Raspberry Pi - Automatic Filesystem Check and Repair at Boot

2021-02-15 Eiko Wagenknecht

Occasionally, the filesystem on a Raspberry Pi (running services like openHAB, Raspberrymatic, or Homebridge) can become damaged. Common causes include power outages or defective SD cards. For minor damage, a simple configuration change can set up automatic filesystem checking and repair during boot.

Table of Contents

• Required Materials
• Instructions
• Conclusion

Required Materials

• Raspberry Pi (e.g., a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM)
• A microSD card suitable for Raspberry Pi, preferably with at least 16GB of storage. From personal experience, I recommend the Samsung PRO Endurance 64GB, after losing five cheaper cards due to read/write errors in 2020.

Instructions

First, connect to your Raspberry Pi via SSH, for example using Putty.

After logging in, open the file /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt with the nano text editor:

sudo nano /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

Then add the parameter fsck.mode=force at the end of the line, separated by a space:

That’s it. From now on, the Raspberry Pi will check and repair the filesystem during every boot, before it gets mounted - of course, only if there’s no severe damage.

Conclusion

This simple change can significantly increase the reliability of your Raspberry Pi, especially when it’s used as a home automation hub or for other permanent applications. The automatic filesystem check and repair at boot can address potential issues early, before they lead to more serious errors.

I welcome your comments on whether this post has been helpful to you. Feel free to write if you have questions or if anything remains unclear. Or share your experiences if you’ve been able to implement exciting automation projects building on this tip.