Corrupt SD-card on embedded linux

Question

I'm working on an EmbeddedArm TS-7553 ARM device, running a 2.6.24 Linux.
I'm developing on an Ubuntu 14.04 32bit virtual VirtualBux guest.

I downloaded their SD-card image (2gbsd-noeclipse-mar292017.dd), constructed of 3 partitions.
Writing the image (with dd) works fine, no visible errors.

I then update the ext3 filesystem:
1. I loop-mount the FS partition:

  sudo mount -orw,loop,offset=$((24260*512)) ./Image.dd ./FS

2. I update the FS (copying a bunch of dirs and files, adding symlinks)
3. I umount the partition

I then dd the updated image to the SD-card and boot the embedded device:

• dmesg shows errors:

  EXT3-fs error (device nbd9): htree_dirblock_to_tree: bad entry in directory #10056: rec_len % 4 != 0 - offset=8192, inode=1838169323, rec_len=25707, name_len=111
  

• Files are missing (mawk, in /usr/bin/, for example)

This behavior is constant, after many attempts...
If I insert the SD-card to my Ubuntu - the missing mawk file exists...

Thanks

Answer 1

Turns out I had a legacy call to a built-in utility (sdctl -P) too early in my startup script. Removing the call fixed the issue.