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corradini riccardo
Asked: 2020-03-21 07:12:16 +0800 CST

"Asking for cache data failed" and "Assuming drive cache: write through" messages after that Ubuntu boot failed

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Today I was using my (old) Compaq laptop where Lubuntu is regularly installed on a partition. Suddenly, it stopped to respond to any inputs, so I (wrongly?) decided to restart the system.

After the logo Lubuntu had shown in the end of the booting process, the screen went black, the line

Stopping System V runlevel compatibility

showed and the two following messages 

Asking for cache data failed

and 

Assuming drive cache: write through

repeatedly appeared. My laptop was stuck there and the operating system did not start.

I have been looking for some advice on the Internet during this afternoon, especially here on askubuntu.com, but it seems sadly that nobody has encountered exactly the same type of error. I am still working on that. If you have any ideas, please reply to this post.

Many Thanks

boot dual-boot lubuntu cache runlevel

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    At last, I managed to solve the problem:

    1. First, I run a Lubuntu live cd and I chose the first option to run Lubuntu without installing it.
    2. Then, I entered in the laptop Lubuntu partition where all folders and files are stored. I just saw that there were no more free space: the partition was completely full.
    3. I tried to delete some useless files to clean the storage, but I discovered that when using a live cd you do not have root permissions to do that. However, I identified some files I could have deleted.
    4. So I restart the system again and, when the error messages appeared, I reached the Terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1.

    5. There, after having entered both username and password of my Lubuntu installation, with the two basic command lines

      cd

      and 

      dir

      I reached the files I wanted to delete;

    6. and I purged them by using

      rm -f filename.extension

      command line.

    7. In the end, I restarted the laptop once again and now the operating system works fine.

    So the problem was "simply" that there was not sufficient free space in Lubuntu partition.

    One question still remains: how is it possible that I run out of space? I am pretty sure that there was some GB of free space. I really do not understand: I didn't download anything nor I created any new files or documents before the laptop froze. Please write below if you have any suggestions.

    I really hope other people with the same problem will find this answer helpful.

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