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Pranav
Asked: 2019-08-28 03:54:13 +0800 CST

How to get out of Readonly FileSystem?

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I tried many things, but by the end of the week, I will be in this situation again. I am a dual boot user (Windows 10 Pro & Ubuntu 19.04). I keep both OS up to date. Unlike Windows which is very slow but stable, this distro which is very fast but not-so-stable crashes a lot.

What I do to get out of this situation are:

  • Use live Ubuntu 19.04 bootable pen drive, open Gparted and check for errors
    on sda6 and sda8. Leaving swap partition (sda7) alone.

  • Sometimes I use these two commands from live ubuntu:

    sudo fsck.ext4 -f /dev/sda6

    sudo fsck.ext4 -f /dev/sda8

where sda6 is my root partition and sda5 is my home partition.

  • I also did this from Grub > Recovery Mode > Root shell
   mount -n -o remount, rw /
   touch /forcefsck
   shutdown -r now

All answers attempts were done after observing suggestion from askubuntu and ubuntuforms.org. Help me get through this. I have tried many things. If there are other mechanisms let me know.

Note: Just to be clear, the fast boot is disabled in Window OS.

Some information asked by the users in comments which can help my case:

pranav@Inspi5548:~$ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for pranav: 
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop1: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop2: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop3: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop4: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop5: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop6: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop7: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="Recovery" UUID="EAD20314D202E4A3" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Ba" PARTUUID="aa5a9347-3807-406c-8a85-df356eb9be93"
/dev/sda2: UUID="8A05-F7D6" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="ee306771-48e7-4deb-9c8b-a23c5f0a9dc2"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="New Volume" UUID="E0E07C6CE07C4B34" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="f933de5f-d72a-48c0-918c-b1915e9700f2"
/dev/sda4: UUID="D8FA2AC3FA2A9DAE" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="33885b82-b903-4ee7-9d91-8192f00f2209"
/dev/sda5: UUID="B4D0303ED030095E" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="2d245ea3-510c-41af-825a-4f2f1608275b"
/dev/sda6: UUID="c8e65428-6dea-4e9d-b3b0-370820a1a210" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="978bac65-22b0-429b-8bb9-36e97e0754a1"
/dev/sda8: UUID="a54711ee-4373-4a1b-8d06-d0f29aca9a6b" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="3f5e0e3c-1884-4597-bdf2-6496941b4fd1"
/dev/loop8: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop9: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop10: TYPE="squashfs"

pranav@Inspi5548:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=c8e65428-6dea-4e9d-b3b0-370820a1a210 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation
#UUID=8A05-F7D6  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# /home was on /dev/sda8 during installation
UUID=a54711ee-4373-4a1b-8d06-d0f29aca9a6b /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=1ad69fff-0367-4131-b0a2-839fd5b3846f none            swap    sw              0       0
#UUID=a54711ee-4373-4a1b-8d06-d0f29aca9a6b  /boot   ext4defaults    0   2
UUID=8A05-F7D6  /boot/efi   vfat    defaults    0   1

pranav@Inspi5548:~$ ls -al ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
total 36
drwxrwxr-x 9 pranav pranav 4096 Aug 22 12:54 .
drwx------ 3 pranav pranav 4096 Aug 29 16:02 ..
drwxrwxr-x 5 pranav pranav 4096 Jul 29 16:39 [email protected]
drwxrwxr-x 5 pranav pranav 4096 Aug  4 22:56 [email protected]
drwxrwxr-x 4 pranav pranav 4096 Jul 29 16:24 desktop-icons@csoriano
drwxrwxr-x 6 pranav pranav 4096 Aug 11 15:26 [email protected]
drwxrwxr-x 2 pranav pranav 4096 Jul 29 21:33 [email protected]
drwxrwxr-x 2 pranav pranav 4096 Aug 22 12:54 [email protected]
drwxrwxr-x 4 pranav pranav 4096 Jul 29 16:46 [email protected]

This screenshot from Disks "SMART Data & Self-Test" window, and this screenshot from gparted application. Both were taken from Live Ubuntu 19.04.

Note, I have used # to comment in multiple places in /etc/fstab to resolve the issue, and this is the output after that event.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="Recovery" UUID="EAD20314D202E4A3" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Ba" PARTUUID="aa5a9347-3807-406c-8a85-df356eb9be93"
/dev/sda2: UUID="8A05-F7D6" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="ee306771-48e7-4deb-9c8b-a23c5f0a9dc2"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="New Volume" UUID="E0E07C6CE07C4B34" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="f933de5f-d72a-48c0-918c-b1915e9700f2"
/dev/sda4: UUID="D8FA2AC3FA2A9DAE" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="33885b82-b903-4ee7-9d91-8192f00f2209"
/dev/sda5: UUID="B4D0303ED030095E" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="2d245ea3-510c-41af-825a-4f2f1608275b"
/dev/sda6: UUID="c8e65428-6dea-4e9d-b3b0-370820a1a210" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="978bac65-22b0-429b-8bb9-36e97e0754a1"
/dev/sda8: UUID="a54711ee-4373-4a1b-8d06-d0f29aca9a6b" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="3f5e0e3c-1884-4597-bdf2-6496941b4fd1"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="UBUNTU 19_0" UUID="15E4-2844" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="Microsoft Basic Data" PARTUUID="5c3b9d59-eab7-47c5-85c0-55654f42445a"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop1: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop2: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop3: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop4: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop5: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop6: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop7: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop8: TYPE="squashfs"
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
filesystem dual-boot fsck read-only 19.04

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    There may be more than one problem here.

    First, your swap partition is missing. /etc/fstab shows:

    # swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=1ad69fff-0367-4131-b0a2-839fd5b3846f none            swap    sw              0       0

    The system is trying to mount the swap partition, and not finding it. Did you delete /dev/sda7, or change to a /swapfile?

    Second, you may have a GNOME extension problem. I see multiple extensions that may be causing problems. You'll want to temporarily disable ALL extensions, run the computer for a while, and see if some of the problems go away. Then re-enable one at a time, and see if problems return. Possible suspects are Dash to Dock, GS Connect, and Status Area Horiz Spacing. See https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ to disable/enable them.

    Update #1:

    Your problem is with /dev/sda7, the swap partition, and that's why you're having problems.

    So first, lets edit /etc/fstab and change this:

    # swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=1ad69fff-0367-4131-b0a2-839fd5b3846f none            swap    sw              0       0

    to this:

    # swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
# UUID=1ad69fff-0367-4131-b0a2-839fd5b3846f none            swap    sw              0       0

    Then you should probably be able to boot. We'll start to fix /dev/sda7 with the next Update.

    In the terminal, type:

    reboot

    Update #2:

    In the terminal type:

    sudo swapoff -a

    Then we'll bad block /dev/sda7. This may fail, due to the nature of the failure in /dev/sda7. If it does work, we'll still have to recreate this partition, and then edit /etc/fstab.

    Note: do NOT abort a bad block scan!

Note: do NOT bad block a SSD

Note: backup your important files FIRST!

Note: this will take many hours

    Boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB.

    In terminal...

    sudo e2fsck -fcky /dev/sda7 # read-only test

    or

    sudo e2fsck -fccky /dev/sda7 # non-destructive read/write test (recommended)

    The -k is important, because it saves the previous bad block table, and adds any new bad blocks to that table. Without -k, you loose all of the prior bad block information.

    The -fccky parameter...

       -f     Force checking even if the file system seems clean.

   -c     This option causes e2fsck to use badblocks(8) program  to  do  a
          read-only  scan  of  the device in order to find any bad blocks.
          If any bad blocks are found, they are added  to  the  bad  block
          inode  to  prevent them from being allocated to a file or direc‐
          tory.  If this option is specified twice,  then  the  bad  block
          scan will be done using a non-destructive read-write test.

   -k     When combined with the -c option, any existing bad blocks in the
          bad blocks list are preserved, and any new bad blocks  found  by
          running  badblocks(8)  will  be added to the existing bad blocks
          list.

   -y     Assume  an answer of `yes' to all questions; allows e2fsck to be
          used non-interactively.  This option may not be specified at the
          same time as the -n or -p options.

    Update #3:

    Note: you may have a failing HDD...

    • boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB

      • sudo fsck -f /dev/sda6

      • sudo fsck -f /dev/sda8

    • boot to the HDD, even if it's in emergency mode

    • do Update #1 again

    • also remove the extra mounts that you've added to /etc/fstab

    • using gparted, swapoff /dev/sda7, delete /dev/sda7, and create a new ext4 partition on /dev/sda7

    • sudo fsck -f /dev/sda7

    • sudo blkid should now show /dev/sda7, if not, then STOP, and consult with me

    • do Update #2 again, but this way...

      • boot to the Ubuntu Live DVD/USB

      • sudo e2fsck -fccky /dev/sda7

      • sudo e2fsck -fccky /dev/sda6

      • sudo e2fsck -fccky /dev/sda8

    • using gparted, delete the ext4 partition /dev/sda7, and create a new linux-swap partition at /dev/sda7, and swapon /dev/sda7... if this step fails, then STOP, and consult with me

    • reboot

    • sudo blkid | grep swap and get the new UUID and edit that into /etc/fstab, also uncomment that same line

    • reboot

    Update #4:

    All the work has been done, and the system is running right now... however, the HDD is failing, and needs to be replaced.

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