Re: [LUG] file system has gone read only

[Simon Waters <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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James Keasley wrote:
|
| I suspect the first thing you should do is back up the data in your
| ~ asap, and run fsck on that partition, it might be you harddrive
| going bad, or just having too many errors.
|
| Otherwise it might just be a problem in /etc/fstab or a permissions
| issue, better to be safe than sorry though, eh?

The usual cause is not reading the boot messages carefully enough ;)

The root partition is mounted read-only, then remounted if all is
well. I have had Redhat pause during boot, and me continue without
properly following the instructions on screen, resulting in a
read-only partition.

This also happens if you have forgot the root passwd and need to
hack the shadow file, as some of the emergency boots drop you in a
root shell with the root disk read only - remount is your friend (or
just boot from a Live CD which is probably easier).

Of course your comments on fsck apply. This usually happens if the
disk has failed fsck, and needs some manual intervention, which
might be a bad disk, or poorly timed hitting of the off button.

Also some filesystems these days have a quick journal replay, and a
proper fsck which actually checks things, make sure you get a proper
check.
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