Read-Only Problem during Boot

Psikon · 2011-05-13 19:25:13

Hi,

I tried to update my system today, like every week, with the standard command pacman -Syu. After installing all updates, my window manager (gnome3) crashed and i tried to restart my System. After the grub window appeared and I choosed my kernel the normal startup commands are shown until the Arch prompt appeared. The one where Arch Linux tried to start all relevant processes. After that there are only mistakes. All startup processes are busy or failing. The only message i get is, that the filesystem, i think thats the root partition (ext4), is read-only or another error: some files for startup cannot be created because they already exist.
Getting to console is also impossible, because the system tries to start virtualbox additions, with an funny message, that it is busy and tries it again in 5 min (infinity loop). But shidt happens. I have read in another post that I can try another Linux System, mount my root partition and do an

fsck /dev/sda3 -p or -f

. But it says that all is clean (sda3 is root and sda1 is /boot). The filesystem is ext4, so i tried also fsck.ext4, but it also say all is clean.

After another boot i stoped at the position, where the fist error occur.

Mounting Local Filesystems
/etc/rc.sysinit: line 285: /etc/mtab: Read-only file System

next one:

 Activating Swap
/bin/rm: cannot remove '/etc/localtime': Read-only file system

removing leftover Files
/usr/bin/find: cannot delete 'var/run/cups.pid': Read-only file system

After that message there are also al lot of analog errors.

I have no other idea than an dirty filesystem. Is there another possibility to rescue my system without an fresh install. Im sorry but i cannot log any messages at that state of boot. So it is not easy to get better informations about special error codes.

I have forget to give you some informations about my stats:

- actual stable arch kernel 2.6.38
- gnome 3
- thinkpad t400

Last edited by Psikon (2011-05-13 20:18:12)

ConnorBehan · 2011-05-14 00:54:15

I can't imagine it having anything to do with gnome. Is your system usable again if you revert to an old kernel? Download an older kernel package from schlunix.org, boot into a recovery CD, mount your root partition to "/some/directory" and run "pacman --root /some/directory -U kernel26-whatever.tar.gz". But before you do that, maybe say what your /etc/fstab looks like.

skottish · 2011-05-14 02:19:04

By any chance, do you have custom udev rules under /etc/udev/rules.d/ in place? A recent upgrade a few days ago caused massive problems for me that are described in this thread:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=699732

Be careful in that some of the solutions in that thread can create some difficulties.

Last edited by skottish (2011-05-14 02:30:36)

Psikon · 2011-05-14 07:24:02

Do I need an Arch Linux Live CD or can I use Puppy Linux from an USB stick for the command:

pacman --root /some/directory -U kernel26-whatever.tar.gz

My fstab say:

/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 deafults 0 1
/dev/sda4 /home ext4 0 1

I have also some special udev rules:

51-android.rules
60-vboxadd.rules
70-infrared.rules
99-laptop-mode.rules

It is not a new installed system. Until yesterday the laptop worked fine for 1 1/2 year. I do not have this error code:

Filesystem check failed.
Please repair manually and reboot. Note that the root file system is currently mounted readonly. To remount it read-write type: mount -n -o remount  ,rw /
When you exit the maintenance shell the system will reboot automatically.

Last edited by Psikon (2011-05-14 07:25:21)

skottish · 2011-05-14 14:58:12

My system ran fine for a long time too until this week when my udev rules started to take priority over fstab. Like the thread that I posted above, the offending line was:

KERNEL!="sd[a-z][0-9]", GOTO="media_by_label_auto_mount_end"

That rule may not apply to you though; I've been using basically what's in the wiki to automount removable drives. I ended up making the changes to my system with an Arch install disc, chroot'ing into the system.

Psikon · 2011-05-16 05:30:33

I have searched in my rules for the udev problem, but founf nothing corresponding for that problem. So the next thing in my list is to install an older kernel, but how can I use the command

 pacman --root /some/directory -U kernel26-whatever.tar.gz

from an live CD. I tried to mount my root partition and use the command , but nothing happens. Do I have to chroot in my old system to install an old kernel?

oceans11 · 2011-05-16 08:08:05

Quite same problem here: filesystem check failed because it can't find root partition (/dev/sda6). I have to downgrade udev.

Psikon · 2011-05-16 16:53:21

If you have success with it, pls tell us how you get it. Please step by step. But are ysou sure it is an Problem from udev?

I have tried to downgrade udev from version 167-2 to version 167-1 but it change nothing on my problem. there were also some errorcodes after the upgradng was complete:

ldconfig: File /lib/libnss_winbind.so.2 is empty, not checked.

I also tried to downgrade the kernel but nothing changed. There were also some error codes like this one above. I have no idea what I can do now. Pls help I dont want to reinstall my system.

Last edited by Psikon (2011-05-16 17:15:05)

oceans11 · 2011-05-17 09:04:24

With udev 168-1 I obtain this message during boot:

:: checking filesystems
fsck.ext4: no such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda6 (my root device)
Possibly non-existent device?
*****************  FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED  ****************
*                                                          *
*  Please repair manually and reboot. Note that the root   *
*  file system is currently mounted read-only. To remount  *
*  it read-write type: mount -n -o remount,rw /            *
*  When you exit the maintenance shell the system will     *
*  reboot automatically.                                   *
*                                                          *
**********************************************************

but fsck run manually says it's all clean.
I have to remount rw / partition and manually mount all the other partition, then I can switch to runlevel 3.

With udev 167-2 (and prior) I can boot without any problems.

I'm not sure it's a problem from udev, but downgrading it works for me.

MadCat_X · 2011-05-17 11:59:32

I most likely have the same problem as you. To get my system at least partially working I had to disable filesystems check in "/etc/rc.sysinit" by changing "fsckret=$?" to "fsckret=0". This forces the script to think that the filesystems check was successful no matter what. Fixing that allows me to boot, but I get errors like "mount: special device /dev/sda4 does not exist" when the init script tries to mount devices listed in "/etc/fstab". Logging in as root and issuing "mount -a" mounts all devices correctly and everything works fine then.

-EDIT: Downgrading to udev 167-2 fixes the problem for me too.

Last edited by MadCat_X (2011-05-17 12:09:38)

Psikon · 2011-05-17 21:46:44

Thank you MadCat your solution sounds good. But for me it came to late. Today i did an fresh installation of my system. For me it was an moment to try an new system but because of the good community and stability of arch linux I learned to love this distro. Thank you for your help.

oceans11 · 2011-05-18 08:30:22

udev 168-2 works for me.

Last edited by oceans11 (2011-05-18 08:33:53)

xsigik · 2011-05-21 15:11:49

Hi,
I have a same problem. Root is mounted as read-only during boot, it occurs after upgrade udev package to 168-2 and newer (170-1). So, is there any clear solution?
Recently posted message during boot:

:: checking filesystems
fsck.ext4: no such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda6 (my root device)
Possibly non-existent device?
*****************  FILESYSTEM CHECK FAILED  ****************
*                                                          *
*  Please repair manually and reboot. Note that the root   *
*  file system is currently mounted read-only. To remount  *
*  it read-write type: mount -n -o remount,rw /            *
*  When you exit the maintenance shell the system will     *
*  reboot automatically.                                   *
*                                                          *
**********************************************************

karol · 2011-05-23 01:44:56

xsigik wrote:

Hi,
I have a same problem. Root is mounted as read-only during boot, it occurs after upgrade udev package to 168-2 and newer (170-1). So, is there any clear solution?

Have you tried downgrading udev?
This might help: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chroot

Last edited by karol (2011-05-23 01:45:28)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-05-13 19:25:13

Read-Only Problem during Boot

#2 2011-05-14 00:54:15

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#3 2011-05-14 02:19:04

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#4 2011-05-14 07:24:02

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#5 2011-05-14 14:58:12

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#6 2011-05-16 05:30:33

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#7 2011-05-16 08:08:05

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#8 2011-05-16 16:53:21

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#9 2011-05-17 09:04:24

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#10 2011-05-17 11:59:32

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#11 2011-05-17 21:46:44

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#12 2011-05-18 08:30:22

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#13 2011-05-21 15:11:49

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

#14 2011-05-23 01:44:56

Re: Read-Only Problem during Boot

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