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21

Why has my file-system turned read-only after updates?

rated 0 times [ 21] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 113304 / 3 Years ago, wed, september 22, 2021, 10:19:27

I'm running 11.10 and I applied some updates. After that whenever I use my computer, I can, but only for about 2 or 3 minutes before it becomes read-only. Any sudo command entered gives me the following error.

sudo: Can't open /var/lib/sudo/ryanmcclure/0: Read-only file system

I also use xpad (a sticky note program) and if I edit the notes, there is never a problem until about 4 minutes later when it says that it can't write to a file because the file system is read on.

How do I solve this problem?

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ciousuntru

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3 Years ago

answered 3 Years ago ibuteking · Accepted Answer

It sounds like you may have some file system corruption, possibly caused by a failing hard disk. (Normally this is the only way for the system to spontaneously mark the file system as read-only, to prevent further damage.) Try running:

dmesg | less

And scroll to near the bottom to see if there are errors related to your file system and disk. Look for messages about uncorrectable read or write errors (probably on sda), or file system errors (e.g. messages about ext3 or ext4 errors). If you see anything like these, you should back up any important data right away and then investigate whether the disk itself is failing (in which case you'll need to get a new one), or whether it's just a logical failure (in which case you can probably repair the file system with fsck to fix your problem).