System fails to boot if BIOS date is wrong getting 'file system timestamp is in the future' error.

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Issue

  • The system will fail to boot if the BIOS date (hardware clock) is not close to the timestamp on the file systems. For example, if the BIOS date is older than the system time, then the boot process will drop to a maintenance prompt (same as if the hard disk was corrupted) and fail to boot any further without manual intervention (logging in and settinghwclock). The error message is "file system timestamp is in the future".
  • Is there a kernel or ext4 parameter that will allow the system to ignore this situation and boot up normally (so that the time can be set correctly with a reboot)?

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6
  • Ext filesystem
  • Current BIOS date/time older than last time filesystem was mounted

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