> The BIOS (as far as I am aware - I'm only 14, so don't quote me on this)
> manages the system clock as well - consequently, it forgets the time and
> date. Now, when I boot up, it complains that it has not had a system
> check for several thousand days (last time I worked it out, it was over
> 316 years). This obviously cannot be the case! When an error is found on
> the hd and the fsck reaches the end, it normally says something like
> this to me: "Errors found on hda1! Linux is going down for reboot in 5!"
> My guess is that all that needs to be done is to replace the battery. It
> is only a tiny round [lithium-ion?] battery.
> Hope this helped... as I said, I'm only 14, so I could be talking a load
> of rubbish... :P
> Farran
> 

Hi Farran,

Thanks for the suggestion, the battery is fine, it also was running on 
the mains.  The amount of days in question (over 49,700) works out at 
about 163 years, and it said the date was in the future!  (so much for 
the Millenium bug!)

Funny you should mention your age, I first found out about the BIOS 
batteries when I was about 13/14 when I first started learning about the 
hardware side of PCs - I put a password on the BIOS of my dad's PC and 
forgot the password, luckily the technician at my school at the time 
told me how to clear the CMOS :-)

I've installed 7.10 Beta now, I'm actually quite impressed with it apart 
from having to jump through a load of hurdles to get DVD playback 
working (I'm sure it was easier under 7.04 after adding the Medibuntu 
repos).

At least my dad's laptop is working now anyway.  When he gets back from 
his holiday I'll try and do a fresh install of the full version of 
Ubuntu 7.10.

Rob