Ext4 constantly mounts as read-only

read-only fsck ext4

19,656

Solution 1

It would be wise to ensure your data is backed up as you could have drive failure creeping up on you.

The fact it repeatedly happens under normal conditions suggests a hardware issue. Harddrives are known to fail.

If you are running the main edition of Ubuntu, it includes a great tool called Disks from Gnome (search from the launcher to access it).

You can select your drive on the left and then if you click on the gear icon at the top right hand side, you will get a menu and you can select "smart data and tests". From there you can run smart tests ("start self-test..." button at the bottom left hand side), I suggest the extended option to initiate a thorough test of the drive.

Disks

Solution 2

Backup your data and change your HD soon because you might experience a serious data loss.
After the backup, you can force the HD to use the default settings (and always be read-write) by editing /etc/fstab with the command sudo nano /etc/fstab: in the fourth colon of the root filesystem entry replace the error option with the defaults option.
Example (from my PC):
UUID=fa7667f8-e8a4-44d9-8e51-92fb2496c8c1 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
...edit it to: UUID=fa7667f8-e8a4-44d9-8e51-92fb2496c8c1 / ext4 defaults 0 1
It is not a good practice and if your HD is really damaged you might cause more damage when you (or your software) write to it, this is the reason of the original errors=remount-ro in fstab file.
Backup your fstab file before doing any change and NEVER copy-paste anything to it, only edit manually.
The basic guide to fstab file (for your personal knowledge): man fstab
A full guide is online, but isn't file-system independent and might change in the time; you can use it if the defaults option doesn't work.
A suggestion is to enable the S.M.A.R.T. technology in your BIOS if you have it, because it will enable you to see with a good anticipation the state of your HD (it can save your work!) with specific software.
Sorry for the bad news but it happened also to me some time ago, it's a bad feeling.

Solution 3

Just to update anyone who cares, I decided to replace the HD, and copy as much of my data as possible. I am having trouble getting the copied Windows partition to boot, but that's another story for another site.

Anyway, I guess that pretty much solves the mystery. Thanks for your suggestions.

19,656

TSJNachos117

I've been using both Ubuntu and Linux Mint since April 2013. I may not know too much in general about GNU/Linux at the time of writing this, but I learn more everyday. I'm a long-time Windows nerd, growing up with Windows 98, and learning other Windows versions as I go, even if it means doing so through Betas. However, my movement to GNU/Linux has been largely due to Microsoft's bad decision making strategies as of late. Ever since that long gap between the release of XP and Vista, I've found myself wondering "What were they thinking?" Now, I've come to see them as a threat to the computer industry, itself. I've also learned just how restrictive Microsoft's licensing can be, allowing only a handful of PC's to run a certain license/copy of Windows (or many of Microsoft's other products), while using short-sighted "anti-piracy" DRM-oriented tactics to enforce this, often at the frustration and expense of their own paying customers. As we all know Linux distros like Ubuntu are different, in that they are meant to be free, and not just to use... free to distribute, study, and modify, allowing it's users to use the software to its maximum potential. That, I assume, is why the world's 10 fastest super computers run some form of Linux. Thanks, Torvalds, FSF, and Richard Stallman, for granting us the freedoms that Microsoft may never allow us to have....

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

TSJNachos117 over 1 year
I'm at a complete loss, here. After only using my computer for short periods of time (often less than a minute), my root partition (Ext 4, /dev/sda5) become read-only without warning. This happens constantly, and I'm not sure why. I'm really hoping not to have to do a fresh install.

I've tried rebooting, but the routine fsck that Ubuntu performs during boot fails to fix the partition. If I either let it boot and press M to manually recover, or boot in recovery mode and use a root terminal, I can usually fix the issue using fsck -f -v -y /dev/sda5. It's worth noting that I've also tried using a live USB stick (with Linux Mint on it), and running fsck from there. Also, I used the old version of Pared Magic that comes with version 15.0 of Hiren's Boot CD.

However, the issue rears it's ugly head almost instantly when I reboot, regardless of how I run fsck. I even went so far as to reinstall some ext2/3/4 packages from the terminal: sudo apt-get install --reinstall e2fslibs e2fsprogs && sudo reboot. Still no dice. I have also tried booting into multiple kernel versions, each gave me the same issue.

This particular computer running Ubuntu 13.04, 32-bit version.

Here's a the exact info bash displayed during of one of my attempts at fixing the partition using Linux Mint:
```
#fsck /dev/sda5 -y -v
fsck from util-linux 2.20.1
e2fsck 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012)
Freedom contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Deleted inode 1324553 has zero dtime.  Fix? yes

Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found.  Fix? yes

Inode 1324554 was part of the orphaned inode list.  FIXED.
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Block bitmap differences:  -(11474858--11474863) -(11519854--11519861)
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong for group #350 (25342, counted=25348).
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong for group #351 (27260, counted=27268).
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong (8929729, counted=8929743).
Fix? yes

Inode bitmap differences:  -(1324553--1324554)
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong for group #162 (5151, counted=5153).
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong (3000124, counted=3000126).
Fix? yes


Freedom: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

      392914 inodes used (11.58%, out of 3393040)
        2999 non-contiguous files (0.8%)
     676 non-contiguous directories (0.2%)
         # of inodes with ind/dind/tind blocks: 7328/467/0
         Extent depth histogram: 208561/63
 4640048 blocks used (34.19%, out of 13569791)
       0 bad blocks
       1 large file

  273494 regular files
   39518 directories
          57 character device files
          25 block device files
           1 fifo
          32 links
       79787 symbolic links (62924 fast symbolic links)
          23 sockets
------------
      392937 files
```
If there's anything I can do to provide more detailed information, please let me know.

update #1: After using Hiren's Boot CD once again, I was able to boot into the "Mini XP" environment and run two disk checking utilities (Victoria, and HD Tune). Victoria gave me some interesting S.M.A.R.T results:

HDTune was a real letdown for me:

The question for me now is, is this an indicator of a hard drive about to die completely?

Update #2: I had previously added some images to this post, but discovered they weren't viewable. However, I've just re-uploaded them to a different website, and re-posted them. Therefore, they should now be visible.
- Panther over 10 years
  
  If this keeps happening, and fsck did not resolve the issue, in my experience you are most likely looking at a hare ware (hard drive) problem. The drive could go at any time, I had one once go for about a year, my last one went a week.
- Braiam over 10 years
  
  When this happens what is the output of mount also check dmesg and I would guess that is the HDD that is falling so a SMART check is always welcomed.
- TSJNachos117 over 10 years
  
  OK, I've added more info about the problem. Too bad it's nothing but bad news.